Tips for Painting Mahogany Furniture
Painting mahogany furniture can be a challenge! If you’ve ever painted a piece of furniture, and noticed some pink or brown discoloration bleeding through your paint, you know exactly what I’m talking about. It is the worst. And trust me, I’ve done it many times. However, by understanding what’s going on and doing your prep work systematically, you can paint mahogany furniture and get a beautiful finish result.
It helps to understand exactly what bleedthrough is. Simply put, wood has tannins that are drawn to the surface by water-based products. Tannins are naturally occurring chemicals in the wood that can be reactivated when wood gets wet. Sometimes it will happen almost immediately, and sometimes it takes several days or even weeks to see this dreaded discoloration, commonly referred to as bleed through. To protect your final finish from these tannins, you need to create a barrier and seal them in.
Besides mahogany, walnut, and pine are other tannin-rich woods, although you can see bleed through in other species as well. Have you ever seen the knots of a pine board turn yellow through white paint? Those are the tannins (in the sap) of those knots. Regardless of the type of wood you have, following these tips will help with any bleed through issues you may have.
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Tip 1: Use a stain-blocking primer
This is non-negotiable when painting mahogany. If you don’t use the right primer and don’t use it correctly, you are setting yourself up for the dreaded bleedthrough in your finish coat. This is not the type of project to cut corners on. There is nothing worse than finishing a piece only to notice some bleed through. I’ve been there! You will wish you had taken the extra time in your prep work and priming. Once you have cleaned and sanded your piece, it is time to prime.
I have an entire post devoted to priming, but essentially when you are worried about bleed through you need to use a stain-blocking primer. This can be a shellac-based primer like BIN, or a water-based stain-blocking primer. I personally prefer Melange’s stain-blocking primer. It cleans up easily and can be used indoors, but I’ve used BIN plenty of times with great success.
You can also use plain shellac to block bleed through – this is a great option when you don’t want to use a white primer because you are painting with a darker color. Shellac is also great to touch up small spots of bleed through that might pop out in your final paint finish. Simply apply over the affected area, let dry completely, and then paint over.
One coat of primer 
Two coats of primer 
Three coats of primer
When using a stain-blocking primer, it may take several coats to seal in the tannins. This particular desk took three coats of primer. After applying, I also like to wait overnight and let the primer cure fully before moving on to paint. This is important! So many times people will go immediately from primer to paint and have issues. I used to do this. But I’ve found waiting and letting the primer do its thing saves me headaches in the end. I will also sand lightly between coats to smooth out the finish, but you don’t want to sand too much or you will break the seal you are trying so hard to create!
Tip 2: Don’t Oversand
Another way to minimize bleedthrough when painting mahogany is to try and keep as much of the original finish intact. You do need to scuff sand the piece to help with adhesion. But if the existing finish is in good shape you can try to simply scuff up the surface and leave the existing finish barrier there to help.
You can see in this photo the areas around the handles where I sanded down to raw wood, This is because I was replacing the existing hardware with new hardware and wanted to change the location. So I used Kwikwood to fill it and then had to sand it smooth. This is why the bleed though was so bad on the drawer fronts in this makeover.
Tip 3: Choose a dark paint color
If you are still nervous about a piece of mahogany furniture bleeding through, then consider painting it in a dark color. This masks the bleed though and you won’t see it in your final product. While this helps, I’ve still had times with a dark color (even black) where you can see just a bit of discoloration or a shadow, so while it’s less noticeable, it can still be there.
This desk was actually painted black the first time around (it’s my daughter’s and she likes to change up the paint colors in her room – one of the benefits of having a mom who paints furniture).
Summary
While painting mahogany furniture can be a bit of a challenge, it is totally doable with the right prep work. And you don’t have to be afraid of painting in lighter colors. With some stain-blocking primer and some patience, you can seal in the tannins that cause the dreaded bleed though. And remember if you do get bleed through, it isn’t the end of the world! Even though it’s hugely frustrating, it’s only paint and you can fix it! Use shellac to reseal the area and then repaint.
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