What kind of paint/stain to use

I had to have a adaptation built onto DD's bunk bed because she has special needs. It was built yesterday, and they used a nice piece of plywood. I wasn't going to pay them to paint it, I will do that. The major portion of the bed has a veneer over it, in a dark wood/espresso type of color. I was going to just get paint in a matching color for it. There is one piece that they built where the wood has to "swivel" ontop of another piece of wood. I'm afraid that with regular paint, it will wear away and look awful after a short period of time. I wanted to use paint so it would give a more covered, saturated look, more uniform rather than showing the grain of the wood like stain does. Should I stain it instead of using paint? Apply a polyurethane over the stain? Can I stain it and then paint over the stain? What will give the best match to a veneer?

Re: What kind of paint/stain to use

They have solid stains that soak in, like a stain, but cover nearly all the grain, like paint. You can poly over the stain. I wouldn't paint over the stain, though.