Allover Wood Interiors Are Having a Moment | Architectural Digest

If your grandmother, like mine, had a 1970s-era paneled living room (in my case, paired with green shag carpet), it might be difficult for you to hear this, but wood-clad interiors are having a major resurgence. Lately, as we scout homes in consideration for the magazine, it almost feels like a new must-have. Cedar-paneled dining rooms. Soaring living spaces with mahogany-veneered walls. Offices and libraries with ornate, Arts and Crafts–style millwork. And of course, tons of top-to-bottom timber kitchens. Wood is back, and being used in abundance.

The historic Berkeley house of Vishaan Chakrabarti and Maria Alataris features carved redwood paneling and elaborate eaves a feature both architects embraced.

It should be said: Putting wood on the walls is nothing new. It insulates, it holds vast decorative potential, and, for centuries, it was one of the most readily available building materials. Traditional homes in Japan and China have always been made from wood (you’ll clock some inspiring examples in the sets of the Emmy Award–winning Shōgun). Starting in the Gothic period, wealthy individuals began cladding their interiors with elaborately carved wood; wainscoting emerged in the Victorian era; and even in the 20th century, pioneering architects from Charlotte Perriand in France to Ray Kappe in California used wood on the walls of Case Study houses that became modernist archetypes.

AD100 designer Jamie Bush used cedar paneling throughout this historic house in Santa Monica Canyon.

Green River Project sourced and installed the wood paneling that wraps the dining area in Aurora James' Laurel Canyon cottage.

“By having a slightly darker interior, your eye is always drawn to the exterior of the house—to the windows,” explains AD100 interior designer Jamie Bush, noting that this technique was embraced by craftsman architects, particularly in California, where he often works. It’s a smart counter to the argument that all-over wood feels poorly lit or dreary. Bush has used paneling in a range of projects—in a house in Santa Monica Canyon cedar planks lend a sense of intimacy and permanence to vast, light-filled living spaces; in a bedroom in Montecito he applied wide-plank oak tongue and groove flooring to both the floors and walls. “You really feel like you’re in a bento box,” he says, “this warm, enveloping space.”

In their Hamptons home, photographers and artists Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin worked with Simrel Achenbach of the design-build firm Desciencelab and Daniel Sachs of Sachs Lindores to apply wide-plank pine, salvaged from farms in Pennsylvania, on the floors, walls, and ceilings.

In this latest resurgence, we’re seeing wood-clad interiors outside of the contexts where they feel most familiar. Take Aurora James’ Los Angeles home, for example, where her friends at AD100 firm Green River Project helped her clad a wall in wood adding soul and depth to her 1930s English cottage–style house. You could call Aaron Aujla and Ben Bloomstein, the Green River cofounders, early adopters in this recent wood resurgence. Aujla’s own New York City rental was clad in African mahogany and coffee-stained Douglas fir, and they’ve been known for creating wood-forward interiors for fashion brand Bode (run by Aujla’s wife) and hotspots like Dr. Clark in Manhattan’s Chinatown, as well as the bar River, which is right around the corner. This rough-hewn aesthetic has become popular among a younger, fashion-forward audience, like the former NFL player Romeo Okwara, who installed a cozy, wood-clad landing in his Detroit home.

Emily Bode and Aaron Aujla's kitchen, inspired by the kitchen at their family home in Cape Cod, is clad in stained Douglas fir.

But the wood trend doesn’t stop with the rustic look. About a year ago, when designer and creative director Athena Calderone stepped inside an apartment in a 1902-constructed building in Tribeca, she melted when she saw the varnished-white oak paneling that wrapped nearly every wall. “It’s all original, completely untouched, which is so rare,” says the talent, who admits the place sent her down a rabbit hole of interiors from the Art Deco period, an era that has inspired designers like Hugo Toro, who lined his Paris apartment with polished-to-perfection walnut, sweet gum, and ziricote. When she first posted about those interiors on her Instagram, her followers weren’t so sure about it. “It was such a contrast compared to the bright walls of my former town house,” explains Calderone, who is working with Brownstone Boys to refurbish the wood beneath many layers of varnish. “But as with anything new, people simply need time to adjust. I love how people and design, in general, have (pun intended) warmed up to this idea after seeing the space over the past year.”

Contrasting wood species wrap the wall in the bedroom of AD100 designer Hugo Toro's Paris apartment.

Which brings us to the nitty gritty: When working with wood, there are a few options. For that paneled look, with long beams running vertically along the walls, you need to work with solid wood. It’s more expensive, and lends a touch more hand-hewn look, like the “bento box” effect Bush mentioned earlier. But solid wood doesn’t make sense in every context. Say you want to wrap a cabinet or use wood on a surface that isn’t totally flat: Thin-cut wood veneer is the way to go—it’s more stable, can have radius curves, and offer more finish and grain options. As Bush explains, “It’s used typically in a more urbane setting,” like the slick Los Angeles home he designed for a client, where he used elegant, vertical grain mahogany veneer in the living room and den.

Inside the Los Angeles Home of designer Giampiero Tagliaferri, built by architect E. Richard Lind, a protégé of Rudolph Schindler, in 1939, walls are clad in original redwood paneling applied in a graphic checkerboard-like pattern.

In his own Los Angeles home, AD100 talent Oliver Furth used a mix of solid walnut and veneer on kitchen cabinetry, walls, ceilings, and bathrooms. “It felt modern, to me, to use this same material on many different surfaces,” he explains. “Since we have many walnut trees on our property, the material felt authentic to our site.” But it’s a concept he’s explored in projects too, like the landmark A. Quincy Jones house he renovated for artist Mary Weatherford, entirely clad in plywood, or the rift-cut white oak paneling and bookshelves he’s making for a library in Beverly Hills. “In our current climate of fast-casual, instant influence, TikTok fantasy, people are craving authenticity and connection to nature,” he muses.

In Oliver Furth and Sean Yashar’s California Canyon home, walnut paneling wraps the bathroom, which also features a folding walnut-and-leather tub cover.

The interior walls and staircase of this Northern California home built in 1915 and decorated by AD100 firm Commune are made of redwood.

It’s impossible to talk about wood and not mention the AD100 firm Commune—whose own offices are fully paneled in Douglas fir. “For us, wood-clad interiors have always been relevant,” says cofounder Roman Alonso, mentioning such gems as a Santa Cruz beach house, lined inside and out with locally salvaged Monterey Cypress, and a historic off-the-grid cabin in the Angeles National Forest that uses knotty cedar and white oak. Alonso acknowledges the recent uptick in client requests for this look. “It seems to be tied to the desire for warmth and coziness; a reaction to the all-white and beige idea of luxury that has been prevalent in interiors recently,” he reasons. But he says some of this is only natural. “A number of our projects are along the California coast, where wood just makes sense. It feels like it’s always been there, and it ages gracefully.”

The Big Sur weekend retreat of Electric Bowery's Cayley Lambur, and her husband Kyle Blasman was built by the legendary coastal California architect Mickey Muennig and clad, inside and out, in a square-edge clear vertical grain old-growth redwood, as shown in the bedroom pictured.

Limed stained oak wraps the private living room of this Paris pied-à-terre by AD100 designers Luis Laplace and Christophe Comoy.