I posted earlier that I would let you know what product I used that worked good for me. I have tried several products that are made for the outdoors but the only one that actually worked through our cold winter snow and through humid heat of the summer (and got full sunshine) was Varathane Diamond Wood Finish. See picture of the product below.

It worked wonderfully on my garden art and didn’t change the color like oil-based ones do. (below)

I used the above product on the front and back of the art board after painting it. The frame (a reclaimed antique window frame) that was painted with exterior paint cracked and peeled badly. So I have to strip the frame but the artwork is the same as when I painted it. The colors didn’t fade, either. Of course the colors were acrylic artist colors and I used ones that were not suppose to fade in light. I’ll strip and paint the frame soon and coat the frame with this stuff.  I’ll put it back out for the winter see how it holds up then.

I bought this stuff mail order about 5 years ago because our stores didn’t carry it. I just did a search on it and I think they now call it Varathane Exterior Waterborne Spar Urethane and the company is now RustOleum. They must have bought out Flecto? I hope it is the same product because I’m running low on it I really like it for things that will be left outdoors. My birdhouse and bird feeder is coated with it and looks the same as when I first put them outside at the beginning of the summer. I’m leaving them out for the winter to see if they hold up like my garden art did.

The shelf I painted with just regular exterior paint didn’t hold up at all.  I have to take the heat gun to it and strip it down and repaint it.  This time I’ll top coat it with a couple of coats of this stuff.  It sure would be nice to only have to do this work once and have it last for years.  That’s a tall order when you live in an area with extremes between icy snow and humid heat.