Suggest wood to go with walnut

[Phil Thien]

My wife's plastic sewing chest (which belonged to her mother) broke and I'm making a new one using some of the old trays. I'm using walnut but don't have enough walnut for the top and bottom panels. So I can either buy more walnut or use a contrasting wood.

Any suggestions for a secondary wood that would compliment the walnut sides?

Thanks!
Phil

[Corey Hallagan]

I love maple as a contrasting wood as a first choice. I also like Cherry and actually oak looks nice with walnut in my opinion as well as other lighter colored woods such as ash etc.

Corey

[Robert Mickley]

In my book Curley Maple !!

[josh bjork]

Butternut. Ash. Fir.

[Wilbur Pan]

I saw a picture of something (can't remember what -- getting old) that used walnut sapwood as the contrasting wood. Although I don't know if walnut sapwood changes color over time.

[Jesse Thornton]

Figured maple, or at least quartersawn, can be very nice with walnut. I've used cherry and oak with walnut and they looked good too, but my favorite by far was birdseye maple.

[jonathan snyder]

Phil,

I vote for maple. I just completed a walnut end table with maple drawer fronts. The contrast is great.

I was just thinking today about matching sewing boxes for my Wife and her Mother who is visiting us. I would love to see some pics of yours. I need some ideas.

Jonathan

[Mike Shoemaker]

I'd have to vote for Birds eye or orcurley Maple also.

[Charles Bruno]

I've made a jewlery box from walnut and burch. the contrast was good. They were gifts and were well recived. The body of the box was Burch and the accent pieces were walnut
Here's a link http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=37266&highlight=jewlery

[Phil Thien]

Nice work, Charles!

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I will do a little searching for some of the suggested species and see what I can find.

[Mike Wilkins]

I am currently constructing a coffee table with walnut solids and an inlaid panel of veneered Figured Anigre. Light wood/dark wood combinations really give what the designers call " visual interest".

[Mike Parzych]

Don't know what your color preferences are, but I've used walnut and paduak together. No pictures, but the paduak looked pretty sharp on the thin inlays I did.

[Jesse Thornton]

Oh yeah, I forgot that I made a simple little box out of walnut and padauk until I read Mike's post above! I thought they really went well together.
Here's a pic:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jessedavidthornton/SmallStuff/photo#4945383804048965650

[Mark Singer]

Walnut will amber in ultra violet light so woods that have amber streaks ...wenge works also...shedua,,,maple but a little contrasting..canary...pau fero..zebra

[Don Bullock]

While I haven't tried it yet, walnut and birdseye maple look fantastic together. I've seen some beautiful work from others on this site using that combination (sorry - I don't remember the threads). As soon as I have a project where those two woods will work, I plan to try it out.

[Jeff Patrick]

Without seeing drawings and knowing the color and figure of the walnut you have, I don't know how anyone can make a meaningful recommendation. I suggest you get more walnut to match what you have. Mixing woods can be visually stimulating but often isn't.