Walnut Conference Table: Our Walnut-Look Finish Up Close and What Goes With It

The short answer: a walnut conference table gives a meeting room a warm brown look, and it looks best beside colors that let it lead: black, gray, white or cream. OfficeSimpli sells one in a walnut-look finish called California Walnut. It is the 12 Person Conference Table, 8, 10 or 12 feet long and 48 inches deep, with two power units built into the top. It leaves in 2-3 business days, and freight typically takes 3-10 business days after it ships. Below: a close look at the finish, what to pair it with, and what to expect when it is delivered.

What does a walnut conference table look like up close?

Our walnut-look finish is a warm medium brown with straight grain that runs the long way down the table, and it reads darker in dim light. Here it is in one of our renders, set up as an example room.

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Straight grain that runs the length of the table

Grain runs the long wayPower in the topLooks darker in dim light

Look down the table and the grain runs the long way, end to end, with lighter streaks in it. Where light falls on the top it reads lighter and warmer; in shade, the same top reads a shade darker.

The top comes in two sections, so a faint seam crosses it, and the two power units sit in the top, one in each section. The leg panel under it carries the grain up and down. Laptops plug in right at the table, so no cords have to run across the top to a wall outlet.

Try this: note when your room is used most, morning daylight or evening lamps, and plan the chairs and walls below for that light.

Worth knowing: California Walnut is a walnut-look finish, not solid walnut. It is a thermally fused laminate surface (a hard, walnut-look layer bonded to the board with heat) on an engineered wood core (a board made of pressed wood). If you want a black walnut or slab top cut from real wood, that is a different, custom-made table, and we do not sell one.

What goes with a walnut conference table?

A walnut-look top like ours is a warm medium brown that reads darker in dim light, and it is the biggest thing in the room. Choose the colors around it so it can lead, and the room looks planned. Three pairings that work:

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Black chairs and cool gray walls

Calm, businesslike lookGood for: everyday team rooms

The render in the section above shows this pairing. Black or charcoal chairs give the brown top a crisp outline, and gray walls have no warm tone of their own, so the walnut-look top is the only warm color in the room. Chrome chair bases keep it light underfoot.

It is the easiest pairing to get right, because nothing in the room competes with the table.

Try this: pick a gray paint with no green or beige in it, and hold the card next to a photo of the top before you buy.

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White or cream chairs in a light, warm room

Bright and openLight chairs show marks sooner

Light chairs flip the look: the walnut-look top stands out against them, so it reads richer. Cream walls, a pale wood floor and a soft rug keep the whole room light around it.

Warm light helps too. Choose warm white bulbs; very cool, bluish light can make a brown top look flat and gray, and daylight shows the grain best.

Try this: stand where you would sit and check the table under the room's own lights before you settle on chair colors.

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Other wood tones: clearly lighter or clearly darker

Fixes: a near-miss matchWorks with wood floors

A wood floor, a credenza or wall shelves add more brown to the room. Two browns that are almost the same tend to look like a mismatch, so pick wood that is clearly lighter or clearly darker than the top.

A pale oak floor or a near-black cabinet both work. A mid-brown floor right next to a mid-brown top is the one to skip. A walnut-look top next to real walnut furniture will not match exactly either, so keep the two clearly different in tone, or apart.

Try this: lay a phone photo of the top on the floor or the cabinet you have and look at both from across the room.

What should you expect when it arrives?

Here is what our product and shipping pages say about delivery, in plain words.

Comparing it with other ready-to-ship tables on power, assembly and lead time? See our ready-to-ship conference table comparison.

Need it longer than 12 ft, in another shape or in another size? That is made to order in our build-your-own builder, where California Walnut, a walnut-look finish, is one of the finishes. You can also browse every model on our conference tables page.

Walnut conference table questions, answered