'I like to mix woods, but it can be scary for some people,' says the interior designer Gabriela Eisenhart, founder and lead of the Atlanta-based design agency Silo Studios. 'You just can't get that warmth, and that extra dimension, from decorating in any other way.' She's right, of course.
Mixing wood tones does seem a bit scary for the uninitiated. It goes against everything we've been taught, every rule we think exists in the design world (spoiler: there are, really, no hard and fast decor rules). Every time you see an image of a Scandi-style living room it's usually always just blonde oak wood, or in a more traditional space it tends to be often just walnut.
We think, therefore, that we need to pick a wood tone and stick to it throughout. But actually, if you can be brave enough to try it, mixing wood tones will allow you some creative freedom and reward you with elevated and layered schemes. Spaces that look like they've been put together not by following some design-by-numbers handbook but by someone with flair and an eye for beauty.
This is how to get it right, no matter what your interior design style . In 2012, Gabriela Eisenhart founded her first studio, Gabriela Eisenhart Interiors. Then, in 2016, in an effort to expand her footprint, she joined forces with a Los Angeles-based interior designer to co-found WAKE + LOOM.
Fast forward to 2023, and after more than a decade of entrepreneurship, she opened the doors to her third studio, Silo Studios, which she named for h.