There are many wonderful pieces of unfinished furniture that you can purchase quite reasonably. They are well built and will serve you well for a very long time. I bought chairs, a small table, bookcase and a small stool (for the bathroom) at my local hardware store and painted them in enamel paint in bright primary colors for my children to use. I put decals of the children’s names on the back of the chairs and each child’s name on one of the shelves of the bookcase. That way each child had their own shelf to keep their books, crayons and other things neat and up off the floor.  The enamel paint created a strong surface that was washable and resisted bumps, bangs and chips.