I know many of you have this:

You have some orange colored stained wood hanging around in your house.

Because we all know that, even IF that wood didn’t start out orange-colored, it will most likely turn a little orange over the course of 10-20 years.

So how do you make the color work?

You may be in a situation where painting or re-staining that wood for now, for you, is out of the question. It’s too costly, too messy, and perhaps there’s a guy in the house who has put his foot down about painting the paneling or wood cabinets, for now. :-/

Here's a color scheme that can deal with this - it will make that wood color look purposeful and beautiful:

Use a cool, dark gray or slate color to accent the warm orange wood.

It’s that opposite-sides-of-the-color-wheel-thing. If you’ve got a slate gray color scheme that’s dark and moody, an orange-colored wood tone adds richness and color to that space. It’s the perfect foil for all that dark coolness. It creates balance.

So, if you have some orange colored wood hanging around your house you can’t get rid of, don’t fret. Apply this idea and watch that wood come alive!

Here’s an example of an orange toned burl wood console I saw a Highpoint Market recently. It had warm creamy walls around it and some beige carpet on the floor.

I did a little sloppy photoshop work on it to change the wood’s surroundings, below.

See how much more rich and dramatic this wood looks with a dark color like this charcoal gray? A navy or dark green would work the same way.

Orange toned burl wood credenza against charcoal gray looks rich and luxurious. carlaaston.com

Some kitchen vignettes seen at KBIS employed this dramatic look. The wood looks so rich, doesn’t it?

Orange tone wood backsplash with dark gray kitchen cabinets. Seen at KBIS, 2022 | carlaaston.com

Orange toned wood cabinetry wtih dark gray backsplash. Kitchen vignette seen at KBIS, 2022 | carlaaston.com

See how great this live edge orange toned wood table looks in a gray interior in this photo below. This was taken in an airbnb rental we stayed in this past year in the Texas hill country. You can read more about it here.