Furniture Topcoats and Waxes - Australian Edition

I get so many emails from you all asking about furniture painting, waxes, and  other top coat products. I'm slowly working my way through the list of questions in a DIY Tips tutorial series. I know for some of you this has been a long time coming.  Marian, aka Miss Mustard Seed, has done several wonderful posts on finishing painted furniture but I constantly get emails asking for what I use in Australia as a lot of the American products are not available here. So here is my list for topcoats and furniture waxes that are readily available in this fine land of ours down under.

My one disclaimer is please don't solely rely on me though as I have been using various top coats for many years now and I have found the best thing is to experiment with different products and find out what works for you and your own style of painting.

Furniture Waxes

When applying wax to a timber or painted surface, you need to rub it vigorously into the surface. The friction of the rubbing melts the wax and works it into surface to create adhesion and durability.  Wax will result in a soft lustrous sheen, but it can be buffed to a high gloss. With all the rubbing and buffing, applying wax can be a tedious process but I find that it is worth the effort for a traditional, hand rubbed finish.

My hands down favourite wax is Feast & Watson Mastertouch Carnauba Wax. Man, I adore this stuff. Feast & Watson, the company have a great history and success story - starting out in Sydney, Australia as a small family owned business in 1922, they are now part of the DuluxGroup.  The wax comes in brown or natural - I have only ever used the natural. It costs around $31  for a 500ml tin that will cover many many pieces of furniture.  Carnauba is a hard wax with a high melting point and I brush it in using a circular motion with the round bristled brush in the above photo. After letting it dry for about 15 minutes you can either buff it off with a dry cloth or to achieve a soft lustre you can sand the wax into the surface with very fine sandpaper or fine steel wool, rubbing with the direction of the grain.

It has a mild and very pleasant smell. I love the velvety smoothness that I can achieve with this wax.   This works very well with both Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and home made Chalk paint as well as any other porous paint - flat acrylic, milk paint or even natural timber.  You can even use this on your floors - it is extremely durable.  I adore everything about this wax, especially that I can buy a product manufactured and developed in Australia.  I use this product on 90% of my furniture these days. I can not recommend it highly enough.

Another wax I really like, and one that has been recommended to me by several professional furniture painters, is Howard Feed n Wax Carnauba Beeswax and Orange Oil mix. This is a fairly runny mixture that you squirt out of the bottle onto the furniture directly or onto a clean lint free rag and buff into the surface. It is very nourishing and super easy to apply.  It works beautifully over latex/acrylic paint as a top coat. It is also great to use on very ornate pieces as it's easy to get into all the nooks and crannies and polishes up well with a rag. I also often use it to give a quick shine to previously waxed surfaces. Once you rub it on you need to wait around 20 minutes and then wipe dry and polish.  The orange oil in it gives this a divine smell.

For polishing or buffing wax, I will often get an old sock and ball it up and then put it inside an old pair of pantyhose and then use this for buffing. It works very well. I actually learnt this from my days of being an Officer in the Royal Australian Air Force and spit polishing shoes for parades. We used to be able to achieve a super high gloss from finishing off with a pair of pantyhose. Hilarious to see all these macho pilots with a pair of stockings rolled up polishing their shoes. 

Soft wax - It is still not possible to buy Annie Sloan Soft Wax or Miss Mustard Seed's soft wax in Australia, although ASCP products should be here within a month. I have a few different soft waxes available in Australia that I will use for different finishes. I really like using (and the smell of) Organoil Natural Wax and Polish. It is actually very similar to Miss Mustard Seeds Soft Wax in texture. It states on the can that it shouldn't be used over painted surfaces but I have been using it on and off for 2 years and have never had trouble or negative feedback so I think it's fine.

Personally I do not like using pure beeswax mainly due to the smell. Never apply beeswax just before you sell a piece as it will definitely put off potential buyers! 

Water based Sealers

For table tops and other surfaces that are going to have a lot of wear and tear I tend to use a sealer than is more durable than wax.  Wax can get water marks in it quite easily and most people don't want to take care of their tables as much as a waxed surface would require. You can either spray or brush these on (I don't have a spray gun or any where to spray so I always brush on).

I have tried many different sealers over the years. I personally steer clear of oil based products mainly due to yellowing, the hassle of clean up and environmental issues.  All my furniture and my house is painted with water based products - I will write a blog post on this in depth sometime in the future. The only exception I make to this is, I very occasionally use a Zinsser oil based primer. 

I really like using the Porters range of sealers. They are Australian made, low VOC and are very easy to apply. Porters have two sealers : Clearcote and the All purpose Clear Sealer. These two products are almost the only non-yellowing (over white paint) products I have found. Never use an oil based top coat over white paint as it will literally yellow your paint work within months - sometime sooner. 

Be aware Clearcote can NOT be used on milk paint, or chalk paint. It will literally "eat up" your paint work and your hard work will disappear before your eyes - I have not had this happen to me as I knew about this incompatibility before using it but it has happened to other people that I know.  I still really love the Clearcote and would chose it every time for sealing timber table tops. It is extremely fast drying and doesn't show much brushmarks. 

If you are using paint with organic compounds (eg milk/chalk paints) then buy the Clear Sealer.  

I have also used (as a cheaper option to Porters) Cabot's Cabothane water based sealer. However this is meant to be non-yellowing over white paint but I had trouble with it on a desk painted in Dulux Fair Bianca. It literally yellowed the desk within a week. Luckily the yellowing was very uniform and the desk just looked as though it was a creamy antiqued effect but I won't trust it over white paint again. I use this now over coloured paint such as my turquoise/peacock blue pieces.

Wipe on Poly

I used to use Minwax Wipe on Poly over coloured or natural timber surface (never white as this will really yellow white paint, yep it's oil based) but I found it a lot of work to achieve the particular finish that I'm after and I now prefer the other products mentioned above. However I would not discount this as I think it can be easier to apply than the brush on sealers when you are first starting out.

Nude : No Top Coat

If you use a quality primer (I always use Zinsser) and a good quality satin or gloss paint it is also possible to not use any top coat. The glossiest paint finish I ever choose is "satin" as I prefer a matte low sheen look. My French buffet in my dining room has no top coat over the painted body. The walnut top surface is waxed. Admittedly the buffet is in a safe place behind the dining table and doesn't get touched much but the paint work is still perfect and clean bright white after 2 years.

I hope that helps you with your painting journey. I'd love to hear your feedback or any other products you use and can recommend.

See here for all my DIY tutorials in one place

cheers 

Fiona xx