Painting - mahogany paneling

My mid-century modern home has most of the walls covered in original mahogany tongue and groove wood. It has a matt finish, and has darkened over the years. Some areas where pictures hung, are lighter in color than the surrounding walls. I'd like to try and even out the color a bit. Would colored poly help? Best type?
If not, what would be a good treatment for the wood to bring life back into it?

Welcome to the forums Chris!

Touching up the light areas with a tinted poly/varnish will help to make those areas blend in. I don't know if it will cause those areas to become darker with time. I've only done this on homes that were being cleaned up for sale. You can either select a color from minwax's polyshades or have some custom tinted at a paint store.

Another method would be to sand all the wood down and refinish. While I assume this is the best method, it is also the hardest to do :(

The walls may look better if you simply clean them with mineral spirits to remove all the grease, grit, and grime of life.

Mahogany darkens with time and exposure to light. Touching up the lighter areas may not work in the long run. You might try leaving them uncovered for a few months and see if they darken naturally to match the rest of the wall.

Thanks, I'll try the mineral spirits to clean it. What would be the best sealer to use, I don't want a gloss finish. I thought of applying the tinted poly over all the walls to help protect the wood.

Both poly and varnish come in 3 basic sheens; satin, semi-gloss and gloss. Satin has the least sheen.

Thanks guys. Will water base poly work also? Will it stick on a probably oil based finish of the 1960's?

Water-base poly will work if the surface is clean.

Water base poly may be ok if you apply it to a clean sanded poly but I've never been fond of applying waterbased poly over oil base.

All oil base poly/varnish will yellow/amber over time. It will also deepen the color of raw wood. Waterbased poly does neither.