How To Seal Furniture for a High Traffic Surface

Sealing Painted Furniture for a High Traffic Surface is key in maintaining the life of the piece. I’ve shared a few examples with products.

Do you paint furniture? Maybe I should ask, do you SEAL your furniture after you paint it? Painting furniture is the bread and butter of this blog. It’s the basis for why this website was started. I love to paint furniture, but I’ve learned that it’s all for none if you don’t know how to seal furniture correctly. Certain paints like chalky style paint practically disintegrate to dust without it (hence why it’s called “chalk paint”). I want to share my thoughts on sealing painted furniture. From latex paint to oil based paint, 95% of all indoor paints need a good sealer. 

First and foremost I believe that you need to follow the manufacturer’s recommendation for a sealer. 

That being said, I’ve experienced times when the “recommended sealer” hasn’t been tough enough for a high traffic area. 

You followed the directions and the paint didn’t hold up, now what?

Updated 2022 with Related posts:

Protect your Furniture! Best Clear Coat for Wood for a Lasting finish

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​We all know that taking the time to paint and refinish furniture is hard work, so you want to make sure you preserve that work with a good sealer. 

Sealing chalk painted furniture that gets a lot of use

Like I said earlier, it’s best to follow the manufacturers recommendations. Most chalk paint products recommend a furniture wax or paste wax to go with it. 

That being said, I do believe there are some sealer product that will hold up better than wax for a high traffic surface on wood furniture. 

There are other chalky paint products (Rust-Oleum) that have a clear sealer that you wipe or paint on. 

Chalk paint is known for its velvety ultra matte finish. The clear coats that go with chalk paint are made to seal the painted surface and keep that ultra matte finish. 

These work well, but just like with the wax, they don’t seem to hold up well to a high traffic area. 

As a matter of fact, if you read the fine print on most wax cans, it says to reapply it every year! Ugh, who has time for that!

One of the major draws to chalk paint was that ultra matte finish. The wax seal coat to protect chalk paint maintains that matte finish. But does it hold up well over time? 

The key in finding a good sealer for chalk paint is finding a sealer that protects against water without losing too much of the ultra matte finish.

I recently chalk painted my moms antique kitchen table top and gave it a good top coat for a high traffic finish. You can see all about the awesome sealer (not wax) that I used on it! Make sure to watch the video on my YouTube channel or the video tutorial below. 

So far it’s held up really well! 

Best Chalk Paint Sealer for a high traffic surface

If you are wondering how to seal chalk paint, I’ve created a list of my three favorite products below for the best way to seal chalk paint for high traffic use. 

• Minwax Polycrylic protective finish in Matte
• Rust-Oleum Chalked clear matte finish
• General Finishes Flat Out Flat
• General Finishes High Performance Top Coat

You can see all of these products are a water-based product. It used to be standard knowledge that oil-based paint and sealers hold up better, but not necessarily anymore. They even make water-based polyurethane today! 

Minwax Polycrylic

One of my go-to favorites for sealing any sort of paint is a Minwax product called Polycrylic. I use it mostly in a satin finish and it works great. It’s a good choice for an overall great sealer for painted furniture. 

I love this product because it’s a water-based sealer, doesn’t yellow over time like polyurethanes, and it comes in a matte finish! I use this sealer for practically all table tops, bathrooms and kitchen surfaces including kitchen cabinets. It seals and protects against water very well. 

Of all three sealers I’ve listed, this one is my favorite mainly because it still gives that clear matte finish without yellowing over time. 

Rust-Oleum Chalked clear matte finish

This is also a great product that I’ve used a handful of times, especially if I’m using the Rust-Oleum Chalked paint line. I used this product on a piece of furniture not long ago and it’s held up beautifully. 

General Finishes Flat Out Flat

If you are looking for a finish that comes as close to feeling like wax, this is it! In my opinion, you won’t even know it has a top coat on it! That being said, it has some downfalls. 

On the label of the product it clearly states “Do not apply clear top coats over bright white paint, as yellowing may occur due to a reaction to the substrate. Light color paints may also experience yellowing due to topcoat application, but it will less noticeable.” 

Because of this, you might want to reserve this sealer for colored paint only and brighter colored furniture pieces. 

General Finishes High Performance Top Coat

I’ve also found that General Finishes High Performance top coat is a great sealer for chalk paint too (and milk paint too). This is their hardest, most durable consumer polyurethane top coat. It does come with a “flat” or “matte” option, it still doesn’t seem to be as “matte like” as the Flat out Flat product. 

Unfortunately, like with the Flat out Flat, it does come with the warning to be aware of possible yellowing. 

I used this sealer when I painted our old laminate cabinets. Years later (and a lot of wiping the surface down with Clorox wipes) the paint is still holding strong! And yes, I did paint over white with it. Has it yellowed over time? A little. 

How do you apply a clear sealer over painted furniture?

Every sealer is a tad bit different so make sure to read the instructions, but that being said most clear sealers can be applied with the directions below.

Using a paint brush, brush on a thin coat of sealer making sure not to apply too much pressure so the sealer will self level and not cause brush strokes. Follow the sealers instructions on how many coats need to be applied and for the dry time. Some of this will depend on how much you want to protect the paint color and surface. 

How does Polycrylic seal unfinished wood?

Polycrylic is also a great sealer product to use on unfinished wood and other wood surfaces. Full disclosure though, it might bring out some of the wood undertones. 

Here is what it looks like on raw cherry wood.  This was an old desk that I stripped down to the natural wood, so it did bring out a few of the red undertones. I used two coats of sealer to make sure the wood is protected well. Did I need that second coat? Probably not, but this desk gets a lot of use. My suggestion is to apply the first coat, let it dry fully and see if you need a second coat. 

Note: the higher the gloss finish, the better the durability and protection against elements. 

I’m sure there are other good top coats and sealers for painted or unpainted furniture, and if you’ve tried one and like it let me know! 

I guess I’m the type of person that doesn’t branch out much when I find something I like 🙂

The key is finding a good clear coat that not only protects against all the elements (and kids and pets and life!) AND still maintains the beautiful look of the wood (or paint). 

So what’s the best sealer for painted furniture? Ultimately, that depends on what type of surface and what type of paint has been used. 

I made a little handy chart for another post that you might find helpful. You can see more of how to choose the right type of paint below. Bottom line is to make sure the top coat is compatible with the paint coat. Oil and water don’t normally mix so there are some things you need to know when applying oil-based sealers over water based paint and visa versa. Check out that post for more information. 

Interested in knowing more about Chalk paint and how to use it?

As always, thanks for stopping by and good luck with your project. Let me know if you have questions or suggestions on other top coats! 

Lindsey**