Wooden Accents For Your Living Room

We all want our living rooms to be warm, sophisticated and comfortable. Wood accents are the best way to achieve this. Whether you are renovating or decorating a new home, you will never go wrong with wood. Each wooden accent adds to the whole picture of your room. It will never hurt your pocket and fits in with any décor style including rustic or contemporary.

So how do you use it?

Theme: Decide on a theme for your room. Ensure your major pieces of furniture are in the same wood tone. Sofas and coffee tables can be mid-toned wood while accessories like frames and lamps could be in light or dark wood tone. For those who love rustic décor, for example, use wood that has no finishing to add charm to your room. Heavy and durable furniture like coffee tables, side stools or dining tables work best for this. For the modern freak, dark woods with hard and clean edges will give you that sleek look. Antiques are the best for those who adore Mediterranean decor.

Floors: Hardwood floors create the best wood accent.  Hardwood is cost effective and is available in a variety of materials including strip, plank or parquet. Changing your floor from carpeting to wooden is a dramatic move.

Paint: You can paint over your wood to give it texture; it works best especially on wooden walls as it adds interest. If you love modern décor, paint it black or white.

Variety: There is a variety of wood one can experiment with; and your furniture does not all have to be wooden for you to enjoy the accent. Even just a little wood showing on some of your furniture, like an exposed wooden leg of a sofa serves the purpose. Invest in wooden accessories like sculptures, bowls, and spoons to add interest to the room. Remember, however, to balance your mix of woods with mix of colours; otherwise you will end up with a chaotic room.

Frames: One of the greatest ways to display pictures is by using wooden frames since they give the pictures a warm, cosy feel, making them more personal and intimate.

Focal point: Experiment with wood as your focal point in your living room by using quality wooden entertainment units. You could also use wood design on one wall — the wall can then act as a focal point.

Tables: As much as many people now go for glass tables, wooden accent tables are functional and stylish. Choose a colour that compliments your room colour, and the other furniture.

Door: If your main door is not wooden, replace it with a detailed wooden one. You can then add sidelights, arched tops or decorative glass to make them dramatic.

Shadow boxes: These are cheap and easy way to change the look of a wall. A shadow box is a hollow and deep wood frame cut in varying shapes and sizes. You can then display your collectibles inside them.

Making the right selection is the difficult bit in working with wooden accents but with these simple tips, your living room will look great.