Can There Ever Be "Too Much" Wood?

[Alan Lightstone]

No.. (as long as 95% of it is painted white)

Sigh..... Drives me crazy. Thanks HGTV.

Now changing to grey. All those white kitchens are going to look so 2000s...

[Jared Sankovich]

Sigh..... Drives me crazy. Thanks HGTV.

Now changing to grey. All those white kitchens are going to look so 2000s...

Depending on the style, yes.

The trend towards bright bronze or gold hardware has me shaking my head.

[Alex Zeller]

My house is timber framed. When I was building it I could have bought the SIPs (structural insulated panels) with tongue and groove pine vs sheet rock but all the pictures I saw the beams just seemed to fade away. The jointery work on the beams just blended into all the wood. I remember seeing one house where the own paid big bucks to have his made from 100 year old hand hewn beams and then used pine everywhere to the point it would make you cry. Yes, you can have too much wood. But it's subjective and each owner is different.

[Mel Fulks]

I’d get another realtor. People sometimes act like dogs in checking out houses . A dog always thinks a used dog house “smells bad”.
One of the biggest mistakes realtors make is trying to keep a lazy brother in law working. Who was it that had a room covered in real gold
leaf ? Maybe Russian Czar. I dare say no traveling salesman told him to get rid of it.....but I’m sure they WANTED to.

[Ron Citerone]

I've been working on a kitchen remodel for my neighbor for the past few months. His brother, who is a realtor, says he will never be able to sell the house because there's too much wood. What do you think?

I think if your neighbor likes it, that's what matters. Your neighbor's brother has no say IMO.

[Tom Bain]

My philosophy (ok, my wife has a major say here too) is to put most of the “wood” into furniture pieces that we can take with us, and items that are built-in (cabinets, shelving, etc) are more neutral in color/style/decor/whatever.

[Anuj Prateek]

3 things come to mind:

- It's possible that it's too much. Not everyone likes seeing wood everywhere and sometimes it just does not look good. Our kitchen cabinets were oak veneered, stained brown. We painted them white, and they looked hundred times better.

- Realtor is wrong. One of realtors that we consulted with, found flaws in everything. Things that we liked, were all of a sudden not good. Well we hired another realtor. She loved our house, and suggested only minor changes and touchups.

- If we are not selling our house then we don't care what others like. Freedom of pursuing choices is a benefit of buying house.

[Julie Moriarty]

I don't see any pictures, nor does the link work.

John

The pictures were loaded to SMC for public viewing. I have no idea why they show up for some people and don't show for others. This has happened before.

[Curt Harms]

Good realtors know these things.

You just have to decide whether resale is important. It is to almost everyone I know. Wood colors and patterns can be hard to match with furniture, carpet, wall decor, etc. That means a knock down in price as a buyer calculates what it will cost to "fix" it.

I think it also matters where the subject house is located. A style that fits perfectly in Vermont might look strange in Florida. Too much wood? Maybe the termites don't think so.

[David Utterback]

When I read the title of your post, I thought that I currently have too much wood (lumber) in my basement, my garage and stacked in the woods behind my house. All needs to be used to make more furniture (unpainted) to fill the house and for my kids' homes. There is no shortage of wood here but I am a little short on inspiration recently. Spring will be here soon!

[Richard Coers]

Too much for today's buyers. The next person to buy it will be asking for help finding a primer that kills all the pigment in those exotics so paint will stick.

[Mike Rambour]

my wife and I moved into this house 12 years ago, it WAS a 4 bedroom house with a small detached garage. Its now a 2 bedroom house with a 980 sq. ft. detached garage (biggest city would let me build on the lot). We get told all the time, no one wants a garage/shop that big and all the money we spent on it was wasted, when we went from 4 bedrooms to 2, we were told how stupid we were. But we are both in our early 60's and love the place, we didn't lose a single penny, now my daughter might have lost money after she inherits the place but we didn't lose anything. The point is, I personally don't think there is such a thing as too much wood and who cares what the resale value is going to be UNLESS of course you are planning on selling. That neighbors brother is a realtor that is all they think about, selling houses and they can't figure out why a family would want to stay in one house for more than a year or 2. Wife and I were in our previous house 39 years and we hope to live long enough to be in this one 39 years. Its not always all about money, sometimes happiness is far more important... Keep building and putting more wood in if it makes the owner happy.

[Alan Gage]

My house is timber framed. When I was building it I could have bought the SIPs (structural insulated panels) with tongue and groove pine vs sheet rock but all the pictures I saw the beams just seemed to fade away. The jointery work on the beams just blended into all the wood. I remember seeing one house where the own paid big bucks to have his made from 100 year old hand hewn beams and then used pine everywhere to the point it would make you cry. Yes, you can have too much wood. But it's subjective and each owner is different.

This resonates with me and I agree. I built my wood shop last year with an exposed natural wood 8x10 structural ridge supported by 8x8 posts and all the walls are lined with a dozen different species of hardwoods. For the ceiling I used v-groove knotty pine but painted it white because I was afraid it would compete with the rest of the wood and that my big beams would just disappear. The white ceiling makes a nice contrast and brightens the shop.

A few weeks ago I pulled some old veneered wood paneling off a wall and again used v-groove knotty pine painted white. Most people thought I was nuts for painting the pine but I knew that in the next week rustic hardwood floors were going down and that there was going to be a lot of oak and walnut trim and furniture. I felt the knotty pine would stand out like a sore thumb and look terrible. But painted white I think it keeps the natural wood from being too overwhelming and keeps the room looking bright. And while it might be painted white the texture of the wall still says "wood".

Like you I see pictures of houses or cabins that are wall to wall and floor to ceiling natural wood and most of the time I find it too much. My eye can't find anything to rest or focus on.

Alan

[Julie Moriarty]

Too much for today's buyers. The next person to buy it will be asking for help finding a primer that kills all the pigment in those exotics so paint will stick.

Makes me think of this song

[Mark Rainey]

I enjoyed the song and video Julie.