How do you mean 'normal' paint? If you go down to your local B&Q, you'll find shelves full of the stuff. If you're painting the wood in a gloss finish you'll need the relevent undercoat to go with the colour you've chosen. If it's satinwood or eggshell you can give it 2 coats.
you can use emulsion on work, though b&q do a "colours everywhere" paint, though the names now changed, which can be used on walls and wood, its great stuff too, used it all over me house, as i hate painting with gloss
the easyiest fix is to buy some acrylic paint which will do the job for you it's generally the water based paints, and you can clean you paint brush or rollers with water