What is mango wood? The numbers behind a mango wood bedside table

Mango wood is the timber of the mango tree, Mangifera indica. It is a hardwood as hard as teak and close to English oak, with a Janka hardness of 1,070 lbf and a weight of 675 kg per cubic metre. That makes it good for indoor furniture. Outdoors it is a poor choice: it rots and attracts insects more readily.

Most of our bedside tables are solid mango wood: 74 of them, from 20 to 55 cm wide. This guide gives the figures behind that wood, taken from the Wood Database and from our own catalogue. It also covers what those figures mean for a table that stands beside your bed.

Updated 14 October 2026 by Serge.

Mango wood in numbers

The Wood Database lists mango as native to tropical Asia and Oceania. The tree grows 24 to 30 m tall, with a trunk usually under 1 to 1.2 m across. Its timber is graded like any other.

Janka hardness is the force needed to press a steel ball 11.28 mm across halfway into the wood. The higher the figure, the harder the surface is to dent. Mango sits with teak and oak, a little above walnut, and about twice as hard as Scots pine.

Is mango wood good for furniture?

For indoor furniture, yes. Two figures explain why; its limits are listed further down, under downsides.

• It is hard enough for everyday use. A lamp base, a phone or keys will dent it about as easily as oak or teak, and much less easily than pine.
• It takes a finish well. The Wood Database notes that mango "glues and finishes well". That is why the same tree can be sold as chestnut, light, walnut or near-black.

Mango wood vs oak

Oak is the wood most people compare mango with. On the Wood Database figures, the two are closer than their prices suggest: the same weight, almost the same hardness. Mango moves less as it dries; oak lasts far longer in the damp.

So is mango wood better than oak? For a bedside table indoors, the figures make them near equals, and neither is the obvious winner. Oak is the better wood where damp or rot is a risk, which a bedroom is not. The bigger difference is the look: English oak is light to medium brown with an olive cast, mango is golden brown with streaks, and most mango furniture is stained. Note that some of our tables are called "oak-ish" or "amber oak": those are finish names on mango wood, not oak.

What are the downsides of mango wood?

• It is not for outdoors or damp rooms. Rated moderately durable to perishable, and prone to fungus and insects. Indoors, in a dry bedroom, this does not come into play.
• Every piece looks different, photos included. Streaks, spalting and changes in grain are normal, and a stain narrows the differences without removing them. If you want two tables that match exactly, solid wood of any kind will disappoint you a little.
• It reacts to heat and dry air. Like all solid wood, it moves: from freshly cut to fully dry, the Wood Database measures 5.5% along the growth rings and 3.6% across them. In a bedroom the movement is far smaller, but it is uneven when one side is hot. Stand a solid wood table a few centimetres away from a radiator.
• Its origin is rarely published. Some plantations fell trees after their fruiting years, but most listings, ours included, do not say where each tree came from.
• The finish hides the wood. Most mango furniture is stained, so you buy a colour more than a wood. Check the finish name, and the material line, before you order.

Is mango wood a hardwood?

Yes, in both senses. Botanically, "hardwood" means timber from a broadleaved flowering tree, and the mango is one. In use, its hardness of 1,070 lbf puts it among the harder common furniture woods, as the table above shows. Some hardwoods are soft (balsa is a hardwood) and some softwoods are hard, so the botanical term on its own tells you little. The Janka figure tells you more.

What colour is mango wood?

Raw mango heartwood is golden brown. The Wood Database adds that "yellow and streaks of pink and/or black can also occur". Spalting, a staining caused by fungi in the wood, can add darker lines. Curly or mottled grain is common.

Most furniture is stained or oiled, so the colour you buy is the finish. Across our mango tables, the finishes are:

• chestnut, on 38 versions;
• light, on 33 versions;
• a few darker or warmer finishes named California walnut, roasted almond, honey caramel, amber oak, golden teak, winewood oak and velvet mocha.

The light finish called "oak-ish" is still mango wood, not oak.

Three examples: the Dove in roasted almond, a warm mid-brown; the walnut finish table, close to espresso; and the Calder wall table, in light or chestnut. The Dove, with its slim brass handles and tapered legs, is also our clearest example of a mid-century bedside table.

See them side by side in mango wood bedside tables, or by tone in light wood and dark wood.

How heavy is a mango wood bedside table?

We weighed nothing ourselves: these are the published weights for the tables we sell.

Weight alone does not tell solid wood from board, though. The four 45 cm engineered wood tables we sell weigh 10 to 14 kg, which is in the same range as the mango ones. Drawers, legs and the thickness of each panel matter as much as the material. If a table has to be solid wood, look for those words on the product page. Each of ours states its material. What a table can carry is another figure again, given on its product page: see our bedside table weight limit guide.

Is mango wood sustainable?

There is no simple answer, and there are no published numbers for any one table. Here is what is on record:

• Mango is not listed in the CITES appendices, the international list of species whose trade is controlled.
• The IUCN rates the wild tree as "data deficient". That is not because it is rare: the tree is grown so widely that wild and planted trees are hard to tell apart.
• The Wood Database calls the wood "very eco-friendly", because "some mango plantations harvest the trees for lumber after they have completed their useful fruit-bearing lifespan".

Note the word "some". We have no published record of where each tree came from or why it was felled, so we cannot tell you that a given table came from a retired fruit tree.

Where does mango wood come from?

Mainly from the countries that grow the fruit. In 2023, the world produced 61 million tonnes of mangoes, mangosteens and guavas, and India grew 43% of them, ahead of Indonesia and China (FAO figures). Most of our mango tables are made in a workshop in Jaipur, India, as stated on that workshop's own site.

Is mango wood expensive?

As timber, no. The Wood Database puts plain boards "in the moderate range for an imported lumber". Boards with curly figure, spalting or strong colour cost much more. As furniture, the price depends more on the work than on the wood. Our solid mango bedside tables in stock run from £101 to £406, and sets of two from £208 to £518. The price goes up with drawers, carving and inlay, and with marble tops.

Mango wood or rubberwood?

The two are easy to confuse. Both have large, open pores, and the Wood Database notes that both "are seen on imported finished furniture". Rubberwood is a little softer (960 lbf against 1,070) and lighter (595 kg/m³ against 675). If a listing says only "solid wood" or "hardwood", ask which tree it is. Most of ours name it; where our specification says only “wood”, our page says so too.

Some of our mango wood tables pair the wood with a woven rattan panel. Our guide to what rattan is explains cane, wicker and PE rattan, and how to tell them apart on a listing.

Which of these finishes goes with your bed is a separate question; we answer it in what colour bedside tables go with a grey bed.

To check whether any bedside table is solid wood, veneer or board before you buy, see our guide to solid wood or MDF.

Sources

Hardness, weight, colour, durability, shrinkage, price and sustainability notes: The Wood Database, Mango, with the same figures for English oak, teak, black walnut, European beech, rubberwood and Scots pine. World production: FAOSTAT, crops and livestock products, 2023. Weights, finishes and prices: the published data for the tables we sell, October 2026. Shop the range: mango wood bedside tables.