Articles having crosslinked poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and silica nanoparticle multilayer coatings are provided. More specifically, articles including a substrate, and a multilayer coating attached to the substrate are provided. The multilayer coating includes a first crosslinked poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) layer and a first silica layer. The first crosslinked PVA layer is an outermost layer of the multilayer coating. The first silica layer comprises a plurality of acid-sintered interconnected silica nanoparticles arranged to form a continuous three-dimensional porous network. The PVA 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.