What 2 colors of wood stain would be complimentary to each other?

Question

I am staining the rough wood paneling on the wall of my guest bathroom. I already started by staing every other slat in Antique Walnut by MinWax. I was considering an ebony color but now think that it may be too dark. A friend suggested something with a reddish tone to it. The theme of the bathroom is jungle/tropical and has green granite counter tops and white trimming throughout.

Answer 1

Walnut is pretty dark, so I'd do a lighter stain on the contrasting panels or your room will look like a cave.  A touch of red would be nice.  Look at cherry.  Avoid red oak, it will be too close to the walnut in terms of darkness.

Another option, probably the one I'd go with, is just to leave the light panels natural.  Then just urethane or lacquer over the whole thing after you've got the dark panels stained and they've dried. That will seal the grain on the unfinished panels.

Answer 2

I often see sharply contrasting woods used together, like Teak(dark) and Holly (light) or Mahogany (dark) and Ash (light). I always thought that looked nice.

Since you are looking for two colors, you have a choice of a monochromatic scheme, using the same stain, but staining some wood panels darker than others, or contrasting colors, with dark and light stains.

Good Luck