Amish furniture tends towards a sleek, traditional look. As the pieces are made with traditional methods and materials, that makes sense. These pieces thus often have a traditional, timeless look that blends well with a variety of décor schemes and aesthetics.
Still, you might be thinking about creating a décor around different Amish pieces. Maybe you inherited some furniture, or got a good deal at a consignment store. Regardless, you now have a lot of good quality, beautiful furniture, and you want the pieces to look nice together. With some thought and proper placement, it can be done.
Consider textures
This might seem like a strange idea, but part of solid wood’s look is its feel, if that makes sense. Different textures can add additional layers of warmth and depth to a room. Amish furniture tends towards a sleek and simplistic look, so design work is usually limited. That means the natural textures of the wood can stand out, accentuating and blending with complimentary and even contrasting styles for a bolder, complex look.
Look into contrasts
Contrasting styles can work really well, especially with furniture that tends towards similar looks and colors. For example, you could mix cabinets at Amish Furniture Factory with an Amish kitchen set of more modern design, mixing rustic and current looks for a snazzy, trendy décor.
Such a mix might sound strange, but with the right colors and textures it can work. Both are an important part of working with wooden furniture to create the look you want.
Don’t over mix
As tempting as it might be to go wild with the blending of furniture colors, styles, and textures, too much can create a chaotic atmosphere that stresses the eyes. You want to limit the mix to two styles if at all possible. With wooden furniture, this is usually pretty easy.
That said, you still need to keep an eye on what you mix where. For example, a rustic table with some simple wooden chairs can make for a nice blend, if you lost the chairs or table at some point. Every single chair being a different kind of wood would be a bit much, though.
Don’t feel pressured to use all your furniture if you can’t. Maybe you only have so much room, or the styles don’t quite mix the way you like. If you find yourself with the happy problem of too much furniture, consider storage, giving the extra pieces to someone who can make use of them, or the secondary market.
Think about themes
When planning the décor for a room, thinking of a general theme can help a lot. In the kitchen, for example, you might want a cozy, welcoming feel that offers lots of room for cooking and storage. A living room might have a bit more décor and furniture, but still needs space for people to relax and walk around.
Themes can be tricky to consider, so keep them simple. Bedrooms should be warm, cozy, and romantic, while a home office needs to be functional and simple. If you keep your theme in mind, it will help furniture placement, which will make mixing and matching much easier.
Have fun with color
This plays into themes and contrasts to a degree, but, just as important as texture, perhaps more so, is color. Wooden furniture can come in quite the array, even natural pieces like those made by the Amish. A cherry desk will not blend well with black oak chairs, for example.
Knowing which colors work well together can make mixing different styles of furniture a lot easier. You can get away with some contrast to add a bit of style, such as a darker table than kitchen chairs, but you don’t want to go overboard. Too much contrast or contrast that sticks out for the wrong reasons not only looks off, it can be off-putting.
Let the furniture stand out
Furniture should be the star of the décor, or at least a major component. Adding too many odds and ends can overshadow the various pieces you worked so hard to mix together. Making use of just a few accessories can not only help the furniture stand out, it can help bring conflicting styles together.
This is especially helpful in larger rooms, like the living room or bedroom. A few accessories of similar style to multiple pieces can help bring the style together. A rustic lamp on one end of the sofa and a vintage one on the other can help balance different end tables, for example. Furniture is expensive, and, if you went through the effort of buying quality, comfortable pieces, they deserve their chance to shine.
Mixing and matching Amish furniture might seem easy, but there are a lot of colors, textures, and pieces to consider. Whether you just want to make the bedroom look nice or have entire kitchen sets to deal with, the right planning and coordination can bring order from the chaos of mixed furniture.
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