Wood has been used for thousands of years and remains an important material in the construction industry, most often protected with coatings. Development of nanotechnology allows further improvements or new performance properties to be achieved in wood coatings. Increased UV protection with nanometal oxides that allow wood texture to remain seen and higher resilience to scratch and abrasion with use of different nanoparticle shapes are some of the applications that are reviewed here. A variety of possible applications together with a high level of improvements, alongside commercial factors like a low level of loading, have already established nanoparticles in some areas of wood coatings. This article is a comprehensive scientific review of the published work in the use of nanofillers in wood coatings.