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Hi everyone!
When we first bought our house a few years ago we promised ourselves we’d renovate the bathroom. The tiles are too dark for an only moderately lit room, and the style slightly too contemporary for our liking.
While I’d love to re-tile, we now have a 1-year old, so cost and time are a factor. I’ve heard people can get some great results with painting the tiles but I had some questions:
1. Since we’re hoping to brighten the space, would something like White Knight require a lot of coats? The current colour is darker than those real estate photos suggest, in person they’re a sort of brown.
2. How does tile paint manage water spots on tiles? If you look at the floors you’ll see some of the discoloration I’m talking about. There are spots like that at various points around the bathroom. Would painting over it simply hide that problem?
3. I’ve also heard tile paint isn’t appropriate for floor tiles. Would it be easier to simply re-tile only the floors and paint the walls rather than trying to find a paint solution for the floors? Or alternatively could I still paint the floors outside of the shower, and install a shower base?
4. And lastly, what sort of preparation would I be looking at before applying paint? Whoever did this renovation around a decade ago did a pretty bodge job of the caulking. Should I be removing and replacing something like that for best results?
Looking forward to your advice, I honestly can’t wait to get stuck into making this space feel bright and fresh and clean!
It's great to see you posting on the community after some time, @ChristineL and many thanks for your questions.
Painting your bathroom is certainly a viable option until you complete a more thorough renovation. When painting floor tiles, you need to know that the coating can scratch off if rocks and debris are caught on the bottom of people's shoes. You could tile the floor and paint the walls, but it would be my opinion that if you were going to the effort of doing the floor, it would make sense to tile the walls at the same time.
I can highly recommend the Dulux Renovation range for both wall and floor tiles. You'll be using a primer coat and two topcoats, so that should block out the tiles' dark brown colour. The paint will also sufficiently cover those watermark stains.
You should find these step-by-step guides useful: How to paint bathroom tiles and How to paint floor tiles. Within these guides, you'll find all the necessary preparation steps. Tiles paints do not adhere to silicone, so it might be best to remove and correct any messy work before painting around it.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Mitchell
Hi @ChristineL,
Have you tackled this project yet? We'd love to hear and see an update. Let us know if we can help further.
Stevie
Hi @ChristineL
We purchased a house with fairly hideous tiles in both the main bathroom and ensuite. We recently painted out the feature tiles (Dulux Renovation Range) with a terrific result. Beware the silicone - even invisible clear smears. Paint does not want to stick! We used a shellac based primer (Zinsser BIN) to areas that we couldn’t remove. This made the silicone very “sticky “ and the topcoat adhered. Rubbing the silicone with methylated spirits also assisted with the prep. We found that the acrylic tile paint is preferable particularly in a low light situation as the oil based paint in white tends to turn cream over time. Hope this helps.
Hello @ChristineL
Just to add a bit of visual inspiration for your project. I've given your bathroom a virtual paint job. I hope that by seeing it in a brighter colour you will have a better idea of the outcome. Please keep us updated, we look forward to seeing your newly painted bathroom.
Eric
