For a while now, you've considered bringing wood into your home as an interior design style. Wood is a material that brings a sense of comfort, nature, and balance into any room of the house. Wood is also a highly durable building material that has never outgrown its popularity.
Besides its strength, wood is also easy to use and comes in many colors, weights, and textures. Wood is also a multi-purpose material that you can utilize in many different fashions in your home.
Whether wood is a decorative element in your house or is the foundation of your flooring, there are so many possibilities to discover with this beloved material.
Here is our complete guide to bringing wood from the outdoors into any room in your home.
Wooden Floors
Wooden floors are probably the most popular use of wood in interior design. You can bring a sense of uniformity to a home when renovating a house with wooden floors.
Wooden floors are also valuable in a home because they bring a sense of luxury and comfort to a home. Wood also acts as a timeless accessory to a home. Some individuals even find wood flooring a make-or-break in a home when buying new.
Whether you're looking to brighten your space with a lighter oakwood or bring richness to your home with cedarwood flooring, the choice is yours to make, and you really can't go wrong.
Pro tip: Consider the lengths and widths of the wood flooring you bring into your home. This can affect how timeless the space feels.
Wood Paneling
Wood paneling is another common interior design choice when adding wood to your home. The kind of wood paneling you bring into your space says a lot about the style you're hoping to achieve. If you're more interested in an industrial look, bring slot panels into your space. You can even transform an accent wall with wood paneling or even an entire room.
Another common way people bring wood paneling into a space is by diving into a more historic wood paneling style. Traditional molding panels have characteristics of longevity and speak to a sense of timelessness. With various grooves and intricately cut details, traditional molding panels have been a staple since the 17th century.
A more modern take on traditional molding panels is the board and batten look, which has a rustic theme and farmhouse style appeal. It’s a bit less timeless than traditional molding, but it’s still beautifully symmetrical.
Statement paneling or asymmetrical paneling acts as an alternative to wallpaper and brings a contemporary vibe to a space. Due to its freeform shape, this style of paneling brings a sense of creativity.
Wooden Ceilings
If you're fascinated with the industrial design style wooden trend, consider wooden ceilings. Whether it's large wooden beams, thin wooden paneling applied overhead, or large wooden planks that mimic your flooring, there is no industrial style home that doesn't benefit from more wood. It's difficult to find a home with a floor-to-ceiling wood design without noticing its immediate beauty.
To achieve a sense of unity within your space, consider grain and color when carrying wood from floor to ceiling. Try to mimic the grain and color of the floors with shelving in your living room or bedroom. Then, you can either continue with the same grain and color for the paneling on your ceiling or change the paneling to a lighter or darker color.
Also, consider mimicking the wooden furniture in your space or creating movement along your ceiling with wood grain patterns or intentional designs.
Wooden Furniture
You can never go wrong with wooden furniture in your space. It's beautiful and better for the environment than other building materials, not to mention that it brings balance and harmony to a space. Wooden furniture also has a way of completing that ‘homey’ feeling.
Think of your space as a canvas: adding wood to your space is like adding foundational brushstrokes.
The kind of wood you choose says a lot about the style of your space. If you are interested in mahogany, you'll achieve a more retro style. If you are interested in a blank wood look, the Scandinavian interior design will shine through. As for industrial interior design, if you want to achieve an exposed wood look, stick to woods crafted with a rustic finish.
At Modloft, the Jones End Table, made of walnut wood and steel, completely encapsulates the industrial interior design feel. The Broome Dresser is another piece of industrial style furniture that will bring modernity to your space.
A Wooden Separating Wall
A wooden separating wall is another incredible way to bring wood into your space without committing to full wood paneling throughout a room.
A wooden separating wall is ideal for creating a new space in a home. Using vertical planks spaced a few centimeters to an inch apart allows a bedroom to be separated from a seating area or a living room from a dining room.
The choice of wood is yours, depending on the color and grain you want to bring into your living room or bedroom. A wood separating wall allows your space to feel open while still creating a sense of privacy in both rooms.
A wooden separating wall is also a smart way to bring comfort into an office space while functioning as a privacy separator for productivity.
Wooden Stairs and Wooden Doors
The price may be high, but if you can try wooden doors and stairs, do so.
In many homes, wood is already a popular interior for a door. However, when the door is covered with a layer of paint, the feeling of the exposed wood is lost. Consider purchasing new wooden doors or allowing for wooden doors in your home to shine through from underneath layers of paint.
If you live in a two-floor home or apartment, allow your wooden stairs to shine through. With the right clear coat or finish, you can achieve a modern industrial feel.
Wooden Lighting
Wooden lighting is one of the most achievable ways to bring wood into a space. It tends to be less expensive than wooden furniture or adding wooden paneling to your ceiling. Instead of lighting fixtures made with metals or glass, consider wooden light fittings.
Metals or plastics read as less classic, whereas wooden light fittings serve as a nice alternative.
Imagine a wooden light fixture hanging in your office—finally, there is a sense of calmness and equally distributed light throughout the space. Choosing a darker wood like rosewood or mahogany to add balance and calm.
Accenting With Wood
Wooden accenting is also a stylish way of bringing wood into your space to warm your home. There are millions of ways to decorate your home with wood, from wooden coasters and wooden alarm clocks to wooden bowls, large wooden picture frames, and small wooden vases.
Wooden storage units are also a simple, beautiful way to store objects. Instead of storing your items in plastic or metal bins, try bringing wood into your space for filing or organizing.
Accenting with wood accessories brings a homey feeling into your home. They also contribute to keeping the space designed in a beautiful and intelligent way.
Teak and Walnut Woods
Several types of woods, colors, and grains are available when choosing wood to bring into your house.
There are six very popular types of wood commonly used in homes:
- Teak
- Rosewood
- Cedar
- Oak
- Walnut
- Mahogany
Let’s dive into a few of our favorites. Teak is cost-effective and strong. It's ideal for crafting essential furniture like bed frames and bedside tables.
At Modloft, we also use a lot of walnut. Walnut is durable and really caters to a sleek, industrial look.
Mahogany is another popular wood that brings luxury and a reddish-brown hue to your space. Mahogany is a wood commonly used for bed frames, large cabinets, and even TV displays.
Lastly, oak is great for practical furniture. From dining room tables to high-end side tables, oak can withstand constant use.
Wood Helps the Environment
Wood is durable, and because it lasts for generations, it can help reduce furniture pollution. When your furniture is made from strong woods, there is less of a chance it will end up in furniture landfills.
Furniture created from strong woods like walnut or oak will stick around for years, so you can even pass it along to someone else when you’re done with it. Investing in quality wood pieces is a great way to avoid the problem of fast furniture.
Decorating With Wood
Wood is a multi-purpose material that can change the space's shape, design, and feel. If you're interested in industrial interior design, wood is a great way to bring that style into your home.
If you're interested in adding comfort and symmetry to your living room or bedroom, wooden furniture is a fast way to achieve that goal.
From wooden paneling to wooden ceilings, there are a lot of ways to get creative with wood.
Wooden grains and tones can warm up a space, refresh it, and help carry the outdoors in. Featured wood is an inviting, calming way to soften a space.
Design is in the details, and if it's not intentional, it's not worth it. Wood is one way to bring intention into a home because it allows furniture to last a lifetime.
Sources:
4 Homes With Design Focused on Beautiful Wood Elements | Home Designing
7 Fresh Ways to Decorate with Wood Furniture for a Modern Look | Better Homes & Gardens
15 Ways To Mix Different Wood Shades in Your Decor | The Spruce
