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@freemo If you're not set on a paint, you might try a wood dye. It sits in the sweet spot between fully opaque paints and natural-tone stains, in that it soaks into the wood and leaves the grain visible but comes in vivid colours. The wear resistance comes from the fact that in penetrates the wood to a certain depth, so you'd have to physically abrade the wood down by a millimetre or so before you start seeing the undyed part.

See rockler.com/transtint-dyes for an idea of the kind of colours you could get. Reminds me of shopping for fountain pen ink!