A polyacrylate/polyurethane (P(A) / P(U)) composite coating has been prepared bycrosslinking an acetoacetylated polyacrylate with a vinylic group terminated polyurethaneat room temperature. A model Michael reaction between ethyl acetoacetate (EAA) andmethyl acrylate (MA) was designed to study the crosslinking mechanism. It was foundthat the two active hydrogen atoms in acetoacetyl group can both add to vinylic groupsand the yield of mono- and bis-adducts are much affected by the molar ratio of acetoacetyl to vinylic groups.Higher crosslinking degree and better properties could be obtained with decreasing the molar ratio of the two active groups from 1/1 to 0.6/1 in the composite coatings.