Our new home has very tall ceilings, tons of windows, and is filled with sunlight, but it had one very heavy room with wall to wall dark stained mahogany. It stood out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the bright, airy house.

We didn’t want to remove the wood altogether, and we liked the idea of having a little study, so we decided to just lighten up the color. We sanded and stripped the wood, bleached it, and then stained it taupe gray.

After pics below – pretty amazing how far a little bleach and stain can go! It’s now our favorite room in the house to sit and read a book.