The Best and Worst Top Coats for Black Painted Furniture

I’m sharing the best furniture sealers for black painted furniture that won’t leave a white film or streaky finish along with the sealers you should avoid. Plus get tips for applying your sealer for a perfect finish every time.

It’s a bit of a cruel irony that two of the most popular paint colors for furniture, white and black, are also the two colors that are the hardest to get right.

Recently I did an extensive test to find out what furniture sealer works best for sealing white furniture without yellowing. And as soon as I finished the test, I immediately started plans to do the same thing for black furniture. Because while you don’t have to worry about yellowing with black paint, there are other issues that can quickly ruin your entire paint finish.

When I first started painting furniture, I struggled every time I sealed a piece of dark furniture. The finish would often turn out milky or streaky and not at all like the crisp black I envisioned. To be honest, it still happens occasionally when I use certain topcoats, so I decided it was time to finally figure out the best topcoat for sealing dark furniture.

I tested eight different furniture sealers over black paint and I’m excited to share which ones are easy to apply, give a durable finish, and most importantly, give a crystal clear streak-free finish over black paint.

And yes, I’ll also be sharing the sealers that performed the worst and I would definitely not recommend.

I also created a Youtube video of this sealer test. If you’d rather watch the video, you can find it at the bottom of this post!

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If you’re wondering if there’s a difference between a furniture sealer, a clear coat, and a top coat, they are all different names for the same thing and can be used interchangeably.

Do you even need a topcoat over painted furniture?

Before we get into which topcoats look beautiful over black paint and which topcoats can ruin your entire project, I want to talk about why we need a topcoat at all.

You don’t always have to put a sealer over your painted furniture.

Some furniture paints are fairly durable on their own and you can skip all the angst of applying a sealer all together. But other paints including pretty much every chalk paint require a separate topcoat to protect the paint from chipping and staining. If you aren’t sure if your paint requires a separate sealer or topcoat, you can check the instructions on your paint can.

Even if you are using a paint that doesn’t require a separate topcoat, you might want to consider using one anyway.

Any time you are painting a tabletop, bookshelf, dresser, or other piece of furniture that’s going to be touched frequently, it’s a good idea to use a topcoat to help protect the finish.

How to apply sealer without streaks

Even if you use the best possible furniture sealer, you can’t get a beautiful crystal clear finish if you don’t apply it correctly. There are several things you can do to make sure that your finished furniture looks amazing.

Check the temperature

You may be wondering what the weather has to do with applying sealer, but you’ll find that every sealer includes an ideal temperature range on the can. If you try to apply sealer when it is too hot, too cold, or even too humid, the results can be pretty unpredictable. Extreme temperatures can cause your sealer to separate and become difficult to use.

Stir your sealer well

Before applying your sealer, make sure that you stir it well. While you can shake paint to stir it, you should never shake sealer because that can lead to bubbles in your finish.

Apply thin coats

Then apply it in very thin coats. You want just enough sealer on your brush or sponge that it glides on smoothly. It should leave your finish looking shiny and damp, but not thick, drippy, or bubbly.

Using thick coats of sealer can cause your sealer to leave a whitish film over your black paint rather than drying clear.

You can apply sealer using a good paintbrush, a clean rag, or a sponge applicator. Personally, I’m a big fan of using a blue sponge applicator to apply sealer because it helps keep the coats quite thin and also gives a very smooth finish.

Mix in a bit of your paint

If you are keeping your coats of sealer thin, but are still struggling with it leaving a whitish film, you can stir just a bit of your black paint into your sealer. You only need a small amount – aim for around 10% paint, 90% sealer. This will give your sealer a darker tint that can help prevent it from looking whitish over your paint.

(If you use one of the sealers I recommend below, you shouldn’t need to do this, but it always helps to have an extra trick up your sleeve if things just aren’t going right.)

What makes a great sealer for black paint

Now that you know all the tricks for applying sealer well, let’s dive into which sealers are best.

