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'm the owner and artist behind Saved by K Scott in today's video. I'm going to perform a little experiment. I'm going to test the durability of the dye. Resistance and scratch protection of five different sealants on a

chalk

-style

paint

ed surface. I'm also very excited to tell you that this video is in collaboration with the incredibly talented Christina Muscari of Pretty Distressed. Hi everyone, I'm Christina from Pretty Distressed. a youtuber and furniture restorer like the super talented katie scott you're watching right now, today I'm joining the

battle

of the top layers with katie, so once you're done watching this video and seeing her results, don't forget Visit my channel because I'm also going to try six top coats.

I hope you enjoy. Christina is a master furniture

paint

er who has been creating really informative videos and tutorials here on YouTube for the last six years. I have been visiting her channel regularly throughout the life of my own furniture flipping business for different tips, tricks and inspiration and now I get to work with her. How cool is it that I'll leave a link to Christina's video above as Also, in the description box below, today I'm going to try three different hardware store brands of liquid polyethylene top coats, as well as clear furniture wax and oil. hemp, the three liquid top layers that we are going to try.

Today they are the ones I have used interchangeably throughout my life in the business, so I am really interested to see if there is in fact a clearly standout, high performing product. The first thing I need is a painted piece of furniture to apply all of these top coats, so I'm going to go ahead and prepare this little side table the same way I do any of my painted furniture. A good cleaning with a teaspoon. A cloth with a little clean water. A quick sand with a 220 grit. I sanded off the sanding dust 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 very well. I applied two coats of paint. as I usually do and once everything was nice and dry I sectioned my table, first it has a premium diamond wood finish from Verithane. She says it's ideal for interior stained, bare or painted projects, such as furniture, more than 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 the three liquid top coats I'm

testing

today. I will apply three coats waiting for the manufacturer's recommended application time between this Verithane product dries to the touch. in 30 minutes and can be recoated after one hour.

The next step is the Minwax polycrylic protective finish. It says it's a clear, ultra-fast drying protective top coat. Minwax recommends that you allow this product to dry at least two hours between coats and the final coat of our liquid polyester. type top coats is Rust-oleum's

chalk

y protective top coat in clear matte color. This definitely has the milkiest look and texture in the can and seemed a little streaky while I was applying it, but once it was dry it was nice, smooth and crystal clear. This product also has a two-hour repainting time. Next, I will apply the naked wax and hemp oil.

I will apply both products with a clean, lint-free cloth. Naked wax says it is designed to seal and protect your The painted surface is soft, flexible, low odor and easy to work with, it is also easily polished allowing maximum control over gloss. I couldn't find any information online on how to recoat this product, but I went ahead and applied a second coat at the same two hour mark as I did. 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. Does not leave a film on the surface that chips or scratches.

It is absorbed directly into the paint. It is one hundred percent natural. It is VOC-free and food-safe over stained raw wood milk paint or a flat-finish furniture paint like this country chic, so I keep track of what's on a label to make sure Make sure all top coats have adequate time to fully dry and cure to maximum protection. I'm going to set the table aside and we'll come back to do our

testing

in about 30 days to test all of these finishes against some common household stains. I'll be trying a hot cup full of coffee and a coffee stain, a water glass full of ice water which will hopefully condense a little and give us some water rings, red wine and grease as I don't want to waste too much wine here.

I'm just going to use a spoon to apply a small amount of wine around the bottom of each wine glass and then use the same method to apply a little olive oil to test for grease resistance. I'm going to start removing everything. off the table and then we'll take a good close look and see what we got. I used a dry paper towel to remove excess liquid and then quickly wiped each square with a clean, damp cloth that I gathered on one side. -Photos next to each of the stains on each of the finishes. I also put them in grayscale because it was a little easier to see the difference.

Look at this red wine stain. I am very surprised that there is hardly anything. stain in the wax this is what the coffee stained areas look like there doesn't seem to be any damage from the actual heat of the mug the water rings in the six areas weren't as bad as I expected too Hoping the grease will do a little more of damage than it did well, I think it's

pretty

safe to say that this true diamond wood finish is our clear winner in the stain portion of this test, it held up very well against all the stains and the finish is still intact I'm going to Call second place a tie between minwax polycrylic and wax types.

I'm shaken. I have to admit that I have stayed away from wax as a sealant on my resale furniture for a long time. I just didn't think it had the same stain resistance or durability that one of these liquid polyester top coats would have. I'm wrong. I might start looking into this more. I have 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 on the top coat but I didn't want to scratch the wood, the liquid top coats held up perfectly well in the scratch test, the wax and the oil of hemp showed some marks, but I think if you went back with a little more wax or a little more hemp oil, you could polish those marks out easily, so here are my final thoughts.

Be sure to use coasters on your painted pieces. If you are painting for resale, be sure to clearly communicate the need for coasters to all of your customers. Nobody goes to the big box furniture store. Spend thousands of dollars on a new bedroom set. He brings him home and abuses him. The same goes for painted furniture. You must be careful and cautious, that's all, if you take care of your furniture, it will surely last you for many years. Be sure to take a second to visit Christina's channel and find out what her results were. I am very curious to see you, thank you all for following me again today.

Be sure to give me a big thumbs up. Hit the subscribe button before you leave and I'll see you next time.