How To Match Wood Tables to Wood Floors | Grain & Frame (2024)

All wood flooring will contain a unique wood grain, which will largely depend on the grade of the wood used to make the floor you’ve opted for. All the grain will run in the same direction throughout the room, which is an important factor when looking for accompanying furniture.

Ensuring that the furniture you choose has a similar grain pattern to your flooring, especially if you decide on different wood types, is a great way to guarantee it all integrates together seamlessly.

Grain is most commonly described as open or closed. Open grain patterns occur in wood with large pores, such as pine, elm, ash and oak and often have a coarse appearance. Closed grain wood has a smaller pore that minimises the appearance of lines and markings and includes maple, birch, alder, cherry and hickory wood. You don’t have to match the grains exactly when looking for furniture that matches your floor, however, if you have too many pieces with prominent grains, they will compete against each other rather than create a harmonious look.

Finding a unifying trait doesn’t have to stop at the grain – there may be another unifying trait that the different woods have in common that you can use instead. You could pick two types of wood with rustic tones – they might look completely different, but they have that common trait to unify them and make your interior flow effortlessly.

Once you begin to install furniture in your room with wood flooring, it might seem like all the wood starts merging together. Consider using a visual separator between your floor and your furniture, for example, a carpet, rug or non-wood pieces of furniture. This will create a buffer to divide the two kinds of wood and help your eyes appreciate the beauty of both separately.

Cushions and throw pillows on furniture, or plants, flowers and candles can all help break up a large area of wood. You can also work in other material types in the room to tone down the wood look, such as a metal lamp or glass accent pieces such as mirrors.

Once you have the wood flooring you want, it might seem like an easy option to simply try to match the wood perfectly when picking your furniture. However, matching all the wood in the room can make the space seem flat and boring.

Matching your furniture can feel like you’re trying too hard to make the space look perfect, and, when the wood is all the same colour, it does tend to lose its charm. By mixing different finishes, you add visual interest and depth to space, which allows the uniqueness of the wood pieces to come through.

That’s not to say you should never try to match your wood pieces. If you don’t feel confident in picking wood furniture to match your flooring and want a perfect match, try to create balance in the room. Instead of clumping all pieces of one colour together, distribute throughout the room and add flair with smaller decor features such as throws, cushions and other soft furnishings.

Matching dark wood flooring with dark wood furniture is a great way to create a dramatic effect in the home. However, if you want a more relaxed, informal space, consider choosing lighter furniture to help make the room feel lighter and airy.

You could also consider creating a break between the dark wood floor and furniture by adding a light coloured rug on the floor and keeping the walls and furnishings neutral.

Light wood furniture with light wood floors is a great option for those looking for a light and airy space. Light wood floors are often neutral in tone, but some types of light wood have warm undertones. It’s important that you remember to check for a strong yellow or red undertone as this can affect how it looks with wood furniture pieces.

If you want to use light furniture with light flooring, choose wood pieces a few shades darker than a very light floor. This is to avoid the room looking too neutral, with no character. You can then add a host of accessories in different materials and colours to contrast with the light wood.

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Contrast is one of the core rules of any style or decor, so the easiest way to match furniture and floors is to go with dark furniture on light floors or light furniture on dark floors. Dark wood flooring can make lighter wood furniture really stand out, whilst light wood flooring provides the perfect balance for darker furniture pieces.

In fact, when you try to match wood shades in the home, if it isn’t a perfect match it just looks like you’ve unintentionally failed. However, when you go with one light and one dark option, it’s evident that you weren’t trying to match the wood finishes.

Wood matching isn’t only an indoor issue.

Generally, unless you remodel your garden, decking isn’t changed for many years whilst garden furniture is replaced every couple of years. Naturally, over time sunlight, the weather and other outdoor elements can take a toll on your deck so it will be very difficult to match the wood perfectly, especially if your wood furniture is brand new. That’s why your wood furniture should either be darker or lighter wood than the decking.

You can then use decorative elements to add contrast and colour, with soft furnishings such as throws, pillows and an area rug as well as plants and lanterns.

The colours you use for the walls, window coverings, decorations, rugs and accent pieces all play a vital role in how the wood pieces work together.

When people have a wood floor or decide to install one, in their home, it can be tempting to buy lots of wood furniture to match. If you use several different wood finishes in one space, a great way to break this up is by introducing a neutral colour scheme to break up the heavy wood tones.

Equally, if you have lots of light wood pieces, a dark contrasting feature colour on the walls such as navy blue, is a great way to add depth and character to your space. You can then introduce soft furnishings in your feature colour, to bring the whole look together.