BATTLE OF THE TOPCOATS | Topcoat Testing over chalk paint w/ @Christina Muscari of Pretty Distressed

hey guys welcome or welcome back if you're new here my name is katie i am the owner and artist behind salvaged by k scott in today's video i'm going to be conducting a little experiment i'm going to be testing the durability stain resistance and scratch protection of five different sealers over a chalk style painted surface i'm also super excited to tell you guys that this video is in collaboration with the insanely talented christina muscari of pretty distressed hi everyone i'm christina from pretty distressed i am a youtuber and furniture refinisher just like the uber talented katie scott that you're watching right now i am gonna be joining in on the battle of the top coats today with katie so once you're done watching this video and seeing her results don't forget to pop over to my channel because i'm gonna be testing out six top coats as well i hope you guys enjoy it christina is a furniture painting boss who's been creating really informative videos and tutorials here on youtube for the past six years i've been visiting her channel on a regular basis throughout the whole life of my own furniture flipping business for different tips tricks and inspiration and now i get to work with her how cool is that i'll leave a link to christina's video up top as well as in the description box down below today i'm going to be testing three different hardware store brands of liquid poly top coats as well as a clear furniture wax and hemp oil the three liquid top coats that we're going to be testing out today are ones that i've used sort of interchangeably throughout your life of my business so i'm really interested to see if there is in fact a clear standout high performer the first thing that i need is a painted piece of furniture to apply all these top coats to so i'm going to go ahead and prep this little side table the same way i do any of my painted furniture pieces a good cleaning with some tsp a wipe down with some clean water a quick scuff sand with some 220 grit sandpaper the sanding dust removed and now i'm going to go ahead and apply two coats of country chic paint in the color hurricane it's a nice dark blue gray color that i think will show any stains or wear really well i applied two coats of paint as i usually do and once everything was nice and dry i sectioned off my table first up is verithane premium diamond wood finish it says it is ideal for interior stained bare or painted projects such as furniture over twice as durable as traditional wood finishes it has the fastest dry time of any water-based polyurethane and is self-leveling to save you time for all three liquid topcoats that i'm testing today i will be applying three coats waiting the manufacturer's recommended recoat time in between this verithane product dries to the touch in 30 minutes and can be recoated after one hour next up is minwax's polycrylic protective finish it says it's a crystal clear ultra fast drying protective top coat minwax recommends that you let this product dry at least two hours between coats and the last of our liquid poly type top coats is rust-oleum's chalked protective top coat in matte clear this one definitely has the milkiest appearance and texture in the can and did seem a little streaky while i was applying it but once it was dry it was nice and even and crystal clear this product also has a two hour recoat time next up i'll be applying the bare wax and the hemp oil i'll be applying both of these products with a clean lint-free rag bare wax says it is designed to seal and protect your painted surface it's soft pliable low odor and easy to work with it also buffs easily allowing maximum control over luster i couldn't find any information online about recoating this product but i did go ahead and apply a second coat at the same two hour mark that i reapplied the liquid top coats last but not least is hemp oil hemp oil penetrates porous finishes to protect them from the inside out it doesn't leave a surface film that will chip or scratch it absorbs right down into the paint it's a hundred percent natural no voc and food safe can be used over raw wood stained wood milk paint or a flat finished furniture paint like this country chic and so i don't lose track of what's what everything's getting a label to make sure that all of the top coats have adequate time to dry and fully cure to their maximum protection i'm going to set the table aside and we'll come back to do our tests in about 30 days to test all of these finishes against some common household stains i'm going to be testing with a hot mug filled with coffee and a coffee stain a water glass filled with ice water that will hopefully condense a little bit and give us some water rings red wine and grease since i don't want to waste too much wine here i'm just going to use a spoon to apply a tiny amount of wine around the bottom of each wine glass and then i'll use the same method to apply some olive oil to test for grease resistance i'm going to start pulling everything off of the table and then we'll take a nice close-up look and see what we got i used a dry paper towel to remove any excess liquid and then gave each square a quick wipe down with a clean damp rag i put together some side-by-side pictures of each of the stains over each of the finishes i also put them in a gray scale because it was a little bit easier to see the difference look at this red wine stain i'm so surprised that there is barely any stain at all on the wax these are what the coffee stained areas look like there doesn't appear to be any damage from the actual heat of the mug the water rings on all six areas were not nearly as bad as i was anticipating i was also expecting the grease to do a little more damage than it did well i think it's pretty safe to say that this verithin diamond wood finish is our clear winner for the stain portion of this test held up really well against all of the stains and the finish is still intact i'm going to call second place a tie between the minwax polycrylic and the wax guys i'm shook i have to admit that i have steered clear of wax as a sealer on my furniture pieces for resale for a very long time i just didn't think it had the same stain resistance or durability that one of these liquid poly topcoats would have i'm wrong i might start reaching for this more i've got one more test before i let you go the scratch test i used some of my son's legos to do this scratch test i tried to apply enough pressure to make a mark in the top coat but i didn't want to gouge up the wood the liquid top coats held up perfectly well to the scratch test the wax and the hemp oil did show some marking but i think if you went back with a little more wax or a little more hemp oil you could easily buff out those marks so here are my final thoughts make sure that you use coasters on your painted pieces if you're painting for resale make sure that you clearly communicate the need for coasters to all of your customers nobody goes to the big box furniture store spends thousands of dollars on a new bedroom set brings it home and abuses it the same thing goes for painted furniture you need to be careful and cautious that's it if you take care of your furniture it is sure to last you for years and years to come make sure that you take a second to pop over to christina's channel and find out what her results were i'm so curious to see thank you guys for following along with me again today make sure that you give me a big thumbs up tap the subscribe button before you go and i will catch you guys next time you

Channel: Katie Scott SALVAGED by k. scott

Views: 88,402

Rating: 4.9636145 out of 5

Keywords: Painted Furniture, Topcoats, Chalk Paint, Chalk Style Paint, Country Chic Paint, Varathane, Rust-Oleum, Minwax, Behr, Hemp Oil, Product Test, Side by Side, Comparison, Product Comparison, DIY, Furniture, UpCylce, Thrift, Polycrylic, Furniture Wax, Rustoleum Chalked Protective Topcoat, Varathane Diamond Wood Finish

Id: Zik_BtrJUV8

Length: 13min 40sec (820 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 28 2020