Painting furniture

[Coconutter]

Cant afford new stuff for the bedroom and want to update it. Tis at the moment rather boring pine, which isn't that attractive. A friend painted hers with cream chalk paint, which gives a lovely vintagey feel, but as I use the chest of drawers as a dressing table I'm worried it'd get damaged and look rubbish quite quickly. Is there an alternative, or some kind of non-shiny protective coating I could put over the top?

Have a piece of glass cut to fit, with polished edges.

It will give a slight greenish / glass tinge on top of cream but if you don't like that you could put something decorative under the glass - wallpaper or fabric, or just use it to protect the paint.

Thanks. Had thought of that but worried it'd be a) expensive, and b) collect shed loads of dust Would rather paint something on it if I can...