I believe what you want is "gloss". Gloss is what you would have in your kitchen, it's shiny and it's easier to clean. I also believe it doesn't allow things like kitchen grease to penetrate it.

But the best thing to do is to go to Home Depot or the local equivalent.

Odd place for this forum.

I am a generally handy person, and my painting advice is prepare your surfaces well. Make sure the surfaces are clean, put on a high quality primer first, and one or two coats of your paint. Sounds like an interior job, and I prefer latex there for ease of cleanup.

Anton is on the money. Cheap paint is cheap for a reason. Quality paint is more expensive to start, but cheaper in the long run.

Good luck.

Just make sure you're dead on about that will bond better to the particular surface you have, oil or latex. I recommend going to the local hardware store and asking the nice people in the paint department what the know about latex bondage.

Ok seriously though +1 to what anton said. I used a high gloss latex in mine and its still lookin good. It was painted right after construction though so it wasnt exactly old wood like anton refered to.

Good luck.

-Alan