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Not sure if this is possible without stripping back but, I have some storage boxes that were painted a while back in a basic emulsion, and it's worked alright but one of them has picked up some marks in pretty minor bumps- definitely not as tough as I'd like.
So, is there anything i can put over this admittedly not great existing paint, that won't just fall off emulsion?
Three choices really:
Quickest and cheapest - lightly sand down and re-emulsion
Lightly sand down and use a better quality emulsion, bathroom/kitchen variety maybe
Varnish
With 2 and 3 test a bit first
Emulsion used to be the primer/undercoat shortcut of choice (before water-based alternatives came along), followed by a solvent-based topcoat. The downside was that it tended to dry a bit too textured and it doesn't stick to bare wood as well as a primer-undercoat
Matt varnish maybe?
shellac
it sticks to everything
Any of the water based varnishes are fine, polyvine sell a dead flat decorators varnish which I've used before many times
I know it's pricy but Farrow and Ball Modern Emulsion is much tougher and their Estate Eggshell is tougher again but has a matt finish. Yes it's all randomly named colours but it's lasted so much better in our dining room which is the main route back and forth in our house that the extra money on paint has been worth it as we would be repainting by now if we'd used standard paint.
NB the standard Estate emulsion is nothing like so tough.
I've used spray on lacquer for this purpose, works really well. You can get Matt, satin or gloss finish.
Great, lots to go on there, thanks folks!