Wood has long been celebrated as a beautiful, versatile and sustainable construction material: it is easily modified, reusable and renewable [1]. Increasing its service life can be brought about by coating and, thus, protecting the wood [2]. Traditionally, solvent-borne coatings dominate the marketplace with modern solvent-borne coatings for wood being based mainly on high-solids alkyds as binders. They have advantages in their application properties, their film-build and opacity. In contrast, water-borne coatings may have had a bad start [3]; but they are the technology of choice to meet stringent environmental regulations. It has been a long-standing goal to unite application ...