Exterior Porch Flooring- How did you refinish yours?

Did you paint or stain your front porch floor? Any photos you'd like to share?

We're beginning our front porch restoration. It's a wrap-around covered porch on an 1890 Victorian. The flooring is in varying condition- the edges where it's been exposed to rain/sun have suffered.

We will probably go the sanding and sealing route, although we've debated the painting option. Painting would be way easier, since it wouldn't be necessary to sand down the entire porch. Plus, would keep the water from continuing to damage the exposed edges.

I prefer the look of natural wood, which will require sanding the entire area... and from all the reading/research I've done on stain/sealant, we may not be happy with how it holds up in the long-term.

No part of the floor is original, it's either mahogany or ipe. Depending on who you believe. Either way, both are extremely hardwood, and not something that's easy to stain. I would like a dark stain, similar to what we used inside which was a mix of English Chestnut and something I can't remember. But finding a porch stain that dark seems to be impossible. The darkest we've sampled (Cabot Jarrah brown) looks WAY too red. (I will take some photos of the porch stain samples and try to figure out how to upload them here.)

I do understand that both painting or staining are going to require maintenance and upkeep and both will need to be either repainted or refinished at some point... but what I'm reading online seems like we're going to put all this time and energy into sanding and refinishing the porch, only to be right back where we started in a few years. However, in comparison, we had a painted porch on our previous old-house and loved it. It was really low maintenance and the paint held up incredibly well, (it was already painted when we bought it, so we didnâÂÂt have to make the decision).

Wondering what options you chose, how you made your decision, and whether you're satisfied with it...

Thanks for any input!

Here is a link that might be useful: Our Front Porch