"Decorating" advice needed for a non-pond, art project...

[Mmathis]

I'm working on a project that will be a gift, and was wondering if you guys would give me some expert advice!

It's a shadow box, and the contents are of some [Louisiana] crawfish looking out a window at a snow-covered ski mountain. There will be miniature things hanging on the wall such as local and LA posters [Jazz Fest, Mudbug Madness, etc.], Mardi Gras beads, skis, etc.

Where I'm having problems is deciding how to "treat" the woodwork, what color to go with..... I don't want the wood to detract from the scene. I was originally going to make it look like barnwood, but then I was conflicted that the grays would contrast with the mountain...... The same goes with the use of pure white.

All of the wood will be something like balsa [light wt.], and I'll use acrylic paints to go for a faux wood effect, so I can mix & match just about any color -- these in the pic are just some examples. It's going to be an 8x10 shadow box.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Natural wood.

 

[KC Crook]

I would be tempted to stain the wood dark, then paint with a cheap flat white....then do a distressing on it, then wet rag it down hard to take off alot of the distressing and white paint to make it look really really old. Something like this

 

[Big Lou]

Find and use old distressed wood. Possibly from a fence board.

 

[haver79]

I actually like the barnwood. It pulls out the greys in the mountains. To me it doesn't detract from everything else you have going on there. Second choice would be natural wood. Neat project.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

I like the barnwood the best.