What wood goes well with walnut?

[Neil Lamens]

I'd leave out the butter part of Doug's.... Shepard pie there, but a mix of walnut and pecan hits on those tones that David DeC above mentions. I'm in David's camp when he talks of "wood tones in a room" and done suttely, "wood tones" on individuals pieces.... within the room.

Neil

[Christof Grohs]

If Maple is too much contrast I usually go with American Cherry. This is walnut burl with cherry, if the picture works

[John Fry]

Koa!

Nothing like koa in a room full of walnut. If you have a lot of money, buy curly koa.

[Bob Feeser]

Wow, now that is beautiful. I looked up beautiful in the dictionary, and they had a photo of Guy's table. My hat's off to you.

Here's a table I did in Walnut and some nicely figured Pecan veneer:


Here is Walnut and Birdseye Maple: (crappy picture)


And this is Walnut and Quilted Maple:


Personally, I like the larger contrast between a dark wood, and a light wood. Purpleheart and Walnut look good thgether. Walnut and Cherry look good too. It's really a matter of you (or your customer's) taste.

Guy, great art in wood. Beautiful. Your photos illustrate what I wanted to say, pertaining to getting different woods to match. If you notice the first picture, the golden sheen is shared by the surrounding walnut. In other words the gold highlights in the walnut, match or complement the shade in the center. That creates an extremely beautiful match, in addition to the overall beauty of the piece.

In the second picture you have chosen the maple which contrasts well with the deeper brown in the walnut, then further tied the piece together nicely by putting the walnut inlay in the center.

In the third piece, you have a beautiful creation, with the highly figured wood inlays on the center, and sculpted walnut surround. Once again, the gold highlights in the walnut match the gold in the center, although on a subtle level, the brown tones in the walnut, and the darker brown grain accents in the center inlays are complemented, but not to the extent that they are in the first picture. The overall piece is incredibly beautiful, I am mentioning the subtle difference to bring out the point, that white is not white, and brown is not brown. The subtle shades that go into that brown, can pull the piece together, or apart. By the way the third piece is another beautiful creation, and I would love to have 10 of them in my living room.

I guess their is a definition somewhere in here citing the difference between matching, and complimenting colors. What that is I do not exactly know.

I am not an art student, or a color expert, but I would like to share what I do know. I had a shop for 20 years, with a mixing station. When I would use the factory formula to mix up a color, that formula had, for example, 6 different tints that went into it. A burgundy metallic would have a little bit of white, some black, one or two shades of red, a little yellow, a little blue, and several types of metallic. Once these were all blended together, you would look at it, and say, burgundy metallic. But if you look on a more subtle level, you would see the slight tint of blue in it, and maybe a hint of the yellow. If you pulled from the blended color, a few of the tints, that went into the formula, to make pinstripes, they would match beautifully, even though, those colors are not immediately apparent to the casual observer. But when placed on the car, had a beautiful blending that is hard to describe.

How does all of this tie into wood? Pulling subtle shades out of existing pieces, then using that shade in the complementing piece, gives you the desired result. You have to be careful, because, if something is white for example, that doesn't mean that another white piece will complement it. As a matter of fact, you run the risk of ruining the look, with 2 whites that are off shaded.

When painting an office, with a blue bottom and a tan top, when I opened the custom mix cans, the blue was not what I expected. So I took some of the tan, and poured it into the blue. Wahlah, the two shades complemented each other. Why? Because the tan was now a part of the blue shade. Not that it was apparent, but it worked.

I have a fitness room that I am making out of cedar, and I want to install a book case in the bathroom area. I have a lot of hickory that I would like to use, but the natural hickory shades do not feel right next to the cedar. The colors do not look good together. Cedar and walnut look good together though because the dark brown in the cedar knots goes well with the walnuts dark brown, and the subtle shades I am talking about work well together also. So I will use the hickory, but will slightly tint it with walnut color stain, or should I say experiment with different stains, until I find one that works. I like the natural beauty of wood, so I like to clear finish it; matching the wood shades, rather than covering them up with dark stains. If neccessary, to use a stain, I prefer to stain only to transparency. Sometimes a little, like in this case of blending the hickory shades, with a complementary hue of the clear finished cedar, is all I will need.

Especially pertaining to the original post, the best thing to do is to take a piece of the wood you are considering, or several pieces you are considering, and wet the sample, in a sanded area, and hold it up to the piece you are trying to "complement" Immediately you will feel what is right. It could be a "Oh that sort of works", or nah that doesn't, or "Wow, look at how beautiful that works together"

When picking out clothes it is the same thing. Lay out a burgundy sweater, next to different color pants, and magically, one looks really great next to the other, and something, although technically of the same color as the one that looks great, doesn't go so well. It is all in the subtle colors that are in each of the large colors that we label them by.

I know that having different woods in the same room, works well together. Having them all complement on subtle levels, can take it to an even higher level. I also agree with what others have said about maple blending beautifully with walnut.

Whenever I am talking about something like this, I am always tugged by the dichotomy of the truth. Whatever you say, the exact opposite is equally as true. If you look at a beautiful wooded scene with a beautiful sky, all the colors of the rainbow are harmoniously blending together. I'd like to think that it is the palette of the greatest master. Maybe the gray or blue from the sky, blending in as a subtle shade, reflecting, helps to pull it all together. Just like if you would use a semi-transparent wood stain, or amber finish, to pull dispariging woods together.