Wood and Antiques in Home Interiors Are Trendy Again

After two decades of dominating color palettes, gray is getting a run for its money as earth tones, stained-wood cabinets, and natural wood antiques are being embraced by interior designers and homeowners alike.

Years ago, people embraced oak wood and American antiques, but a shift to more contemporary and European styles—especially French country—made certain American antiques so unpopular that Houston stores Harrison’s Fine Antiques and Art, Carl Moore Antiques, and Stardust Antiques actually closed.

Cool grays, whites, and blacks became trendy, prompting people to paint antiques, kitchen and bathroom cabinets, and even family heirlooms. Now, though, that trend is giving way to the return of an older, more traditional look. Watch interior design websites and Instagram feeds, and you’ll notice a dramatic change that’s been brewing: Brown wood furniture is hot again.

“I have always loved wood furniture, and I have always had an appreciation for antiques. For me, it didn’t go out of style, but for the last 10 years, it wasn’t what most people wanted,” says Houston interior designer Beth Lindsey of Beth Lindsey Interior Design. “People were getting rid of wood pieces or were going with painted or washed-out gray. I’m excited that it’s back.”

Just as wood flooring—even vinyl or porcelain tile that looks like wood—adds warmth to a room, wood furniture and stained-wood antiques do, too.

“Antique pieces are unique, so you won’t just see them in every house. They give a home an individual look. That’s what I love about darker tones and antique furniture,” Lindsey says.

Right now, she has two clients who are both using wood-tone cabinets in their homes after years of requests for painted cabinets. She says gold and warm brass tones are also back for hardware and other accents. Her clients still want a transitional look—not all the way traditional—which can be achieved with the style of wood.

For Lindsey, as well as Julie Dodson Webster of Dodson Interiors and Victoria Sheffield of Sheffield House Design, wood furnishings and wood accents in a home are the best way to make a home feel unique and comfortable.

Dodson Webster, an interior designer who has long organized special events for fall and spring Round Top antique shows, is part of a designer showhouse this year that’s open to the public through April 5. It’s a spec home decorated by Dodson and seven other designers and is for sale.

One of the pieces she used in the home’s primary bedroom—the room she was responsible for—is a wood table that she found at last fall’s antique shows.

“I definitely think people are ready for that warmth in their houses again, and people are shifting more back to traditional style,” says Dodson Webster, who prefers darker walnut, chestnut, and oak pieces. “Lighter and painted antique pieces are easy, breezy Southern, but people are mixing that with dark tones.”

Dodson Webster says that like fashion, interior design trends are cyclical, with colors and materials going in and out of style every so often.

“I love, love, love the darker, rich stained wood. I’m not going to say that bleached wood is going to be out, but it’s had a day,” Dodson Webster says. “As long as a piece works well, not because it’s trending, that’s what I go for.”

She often urges clients to use wood pieces such as a hutch or console, nightstands, and side tables.

For Sheffield, options for incorporating wood into a home aren’t just flooring and furniture. In a primary bedroom project, she added beautiful fluted wood paneling with acoustic properties to help reduce noise from a busy nearby street. She says that homes with larger windows that let in more natural light allow clients to have darker wood pieces without feeling like a room is overwhelmed by them.

“People understand now that if you have a nice piece of furniture or beautiful carpentry work, to see the wood grain is telling a story about the home’s construction and quality,” Sheffield says. “If you’re going to have cabinets in beautiful or exotic wood, let’s show it off. Otherwise, it would be like wearing a fur coat and covering it in duct tape.”

Sheffield and her team started urging homeowners to stain bathroom or kitchen cabinets instead of painting them. Just recently, homeowners have been asking for plain wood themselves.

“I didn’t rely on wood until a year and a half ago. Now, almost 75 percent of the time when we’re pulling together cabinet samples, our favorite option is stain,” Sheffield says.

Sheffield lives in a neighborhood with many midcentury-era homes, and her own home has an eclectic mix of styles. When an elderly neighbor died, she picked up a pair of midcentury six-drawer chests at the estate sale that had yellowed over time. She refinished and waxed them and now appreciates their history, even if it didn’t come from her own family.