Reader Max is about to move into a new apartment in Chicago and has been frequenting estate sales to collect vintage furniture for his new place. He has found several pieces he loves — a dining set, end tables, record player, easy chair and vintage pendant light — but he is unsure if the mismatched wood finishes will all work together in the main living area of his tiny city apartment. Should he stay true to the original or try his best to make all the wood tones more matchy-matchy? Readers — let’s hear your points of view, then Pam and I will be back at noon with our thoughts and a mood board.
Max writes:
Hi, my name is Max. I love your blog, and consider it to be the fountain of knowledge on all things retro. I recently acquired two gorgeous, if slightly out of shape danish modern end tables. I love them, but there just one problem – they’re teak, and the majority of my collection of mid century furniture is blonde. And therein lies the rub. I have to refinish the tables, and was wondering if it would be a huge mistake to redo them in a lighter tone to match my other furniture. Your help in this moral dilemma is appreciated.
I’m really excited about this! Let me apologize in advance that my furniture isn’t together at the moment – it’s currently spread around my mother’s home in preparation for my move into a new apartment in Chicago. Here are the photos –
First, the blondes –
Above: My mid-century dining set. This is my only non-estate sale find, I bought it online, and it’s being shipped from LA.
Above: My record player – decidedly blonde.
Now for the darker woods – above: one of my two, tiered end tables. You can’t tell from a distance, but it’s in pretty rough condition.
Above: My sconces, which match nicely with the tables…
And finally, my chair, which is kind of in between the two wood tones I have.
I should probably mention that it’s a truly minuscule apartment, and all this furniture would be in the same room. So do I stain my furniture into one, cohesive tone, or set my OCD aside and embrace the chaos? Can’t wait to hear the responses, thanks for responding!
Match the woods in one room — or mix and match?
Kate replies:
Personally, my home is a mix of many different tones of wood — and I think they all work well together. The key is treating the wood like a color in your room design, making sure to repeat it once or twice throughout the room to help create a cohesive overall look. That being said, the blonde of the dining set is repeated in the record cabinet and the teak end tables look to be about the same color as the wood parts of the pendant light and the arms of the easy chair. Heck — the upholstery on the easy chair seems to be a similar color to “blonde” which further repeats the color throughout your space. In my opinion, refinishing the end tables in a finish close to the original and leaving the chair and light alone is perfectly okay.
Pam replies:
First of all, this is no “moral dilemma” in my book. We’ve discussed this issue several times before — to stain or paint or otherwise refinish original wood finish furniture, and oh my, can opinions start to flare. Let’s all be polite, please, on this! Here is my longest monologue on the subject — it’s about painting, but clearly goes for refinishig too. It was originally posted in this story about Jeff and Debbie’s trash-to-treasure vintage furniture makoever — there were lots of good reader comments, too:
When it comes to repainting wood furniture — or wood trim in your house — I see this as a very personal, aesthetic issue — not one of righteousness. That said, I encourage readers to learn about the pros and cons of each approach, including how painting will potentially affect the underlying monetary and/or historic value of a piece of vintage or antique furniture … same with original wood trim, paneling or cabinetry. If you have ever watched Antiques Roadshow and seen a piece of vintage furniture appraised for thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars including because it has its “original finish and patina,” well, there you go, that’s why you might want to go slow before fixing in on the decision to paint over an original finish wood.
Overall, though: Whether we “like” furniture and trim painted versus with a natural wood finish generally is a function of fashion. One year natural wood is “in”. The next year, painted is “in.” [One year it’s light wood. The next year it’s white paint. The next year it’s dark wood. The next year it’s distressed paint. The next year it’s medium wood. The next year it’s milk paint…] Ping. Pong. A wood finish can be very beautiful. A painted finish can be very beautiful. I consider either finish choice an aesthetic preference, not an aesthetic imperative or aesthetic absolute.
- Here’s another story with lots of discussion of the issue.
- Note: I believe a medium wood tone — for furniture or cabinetry — is likely to be the most “timeless.”
- And stepping it up a whole ‘nother notch: Gut remodel without guilt: The Retro Renovator’s Creed.
All that said: Mixing and matching wood tones can work just fine — but I do think it requires a deft eye. In your case, the fact that you have the blonde in the dining area and the teak in the living area makes it much easier, because these two areas serve distinct functions.
