In one aspect, articles employing CVD coatings deposited at low temperatures are described herein. Briefly, a coated article described herein comprises a substrate and a refractory coating adhered to the substrate, the refractory coating including a layer of TiN deposited by thermal CVD, the layer of TiN having an average crystallite size of 0.05 μm to 0.5 μm and residual tensile stress of 100 MPa to 700 MPa.