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Mahogany is the formal timber. It is stable, straight-grained and capable of holding fine detail — carving, cross banding, string inlay, thin glazing bars — without breaking out at the edges. Where a piece needs to look architectural rather than rural, mahogany usually gets the job.
It is one of our four standard timbers, alongside oak, cherry and walnut, and one of the dearer ones: oak is the baseline, and mahogany costs more, partly on raw cost and partly because it is less forgiving to work and to finish.
What mahogany suits
The test is whether the piece has detail that has to survive being cut. A glazed bookcase with fine glazing bars, a pedestal desk with a moulded edge and cross-banded drawer fronts, a corner cupboard with a proper cornice — these are mahogany jobs. So is a pedestal dining table where the column is turned and carved and the whole point is the crispness of it.
In a room with panelling, shutters or joinery already in place, mahogany is also the timber most likely to sit down quietly alongside them rather than announcing itself. If the room was built between about 1750 and 1900, it is usually the historically right answer as well as the visually right one.
Chairs to go with it can be mahogany too. Every chair pattern is made in all four timbers, with ash kept for the Windsor frames.
How mahogany ages
Gently, and predictably. It deepens and reddens gradually and settles into a rich, even colour. It is one of the more stable timbers we work with, which is part of why it holds fine detail so well — it moves less than oak, so a thin moulding or a glazing bar stays where it was put.
For anyone matching to an existing suite, that stability is the useful part. A mahogany piece will not surprise you the way cherry can.
Matching and reproduction work
A large share of the mahogany that leaves the workshop is made to go with something a client already owns — a table to match a set of chairs, a second chest to make a pair, a bookcase to carry on a run that was never finished. The timber is selected for grain and colour against the original, the mouldings are copied properly rather than approximated, and the polish is matched by eye. That work has its own page, and it is worth reading before you send photographs.
What we make in mahogany
Anything in the catalogue, to your own dimensions. It is asked for most often for desks, bureaux and bookcases, pedestal tables, sideboards and servers, cabinets and corner cupboards and dressing tables.
See it before you decide
A sanded mahogany swatch is £10, posted free and refunded against your order, and the four timbers together are £30. If you are matching to an existing piece, send a photograph in daylight at the same time and we will tell you honestly whether it is a match we can make.
Is mahogany more expensive than oak?
Yes. Oak is the baseline, and mahogany and walnut are appreciably dearer, partly on raw cost and partly because they are less forgiving to work and to finish. Every catalogue piece is priced in all four timbers so you can compare.
Why is mahogany better for fine detail?
It is stable and straight-grained, so a thin moulding, a glazing bar or a piece of string inlay can be cut without breaking out, and it stays where it was put rather than moving with the seasons the way a more open-grained timber does.
Can you match new mahogany to Victorian or Georgian furniture?
It is one of the things we are asked for most. Timber is selected for grain and colour against the original, mouldings are copied rather than approximated, and the polish is matched by eye. Send photographs taken in daylight.
Does mahogany go very dark?
It deepens and reddens gradually and then settles. It is a slower and more even change than cherry, and it does not lighten the way walnut does.
Where does your mahogany come from?
Ask us and we will tell you what is in the stack at the time, because it depends on what has come in. If provenance matters to you for a particular commission, say so at the drawing stage rather than afterwards.