Since your space is small, I think you can work to tie the two rooms together with your textiles. Perhaps you can find a fabric for pinch pleats or romans or fabric blinds or pillows, at the least, that includes both the light and dark wood tone colors within the pattern. You can also consider putting a brown leather or vinyl or woven fabric on the seats of the dining room chairs, which will harken to the darker woods nearby.
If you own your apartment and can paint, you might also want to paint an accent wall in the dining area set that makes it more of a room within a room.
Finally — and here’s another great thing about buying vintage furniture cheap and cheerful: If you decide you really don’t like the mix and match, as reader Dietz123 pointed out in the morning comments, “you wrote to us because it really does bother you…. If you enjoy the hunt, then pick a wood tone (perhaps blonde) and then only collect that color going forward and resell the rest.” I was going to say you could refinish everything to match — but other readers pointed out that it would be very diffficult to get different wood species to match in tone even with the same color stain. Vintage furniture is pretty darn abundant — sell off what you don’t want — and patiently wait for the Retro Decorating Gods to deliver what you are looking for — they usually do!
Pulling wood tones together:
How might it look if we use textiles and accessories to pull the two woods together? Pretty good, we think!
- Make curtains, a valance, table runner or throw pillows from this vintage fabric from Ebay seller Electricbelle — we recently featured her stash of amazing NOS fabric
- Add a rug to help pull the wood tones together.How about this Alliyah handmade brown wool blend area rug from Overstock.com
- Put pops of orange around the room like this pair of vintage ceramic orange and brown lamps from Etsy seller FITZandFergus
- And this vintage California Pottery orange leaf candy dish from Etsy seller iWunderVintage
- Possibly recover dining set chair seats with a a well-saturated brown vinyl, leather or fabric to tie into dark wood tones
- From here, add favorite artwork on to the walls and well, you’re sitting pretty among all those beautiful wood tones.
In place of the orange — we could also imagine either blue or green (both well-saturated) as a principal accent color. E.g. Robert’s Is it True Blondes Have More Fun bedroom designs. You could also bring in more color with a different rug, although again, we’d like to see both woodtones in it, too.
Good luck! Let us know how it all turns out!
Jay says
I agree with others on the delineation of the eating area especially if the dining set is sitting on an area rug away from the other pieces. The dining table and chairs are the only pieces that appear to be true blonde. The living room pieces all appear rather brown: either maple or walnut which were popular MCM finishes. Embrace the difference. You can always use patterned material on the dining chair seat pads rhat tie in with material elsewhere in the room.
Don’t get too worked up, throw it all together and have fun.
Mary Elizabeth says
Yes, I agree with Jay. Do the chair seats and the throw pillows in the same print with the blond/beige and the brown and highlights of a bright, such as the orange Pam suggested.
One thing I learned from picking out quilt fabrics is that colors call to one another across spaces. In quilting, it’s called “pulling” the colors from one part of the quilt to the other. In a small room you don’t want to introduce too many different fabrics, and the ones you do choose should pull one side of the room to the other. I love the particular one Pam chose, but you can find another that highlights turquoise or yellow instead of orange, if that’s what you prefer.
primrose road says
My chairs aren’t even the same type, much less the same color. Take another suggestion above and tie them together with fabric — cushions, whatever. If you have a dining room ‘suite’ — cabinet/credenza/etc — that match, I’d be even more inclined to make the chairs as different as possible, or at least multiple pairs. The one thing I DO generally go for is matching the chairs at the far ends of the table.
Ramona Dahl says
Leave it be, original is best.
Megan says
I’d just embrace the chaos of different wood tones. My house has the same issue (though more space, I’m sure)! Perhaps you could find/make a tablecloth that would help unify your dining and living spaces.
jean says
I agree with the postings so far, leave the original color. I believe wood should never be stained– embrace the natural color. I would love to know about your chair. I was recently given one almost identical, although my armrests are partially upholstered. I would love to have a second one so I can have a pair, but there are no identifying tags, stamps, etc. anywhere! Does yours have a mfg. name?
Max Natanek says
I was lucky enough to find the original sales receipt for the chair at the same estate sale I got it from. I’m not sure if it’s the same one, but mine came from the Paoli Chair company of Paoli Indiana. Heres what the tag says – Art No. 37, seat #7488, back ______. Paoli Chair Co. Paoli, Ind. 1952. Hope that helps!
Roundhouse Sarah says
Leave them as they are! Do you want to be the reason why that furniture is worth next to nothing when some future generation brings it to antiques roadshow! Lol. Anyway, I’ve never known anyone who’s woods all matched unless they bought all their furniture from the same line at the same time and yeah… I don’t know anyone that’s ever done that.
