Wood Matching

[Waka]

Need some help.

I am in the process of designing a sideboard, this will sit on an oak floor in my conservatory. The intent of this is to hide the washing machine and tumble dryer.

the wall around the kitchen window and down to the top of the intended sideboard is unfortunately un finished brick. because this is such a small area I have been unable to get a plasterer interested in doing this.

To get around this problem I have panelled the exposed brickwork with AWO. Initially I thought that this would look to much especially with the oak floor. But having finished this in finishing oil and bees wax I have to say that it looks really nice.

My thoughts were to complete the panneled sides and doors in AWO, but use a different wood for the top, this will break up the AWO of the sides, doors and the wall.

Not to sure what lighter wood compliments AWO, I did think of maple/sycamore and did hold up a piece to see what it would look and I have to say I felt that this was too light.

So any advice, suggestions would really be appreciated, I need to order the wood soon because I want to start in a few weeks time.

 

[Chris Knight]

Waka,

Why go for another light wood? I think two tone oak is pretty nice. Unless you absolutely need a light colour I think I would try a somewhat darker finish on the oak - fuming for preference or a dye stain if you find fuming difficult.

 

[SimonA]

Or you could add some sort of inlay or figured board/veneer to the top just to brake it up a little. Maybe an inset glass top or a slate one.

SimonA

 

[Midnight]

Waka... have you thought about Elm.???

I've learned through a couple of projects now that oak and elm balance each other pretty well.... oak being fairly well regimented, straight grained an well behaved.... Elm... can be that too.... sometimes.... and in the same board it can go totally nutz... grain density going from moderate to off the scale... direction going in every point of the compass... and some beautiful colours too... damn near every shade of brown there is... with some blacks and greens thrown in for good measure...

Provided it isn't gonna get wet regularly it should make for a real nice top.

Orrrrrrrr.... something totally different... how about some spalted beech...???

 

[Waka]

Thanks for the advice guys. I like both the ideas of inlay and Elm, I'll have to go away and think about those.

I'll post progress pic's as I put this project together.