Husban/Wife Design Dilemma

7 years ago

My wife and I are remodeling our whole house and both love the western Aztec type decor. My father owns a sawmill and we’re adding a few red pine accent walls, but my wife wants to do the ceilings in some spots as well. I feel there’s a point where there’s too much wood, especially when our ceilings are only 8’. I’m thinking to satisfy her, we can mill white oak for the ceiling and red pine for the wall in a part of the house that is sectioned off from the living/kitchen area, and paint the Sheetrock ceiling a light tan to help flow from the wood in the other room. How can we help each room flow together and not make the rooms choppy, while satisfying both our wants? I added some pictures of our living room (yes we’re living in it and we now have new windows in lol) and a sample of some pine on the wall.

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BeverlyFLADeziner

7 years ago

last modified: 7 years ago

Do not mix red and white oak on the same project.

As for Aztec styling, if you want to add rugs or artifacts that are Aztec in design that seems fine, but I have never seen Aztec architectural details in a modern home as most of what remains for reference is in stone and might be religious in nature. Not sure that would be a direction appropriate for use in a home unless you are an Aztec descendant.

If the Indian style you are actually referring to is Navajo as you see below, then the appropriate wood to be using is PINE, specifically Lodge Pole Pine with stucco or adobe walls.

I think you need to do a bit more research to determine what you are really wanting for your home. Random wood walls and ceilings are not going to work successfully.

Brick texture on the wall is also appropriate along with wood ceiling beams

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Comments (8)

ilikefriday
7 years ago
Will the final look of your walls be similar to the color of the wood in your last photo? Do you have an inspiration photo for what you want the white pine on the ceiling to look like?
Stephanie Chatel
7 years ago
Just a point to consider, when you have wood walls and or ceiling they absorb a lot of light and can make the room feel very dark regardless of the amount of natural light. Our sons house had pine walls and even though he had large windows it still always felt dark. He ended up sheetrocking the walls because it was just to dark for him.
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Eric Haakonson
Original Author
7 years ago
I apologize, yes, I meant Navajo. I will not be mixing white pine and red pine. As I stated, I will be using red (Norway Pine), and white OAK. I’m just wondering if it would look nicer to use the same wood on the ceiling and wall, or to use oak on the ceiling and pine on the wall. If we only use oak, I can shape it into a shiplap material and stain it, and if we mix the woods, we would leave them raw and weathered. There’s hundreds of pictures that inspire us, but this one is how we’d like it to look if we used only oak, but we’d do the ceiling the same.
apple_pie_order
7 years ago
Use only one wood. It will look vastly better than mixing two on the walls and ceilings. The dark patterned pine wood samples on the wall are currently trendy but are not likely to remain so. Your inspiration photo with oak looks a lot more classic, especially in the more expensive Santa Fe style "mountain lodge" houses. I'd go with the oak.
ilikefriday
7 years ago
love your inspiration photo! I think wood on the ceiling would look best but if your wife insist then i would do the same wood for both.
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Patricia Colwell Consulting
7 years ago
No wood ceiling one wood wall maybe and then use accessories to give the look you want they are easy to change if you want to later. Wood absorbs light so be prepared to add at least twice the lighting you think you need.
Eric Haakonson
Original Author
7 years ago
Apple_pie_order Thanks for the input. I guess that’s more the style we’re going for, while adding some Navajo style rugs and such for a western mountain lodge feel, without being too “in your face” with it. The only wood ceiling would be in a hallway off the entry that leads to our master suite, so low lighting won’t bother us much in that area. Here’s another photo of the style that we like. Maybe someone can help me put a style to it, so my next post can be a little more clear for the style pros *face palm*. I am by no means a designer, so any input helps.