Goodbye to matching sets!
Make a connection throughout your collection and you can create a room of individually unique items that all work together.
The dilemma of every home decorating project is getting the space to all work together without being too boring. There is nothing more plain, than the perfectly matched everything. A sofa and loveseat in the same pattern paired with that 5 piece “set” of end tables, coffee table, console table and media cabinet. Add the perfectly coordinated throw pillows that came wrapped with the couch and then be sure to put up drapes that you exactly color matched to the little pattern on the loveseat.
And let me guess, it took about 100 paint swatches to choose that perfectly boring white wall color, right? I will never forget that part of growing up. My mother decided that all of the walls in the house needed to be painted white, and not just any shade of white but the whitest white of them all. We would sort through countless little pieces of cardstock from the paint sample wall at the local home improvement store all while she constantly commented how this white was whiter than that white. Super white, extreme white, snow white, ultra white…You would think that one would have to question the idea of white walls in a house of six children but not my mother. Her big question was which white. She would eventually choose and all the walls were painted that white until the store put out a new card of shades of white and we would start all over. In the end, the walls were still just a boring white, whichever white it was for that month.
Excuse the rambling but the point of all that is that I learned that the expected is boring, that the perfectly planned lacks personality. You walk into a room like that and it’s stale. Everything is matched, everything is safe and everything is boring. I say go out on a limb. Always add a statement piece, something that says wow that no one else has. Choose things you love individually rather than a matching set. Find things that the various décor pieces have in common, and let that be the connection for your collection. Maybe there is a little bit of color that you can use throughout the room to bring everything together, or maybe it’s a texture that is repeated.
When shopping for new furniture for a room, people sometimes ask us if we make a “set” that all goes together, like the end tables that match the console table that match the coffee table etc. At Mokuzai Furniture we don’t design like that. We create modern wood furniture that is individually unique and beautiful but if you put it all in the room together, you can’t go wrong. It doesn’t have to be the exact same design just in different proportions. You can choose pieces from our various design collections and have them created in coordinating solid wood colors and they go together perfectly imperfectly. Here’s an example of a collection of Mokuzai Furniture that has various design details while still maintaining a connection.
1. Our exposed leg End Table with Drawer features elegant curves at the top of the legs and hand shaped drawer pulls. 2. Our Lifted Top Cabinet is a lovely choice for a modern bookcase or media console. It has fantastic exposed joinery showcasing the hand-cut dovetail construction and the top is uniquely suspended above the base. The staggered shelving offers a variety of storage and display options. 3. Our Classic Coffee Table has an inset shelf for stowing away the remotes, magazines, coasters and other clutter so you can enjoy the beautiful grain patterns and butterfly key inlays of the coffee table top.
None of these pieces were designed to be a matching set, yet how lovely they are together! The key is the connection of the warm cherry wood used throughout the collection. The similar angles of the table tops are a more subtle repeating component. Now just add a clean lined sofa, some textured throw pillows, a large piece of art for a fantastic pop of color, and a few favorite souvenirs from your latest travels. Oh and don’t forget the coaster for your glass of wine because now you can sit back relax and enjoy your triumph over the boring room dilemma.
