Furniture, Wood and Cabinetry Finishing - top coat for painted kitchen table

I painted my kitchen table and as a top coat I used polycrylic. I cleaned my table with fantastic and it made stains where I had sprayed the cleaner. Is there something else I can use as a top coat that can withstand cleaner and kids if I have already used polycrylic?
I want it to have a finish like it did when I bought it....very durable.

Welcome to the forums Catherine

Latex enamels and water based polys don't dry to as hard a finish as their oil base counterparts. I'd suggest sanding the table and applying a coat or 2 of your desired color in a quality oil base or waterborne [not latex] enamel. You could also use an oil base polyurathane but it WILL change the color of the paint underneath [yellow/amber]

Water-borne finishes often take 7 days to reach full durability.

Thanks for your comments. Someone told me that putting something hard over something soft will cause problems (in case I don't sand the polycrylic completely off). This gentleman told me to use an interior barathane-not sure if I spelled that right or what's called stays clear from Ben Moore. What are your thoughts.

Sorry just realized it is varathane not barathane. Will that be compatable with the polycrylic? I will try and sand as much of the polycrylic off as I can.

Varathane is basically an oil base varnish/polyurathane. It can be applied over the polycrylic but it would be a good idea to sand off what you can. Depending on the color of paint you have used it will change the color some - most notably it will yellow it some, it may also darken the color a little.

Benjamin Moore has many quality coatings.

So will this be okay

Personally I believe sanding down the polycrylic and applying 1-2 coats of a quality waterborne or oil base enamel would be best. That way if you need to recoat later on it is no big deal. Having poly or varnish over the paint makes repainting more complicated. Other than that there is no problem with what you propose.

Sorry to keep bothering you! Does enamel come as color or clear? Do you have a specific type of enamel that you think is best? And what are the pros/cons to waterborne vs. oil based? Will enamel change the color like the varathane?

Basically there are 2 types of interior paint - flat and enamel. Flat paint is what's most often used on walls and ceilings and isn't as durable/washable as an enamel. Enamels come is several sheens - satin, semi-gloss and gloss are the most popular. As with all paints there are many different grades [quality] of enamel. As with all paints, the better the quality, the better it will wear and even apply easier.

Any color you can get in flat latex, you can also get in an enamel. Oil base enamel has the hardest surface = long wear, scrubability. Waterborne dries almost as hard as oil base but won't yellow any as it ages. Latex enamels don't dry as hard and the cheaper ones may chip and peel with abuse - oil base and waterborne may chip but shouldn't peel.

Waterborne is generally more expensive than oil base but it cleans up with water and dries faster than oil. Also the odor isn't as offensive as oil base.

SWP's proclassic waterborne is my first choice for enamel but there are many other quality enamels to chose from. If you go to a real paint store and buy their top line coatings you can't go wrong.

Thanks for your help. I went to Sherwin Williams and the proclassic waterborne was not available in black. So he directed me to a oil based enamel. I have put that on and my chairs don't look so good since I had to roll and brush them. I was wondering if I could use a can of rust-oleum protective enamel on the top to give it a cleaner look. Is it okay to use over the oil based enamel?

You can apply oil base rustoleum over the oil base SWP.

The SWP will probably dry to a harder finish than the rustoleum will = SWP should wear longer. You might try thinning the SWP enamel a little so it will flow better. Don't forget to resand the chairs ;)