Wood goes with everything

I was in the midst of shifting furniture around to make room for my Christmas tree, with the help of a friend. When we moved my beloved curly maple end table next to my cherry tv credenza, she made a comment about my mismatched wood, "Why didn't you, of all people, build a credenza that matched the rest of the pieces?" she asked. I looked around the room and didn't see anything that didn't work, but then, I'm an eclectic. So, I asked her why she thought all the wood pieces in the room had to come from the same type of tree. We stared at each other in one of those Mars/Venus kinds of moments. It never occurred to me that putting cherry with maple could be considered like pairing stripes and plaids. I believe that wood's natural beauty and the common thread of the grain make them symbiotic, regardless of species. I asked around and discovered that most designers agreed with my take. Wood goes with wood. Wood, in fact, goes with everything. If you want to step outside the confines of convention, add an accent piece of a contrasting wood and see how it adds lie to the room.