Spray paint... no thanks...

I bought some spray paint in lovely pastel colours last night so that I could start preparing my furniture before moving into my tearoom hopefully later this month.

 So I practiced on an Ikea unit I'd bought for my bathroom which was very much the wrong colour.

Before

After

The finish was OK and I'm happy enough with it but this one unit used and entire tin of spray paint! Not very economic at £7 per tin and it was a bit messy. There was a dust in just about every room in my flat after I'd finished spraying. However it was quite easy to do and was fairly quick but I think I might resort back to tin of paint and a trusty brush. Has anyone any tips on using spray paint or ever used it with a finish that they liked?