Home Styling

Bare Wood Bare wood that has been simply sanded down to avoid rough edges and splinters can look beautiful. While you may want to treat it to avoid it deteriorating over time, it is possible to retain the bare wood look and still have sturdy, hard wearing pieces. Bare wood isn’t so great for furniture because it can leave splinters, however it is ideal for things like fireplace settings if you are going for a rustic look. It is also beautiful when used for real or fake beams inside your home, giving that stunning period look and feel. Bare wood can be used ornamentally or functionally, and gives a house a timeless, ‘handmade’ quality.

Bleached Wood While plenty of woods are already light in color, there is something about bleached wood that gives the feel of the beach. If you live on the coast and want to create a marine or tropical look, then bleached woods can be the ideal material to use, as they have the feel of having been left out in the sun, whether they actually were or whether they were bleached in a more artificial way. Bleached wood looks great in light, airy rooms with a few bright color accents, and can be perfect in rooms such as conservatories. It can be used for seating, tables and decorations, as well as shelves, to give a natural and appealing look and feel.Painted or Lacquered Wood If you like the idea of wood as a base material for its practical properties, but prefer something more colorful, then there are all kinds of ways painted and lacquered wood can be used, including wood with finely polished inlaid designs. These can have all kinds of styles, from ornate oriental pieces to simple, modern designs, and can allow you to use wood in a creative way to add color and design accents, as well as the natural look of wood itself. This kind of highly stylized wood is best used in places where it can be a focal point in a room. A particularly ornate coffee table, for instance, wardrobe or cabinet doors, or screens used to divide rooms. Painted wood can have a more simple look and simply be used to add a pop of color or establish the color scheme in a room with a lot of wood – such as a wooden fitted kitchen with a particular color used for all of the cabinet fronts.

Stained Wood If you like the idea of your wood adding some color, but without it being painted so you lose the beautiful natural knots and texture, then the best option is to go for wood that has been stained. There are lots of ways of staining wood, and just about any color can be achieved with the right kind of wood and the right kind of stain. Whether you want a natural color, stained simply to add durability and protection to the look of the wood, or you want something more unusual like wood that has been stained green, blue, red or purple, this is all fairly easy to find. When wood is stained and finished, it is fairly well protected, so you can actually use stained wood pieces even in your outdoor spaces. Stained wood garden furniture can look really beautiful and add a complimentary color to the colors of your plants. It can also be a good way of adding contemporary looking wood pieces to your bedroom and living room, for instance stained wood night stands and bookcases. This is one of the most versatile ways of using wood as you can choose whatever color palette you want without having to sacrifice the natural wood look as you would with some types of paint. As you can see, wood can look extremely different depending on how it is treated, and so you can use wooden furniture and accents whatever type of home décor you are going for.