Max Natanek says
That’s literally exactly what my mother said when I told her of my plans!
Mary Elizabeth says
I actually have known people that bought all their furniture at the same time and from the same line. They were very nice people, but I don’t think they had much confidence in their ability to choose decorative touches. In fact, those people also bought their accessories from the same store, using an in-store decorator. The whole house looked, well, like the showroom of that high-priced store.
Then they got divorced and split up the furniture. 🙂 Not that I’m saying that matchy-matchy furniture, as Pam calls it, ruins your personal relationships, but it’s almost as though as much originality is invested in one’s personal relationships as in one’s living space. I’m not a therapist, mind you, but I’ve seen a few in my time.
pam kueber says
Well… interesting theory… but I’ve thought about this question a lot and have come to the conclusion that some people (many people?) are just not into decorating as we are. They are into other things. So if they choose to use a decorator and buy everything all at once: Whatever. I have a friend who did this. She is the most wonderful person, friend, wife, daughter, sister and mother. She wanted her house to look nice, great even, she just did not care to spend years doing it. So she essentially outsourced it, was done with it, and went on with her life — which was focused on other pursuits. I totally get it. Hey, I am not a “foodie.” I like food. A lot. But, not so much that I spend a lot of time on it. Foodies would not understand me at all… but…. I am into decorating, that’s for sure!
As to the matchy matchy people: My mother-in-law was a fantastic decorator. She had the eye, the touch! She bought her dining room and living room and master bedroom furniture all at the same time — from Baker Furniture — and it all has the same finish. I have it now. It is GORGEOUS. I am THRILLED to have it. I don’t think her desire for coordinating finishes showed a lack of creativity or anything like that. She was able to coordinate, and she did. There is not a right or a wrong or better or best here….
Mary Elizabeth says
I didn’t intend to make it a right-or-wrong issue. Like typical arm-chair psychologists, I was making generalities and forgot to admit there are exceptions. I’m not saying all people who go with an in-store decorator lack commitment or imagination in other areas. It’s just, as you say, they are not that into decorating or, as I said, they lack confidence in that area.
I’m sure your mother-in-law’s furniture looked lovely in her home and even better in yours, now that it has some age on it. But with older furniture, it’s hard to buy it all at once, unless you really luck out at an estate sale or inherit it from a family member.
But we wouldn’t be on this blog if we didn’t love to hear about everyone’s adventures in embracing the mid-modern life.
Miya says
I have been refinishing furniture for over 30 years and unless you have experience don’t attempt bleaching those tables. First of all I am questioning whether those are teak. Unless they are marked Made in Denmark underneath they are usually American made and walnut. IMHO you should just use some Howards Restorafinish on the tables and they will look amazing. You bought the retro furniture for what they are… so just OWN the look! You don’t want your apartment to look like a staged (matched)home. Much more character to leave the wood shades as they are. Great pieces!
Lynda says
I agree with Miya. Teak or Walnut would not ever become blond. You can clean the tables, lightly sand with wet/dry ultra fine sand paper and put a wax finish on them Howards may be a good choice, or just a good quality beeswax type product. Lots of the furniture of that era just had an oil finish on them. If that is the case, you can try a matching Watco Danish oil finish. The furniture is unified due to the era, and it looks great as is.
db says
The dining set being so light, and decidedly different than anything else, may provide more definition and deliniation to the eating versus living area.
The chair, sconce brackets, and record player appear to be more medium brown – so maybe consider lightening the end tables slightly to that shade when you refinish.
John says
I’m with Chris on this. I like to keep the original color of the wood wether it’s dark or light and don’t worry about matching the stain color. The fact that all your furniture is in the same room but your dining room table is blond will give it a bit of separation as the dining area so I think that’s cool.
AtomicHioster
ChrisH says
Sanding, bleaching, etc. All to make a couple small tables blonde? Doesn’t seem worth the trouble to me. I wouldn’t touch that chair.
By the pics, even your blonde record players is a different tone than your dining set.
I’d mix and match.
Chris says
I myself, like the various tones of wood in combination. It is the style of the period that unifies them and makes them “match.” I’d save myself the work and let the different pieces be a sort of blended family of furniture. If you feel the style isn’t enough to hold them together, you could use color to do that. Throw pillows, artwork, accessories, etc. I love all your fun stuff!!!!!!!
nina462 says
I concur.