When your Faux Mahogany finish is painted to your liking, you can add to its realism by matching the sheen of antique or modern pieces.
For an Antique Furniture Finish Use fine sandpaper (320 grit or finer) or a set of micro mesh sanding pads to sand your final painted glaze coat smooth. If you use sanding pads, you can get the finish to the degree of gloss you need by working through successively finer pads. If your piece is too complex to sand to a high finish, sand the final coat lightly, then apply a fine beeswax based furniture polish allow it to set up, then polish with a soft cloth to get the degree of gloss finish you want. If you need very high gloss finishes, use liquid 'ice wax' type car polishes, or a thin layer of future floor polish to give you a thin gloss shine. On full size pieces you can use a final gloss coating of clear acrylic finish if necessary. For miniatures, you can get a more realistic scale effect using fine wax to make a thinner gloss coat.
This is an easy method of finishing inexpensive softwood to resemble quality mahogany. With a bit of practise, anyone can create a far deeper and richer faux mahogany finish than most modern 'mahogany' furniture is given, whether it be on a picture frame, a piece of commerical dolls house furniture made from unknown wood, or an inexpensive piece of assemble it yourself full size furniture.
