Can you use dark wood in your interior design? You can, but if you don’t want to create a cigar lounge feel, you’ll want to balance it.
Walk into any design showroom lately, and you’ll notice something: those light, bleached oak floors everyone had five years ago? They’re getting swapped out for walnut, mahogany, and smoked oak. People want warmth back in their homes, but there’s a fine line between cozy and cave-like. The good news is you can have those rich wood tones without turning your living room into a dark dungeon.
Go light to offset your dark wood flooring
Adding dark walnut flooring to your home is one of the best ideas you can have. It provides warmth and a statement tone, but the balancing point is found in what you add to the room. If you’ve got dark flooring, your walls should be light and cheerful, and your furniture should also be light. You can also offset the darkness of your flooring by adding a few plants to your home.
Mix textures with your mahogany furniture
Mahogany furniture styling is extremely popular, but this deep, dark, and rich wood can be overpowering if you don’t balance it out the right way. When creating your dark wood interior design theme, the mahogany wood furniture can look amazing when you add light textiles and materials in mustard and beige tones. These colors give you the contrast necessary and keep the elegant and sophisticated feeling of the rich and dark wood furniture you’ve chosen.
Your dark wood cabinets will look great with brass and gold
Bringing the warm wood tones of dark wood into your kitchen can be a challenge. The darkness of the wood could overpower the room, but you can offset this and balance the dark wood décor with some brass and gold accents and handles. This gives you a comfortable and classy look in your kitchen. You can enjoy the rich wood finishes of the stylish cabinets and won’t feel they are too much if you have the right offsetting accent pieces. It’s also a good idea to install light-colored countertops when using dark cabinets.
Keep your color palette simple
When you create dark wood interior design themes, it’s a good idea to keep the colors simple. As one of the most popular interior design wood trends, the warm wood tones of your dark wood will get lost if you use too many colors or go with showy themes. Keep your colors simple and neutral with a monochrome look that allows the wood to shine through and be the look that you love to see. You can add a bit more color with some of the accents on tables or some throw pillows, but keep your main colors simple.
Add some glass to bring more light to the area
Dark wood is heavy and brings visual weight to your space, but this can easily be balanced out with glass. That could mean you have a glass tabletop on a dark wood frame, or use glass lamps next to your mahogany couch. The visual enhancement of glass brings a more balanced approach to your space and allows you to enjoy the comfortable feeling you want without being overwhelmed by the wood.
Create dark wood interior design with mid-century modern pieces
The style of your dark wood matters. Massive and heavy furniture could be too much, but slender tapered legs and sleek sofas, which were part of the mid-century modern design approach, could be exactly what you need. This is a great way to bring some retro charm into your home without going back to the olive green and mustard yellows of the 1970s. This style highlights the grain and natural beauty of your dark wood while maintaining the visual lightness of the area.
Add plants to your space
Live plants make for a great look when designing any room, but especially when you’re creating a dark wood interior design space. If you don’t want live plants, fake plants look great and can give you the green enhancements that you want when you want to have a room that looks and feels alive and vibrant. The life, color, and contrast of your dark wood pieces make for a cozy and comfortable space that you’re sure to enjoy.
How will you incorporate dark wood interior design into your home and bring the beauty of oak and mahogany to your space while maintaining the balance desired?