How I tested the furniture sealers

I chose eight furniture sealers for this test. I included my own favorite furniture sealers as well as sealers I see recommended often by other furniture painters. I’ve tried to include a wide range of options including more expensive sealers from specialty paint lines as well as budget sealers you can find in local stores.

You may notice that I tested General Finishes Topcoat in 2 different sheens. I had noticed that the two sheens seemed to have a lot of differences, especially over dark paint so I thought it would be best to test them separately. And I’m very glad I did because they each gave very different results!

I decided the best way to keep things fair was to test each sealer on the same piece of furniture.

I started with this old wooden footboard I found on the side of the road. (It actually goes with the headboard I used to find the best sealers for white furniture.)

I started by cleaning my footboard and painting it with two coats of jet black paint.

Then I used painter’s tape to divide the footboard into eight sections – one for each of the sealers. I labeled each section so I could keep track of what went where and started applying the sealers.

At first, I was extra careful as I applied each sealer and made sure to carefully wipe away any bubbles or streaky sections. But then I realized that I would get better results if I treated each sealer the same. So for the second and third coats, I still used best practices and stirred my sealer well and applied very thin coats. But I didn’t do any extra work to correct problems as I went. I wanted to see how the sealers went on if I didn’t spend lots of extra time and effort babying them.

Testing for a clear streak-free finish

The first thing I wanted to know is which sealers left a crystal-clear streak-free finish over the black paint. As soon as the sealers dried, I could see huge differences in the finishes.

Sadly, the General Finishes High Performance Topcoat in Dead Flat left a very grayish, streaky finish. It was noticeably much grayer than the rest of the headboard, especially at certain angles.

The Varathane Water-Based Polyurethane also left a slightly gray, slightly streaky finish though it wasn’t quite as bad.

The Beyond Paint Multi-Purpose Sealer had no graying but there were visible stripes in the finish. This was one of the more difficult sealers to apply evenly and it really shows in the final finish.

And finally, I wasn’t a fan of the Minwax Fast-Drying Polyurethane. It was a bit more difficult to apply than the water-based products and the finish continues to have a slightly oily feel even after it was completely dry. It also developed a reaction to something in the paint finish that looks a bit like snowflake crystals on a window.

So while it didn’t leave a gray or streaky finish, it was just more difficult to work with and I didn’t love the results.

The scratch test

It takes most sealers a few weeks to fully harden so I made sure to give the sealers plenty of time before doing the scratch test. In fact life got busy, and they had a full three months to cure before this test.

For this test, I took a regular old screwdriver and scratched up each sealer. Obviously, you aren’t likely to be scratching your own furniture with a screwdriver, but I wanted to test just how well these sealers could protect against extreme use.

The water ring test

The final test I wanted to do was a test to see which finishes would show water rings and water spots. I left a glass of cold water along with a small water puddle on each section of the headboard for two hours. Then I came back and wiped the water off to see if the finish was affected.

Most of the sealers did extremely well in the water test.

There was one sealer that had a just barely visible circle where the glass had been: Beyond Paint Multipurpose Sealer. This water ring was so faint, it isn’t visible in photographs at all.

But the real dud was General Finishes High Performance Topcoat in the Dead Flat finish. It had a very visible and distinct water ring as well as water marks where the water had pooled on the surface.

The best sealers for black painted furniture

When I put the results of each of these tests together alongside my own years of experience painting furniture, there are some clear winners and losers.

I’ll share my picks for best and worst here and then go into more detail about each sealer.

There are three sealers that really stood out above the rest:

There were also a few middle of the road sealers as well as three sealers I really don’t recommend using over dark paint colors. That doesn’t mean it is impossible to have great results using these sealers, it simply means there are better options out there.

Here is the full breakdown of how each sealer did:

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So now you too know pretty much all there is to know about sealing black painted furniture! If you use one of the sealers I recommended and follow the tips above, I feel very confident you’re painted furniture will look amazing for years to come. And if you run into any problems with your sealer, feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I’m happy to help troubleshoot!

Video

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