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BDI Blog

Finding Your Home's Signature Finish

For most, the normal progression of a project goes from start to finish. But what about when the 'finish' is the best place to start? 

The tones, tints, and finishes you choose will play a significant role in the overall aesthetic when it comes to home furnishings. Does your home decor lean more modern and contemporary, or are you full-on traditional? Depending on your style preference, some finishes work exceptionally well with particular aesthetics.

Here are some tips for selecting the right finish for any room in your home. 

Key Takeaways: Finding the Right Finish for Your Home

The right furniture finish can anchor a room, create contrast, and help connect different materials and colors throughout the home.

  1. Consider the flooring before choosing a furniture finish. Furniture can visually disappear against wood floors with a similar tone, so pairing light furniture with darker floors—or the reverse—can create stronger definition.
  2. Begin with the room’s largest or most important piece. A desk, credenza, coffee table, or media cabinet can establish the primary finish and provide a foundation for selecting surrounding furniture, textiles, and accessories.
  3. Use contrast to create balance. Dark anchor pieces can be softened with lighter accessories, while lighter furniture can gain depth from richer accents and surrounding materials.
  4. Mixed finishes can still feel intentional. Repeating a shared accent color through upholstery, lighting, wall color, or decorative objects can visually connect furniture with different wood tones and finishes.
  5. Use smaller tables and accents to experiment. End tables, coffee tables, and mobile laptop tables offer an easy way to introduce a contrasting finish or color without allowing it to dominate the room.
  6. Coordinate metal details as well as wood tones. Hardware, lighting, hinges, and furniture accents can help unify a space, even when several wood finishes are used.
  7. Limit the overall finish palette to maintain cohesion. Using three or four finishes throughout the home—and no more than two within a single room—can create variety while preserving a connected, intentional appearance.
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Compare and contrast.

Your choice of finish can make a dramatic or more subdued statement about your style while anchoring the color palette of a space.




Look Down

Have beautiful wood floors? Lucky you! However, be aware that furniture on a wood floor can get lost if they’re stained with similar tones. 

Try pairing dark furniture on light wood floors or vice versa, to create appealing visual separation. 

The Corridor home bar in chocolate stained walnut, but BDI Furniture.



Start Big

If you’re starting from scratch, the first piece you should look for is the room’s anchor piece. Maybe it’s the credenza in the hallway or the coffee table in your living room. Perhaps it’s the desk in your office. 

Either way, consider first how it works in the space. Then consider how you can build around it with complementary furniture, accents, curtains, shelving, and other home decor pieces. 

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Drop Some Complements

In today's homes, it's all about striking the right balance. If you have a dramatic, dark anchor piece, look for lighter accessories for contrast. 

If you're afraid that mixed finishes will look too "unplanned," try tying it all together with a single accent color — think throws, lampshades, wall color, or upholstery. 

The award-winning Corridor media collection by BDI Furniture, featuring the Corridor 8179.



Table it for Later

Accent furniture like tables offers an excellent platform for some mix-n-match finish fun. Since they don’t dominate the space, you have a little more leeway to play with finishes and pair darks with lights in the same area. 

Add an extra pop of color by incorporating a mobile end table that can double as a laptop desk and workstation!  

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Metals Matter

They say the devil is in the details. While those wood finishes might be the first thing you notice when walking into the room, it’s the hardware — doorknobs, hinges, light fixtures, furniture details — that will tie the look together.

As with wood, it’s completely fine — great, even! — to mix and match. But here, a bit of restraint can pay big dividends. 

A good rule of thumb is to limit yourself to three or four finishes to use throughout your entire home, and then use no more than two in any one room. 

This approach will help create a sense of cohesion, which is ultimately what makes a house a home.