I am looking to update mahogany dining room furniture. Any ideas?

Ann Walaszek
by Ann Walaszek
I have a mahogany dining room set in exceptional condition. The set includes a sideboard, corner cupboard, six chairs and a large oval table. The brass hardware on the pieces are also traditional. I am thinking about paint. Any ideas. The house is quite contemporary.

  6 answers
  • Janet Pizaro Janet Pizaro on Mar 16, 2018

    Being the house is contemporary I would stain it not paint it

    • Tersil Tersil on Apr 30, 2018

      Hi all,


      I had gone through this same situation. The house in which I had stayed earlier had mahogany furniture. Since that house was quite small, we planned to change it. With the help of one of the home builders in Toronto, we constructed a contemporary house. As my wife doesn't like mahogany color, we had a plan to change the color of the furniture to the color of Teak. In a conversation with my friend about this, he pointed out a few problems that might arise because of painting the mahogany wood. The life of the furniture might reduce and it might become prone to termite attack. So we dropped the plan of painting the wood. Instead, we sold it at a reasonable price and bought a new set of contemporary furniture. Now the interior of the house looks pretty good with the contemporary furniture

  • Essie Essie on Mar 16, 2018

    Pinterest is chock full of painted dining room furniture! You could also try selling the set (together or individually) and use the proceeds to purchase something that is more in tune with your tastes/style.

  • Holly Kinchlea-Brown Holly Kinchlea-Brown on Mar 16, 2018

    Sell the set in its natural state and use the funds for something more to your taste. PAINT will not alter a traditional piece enough to make it look contemporary and in the meantime you will have destroyed a beautiful solid wood set. I tend to paint only if the piece has major condition issues or otherwise would be going to a landfill.

  • 2dogal 2dogal on Mar 16, 2018

    Yes! Sell it! If it is a good set, why ruin it with paint? Mahogany is a hardwood that is not seen much anymore except in very expensive furniture. Even if you do paint it, the furniture lines would not be contemporary.

  • Susan Harris Seeley Susan Harris Seeley on Mar 17, 2018

    Try changing out the hardware and pulls to something more contemporary before you paint.

  • Leslie Leslie on Mar 17, 2018

    Mahogany and paint? Please don't. Sell the set and get what you want from the funds, or change hardware as others have suggested.