Articles having poly(vinyl alcohol)-containing (PVA-containing) and silica nanoparticle multilayer coatings are provided. More specifically, articles include a substrate and a multilayer coating attached to the substrate. The multilayer coating includes a first silica layer and a first PVA-containing layer. The first silica layer is a primer layer of the multilayer coating, and the silica layer comprises a plurality of acid-sintered interconnected silica nanoparticles arranged to form a continuous three-dimensional porous network. The PVA-containing and silica nanoparticle multilayer coatings can be used on a large variety of substrates and tend to be resistant to wet and dry abrasions, scratches, and impacts.