Painting Tiles

Hi. Have you looked into reglazing? The previous owners of my house painted everything 3 times and it looks bad. There are 3 different paint colors on my bathroom tile and I have to replace them. Home Depot and Lowe's might have tile paint but reglazing is done in a day. Good Luck

I have seen it done on one of the home improvement shows I've watched, so I know it's possible. Good luck!

M.,

My brother and I run a small painting company and we have done this a few times. Take my advice and go to Sherwin-Williams. They have an epoxy for tile that works wonders (I don't remember the name of the product). It is not guaranteed for use in shower stalls (due to constant water) but we used it years ago in a shower stall at a house that we do odd jobs in and it still looks good there to this day. The product requires mixing and after it is applied it dries hard as a rock.

If this product doesn't appeal to you I would recommend you still go to Sherwin-Williams or MAB as opposed to Home Depot or Lowes. While there are some very sharp guys working in the paint dept at HD and Lowes there are also a couple guys who don't know anything more than you do. SW and MAB (along with some other paint specialty stores) don't have as many unqualified people to screw you up. Also, SW's product quality is way higher that the rest and believe me I have used them all extensively.

You can paint tiles, there is special paint for this. I have a friend who did this and it turned out beautifully! I would recommend giong to a home improvement store and asking them what type of paint to use, i beleive it may have been a spray paint. good luck!

It is definitely possible. I thought I had the ugliest bathroom (Pepto Bismol pink with some horrid baby blue) until we sold the house to my husband's brother. He redid the bathroom and painted over all the tile. It turned out very nice. There was a special paint he used- got it at Lowes if I recall correctly.

I actually have a friend who did this a couple of years ago and she was told to use boat paint. As in, special paint just for the outside of boats - it is super shiny and very water resistant obviously!! :) Hope that helps!

I recall seeing on an HGTV show (Designed to Sell) that you can paint on tile...they painted a pepto pink bathroom a clean white...it looked great. Might want to check some paint stores and ask them!

I don't know about painting tiles but my mom just recently used drawer liner to put some color on her tiles in the kitchen and it turned out great. Hope you can find something that works. Good luck

Hi M., Yes, you can paint over ugly ties...it's actually called re-glazing I believe. I saw them do it on a couple of home impovement shows on either DIY or HGTV. Check out the DIY web site or the HGTV web site. In the show I'm remembering they took the uglist pink tile and made it a netural cream color. Honestly I don't remember if they hired a professional or not. Hope this helps you a bit! Good luck

Yes! We painted our kitchen backsplash because of the fruit motif (not my style). The most important thing is the primer! Choose an oil-based primer such as Zinnser's 1-2-3, which they say will stick to any surface. You will have to wait until it dries with each application (we did two), then lightly sand in between to take out any streaks or uneven brush/roller strokes. Then you'll want to choose a semi-gloss or gloss finish paint (can be regular latex paint - Behr, etc.) for the bathroom b/c of the moisture. Two coats should look great! It was our inexpensive fix and we love it! Good luck . . .

at.

Yes1 there is this stuff called tile glaze. you can get it at any home improvement store or maybe even paint stores. I had it done in my kitchen! It's not regular paint. I don't think that paint would work....try the glaze.

I have heard that you can paint over tiles, it is tedious work but it can be done. I worked on a construction site for some time and we did reglazing in bathrooms, suprisingly inexpensive and your bathroom will be out of commission for less time in the long run.
If it is something you are interested in let me know maybe i can help you research for a local company or give you the name of the company i used , they may do residential as well.
Best of luck.

You can hire a company like Avalon tub and tile and they will spray the tile with a glaze. They can also do the tub. It is almost a rubbery surface. White looks best because you don't notice that there is no grout. It costs a few hundred to maybe in the thousands depending on the size of your bathroom. It is guaranteed for five years but trust me this isn't a permanent solution. We did it and now after ten years it is peeling off. However it saved us a huge amount of money and bought us some time. We plan to gut the darn thing in the next five years. Best of luck to you! It really looks good when a professional does it, but it is a five-seven year solution.

Wow I thought I had the ugliest bathroom. Pink tub, pink sink, pink tile and pink floor. I too wanted to paint them and talked to many people. At home depot and lowes they said you could try different paints but most would not work. I ended up just dealing with it and then gutted the bathroom when we had the money. Sorry that is not what you wanted to here. Try going to Sherman Williams or another paint store and see what they say. Good luck.

Hi M.,
My nephew used to work at Lowe's in the paint department and he's told us before (we have an ugly bathroom too) that it is absolutely possible to paint over tiles. I don't know the details, but I'd suggest going to Lowe's or Home Depot and asking the guys at the paint department. They've always been very informative and helpful.

Good Luck!

Hi M.. I have a similiar problem (horrible all tile master bathroom). We are getting our tile "re-glazed." They can change the color, grout, etc. at a fraction of the cost of ripping it out and re-drywalling. I think its an enamal or acrylic overlay on top of the existing tile. We are going to get estimates from the "Miracle Method" people. If you google them, they have a website with before and after shots. Hope this helps!!

Hi M.,
Oh noooooooo!!!! Sounds like you have what we called a "Grammy bathroom"! Our "Grammy bathroom" was SKY BLUE with BLACK trim!!
And of course, The Rule of The Grammy Bathrooms: the uglier the tile color is, the better the condition of the tile is in making it even harder to justify sending it all to the dump! LOL
I'm not sure about painting over it and it might just make it worse. What I've seen done & I think it works best is to just basically ignore the tile colors and work around it without clashing. Sorry--no real advice for you--I can just relate.

There's special paint for tiles. Just ask someone at the hardware store about it. We painted our bathroom tiles as well....since they were urine yellowish green and dark green...yeah....yuck!! Worked great for us!!

I am sure that the home improvemenet stores would have something. A friend told me she had a friend that painted hers and it looked wonderful. You could also look online. I saw them on hgtv cover over the tiles with beaded board or the special paneling for the bathroom. They also used wood to form a chair rail around the top. We used the bathroom paneling at our old house and we also found a easy fake wood for the top. I looked like the wood for a chair rail. I think it was made out of a heavy plastic stuff. It was easy to cut and you could even paint over it. . Our bathroom is form the 50's. we are going to reddo it and I may us the beaded board and paint it. The bathroom is yellow with black tile as the border. The sink tub and toilet are light pee green. The best part is the tub is so low you can't even get a nice bath in it. You amy also want to do a search on the web. I did the bathrommin rubby ducks. I was thinking about a steeler bathromm but did not want it in the off season. . Good luck and I thought I would throw in a couple other ideas that you may like.
B.

You can definatelt paint over it. Just make sure you get that type of paint, if you do not it will not hold up as well, and look yucky. Ask someone at Lowes what paint to use.

Lowes sells a paint specifically for tile. Not sure how it looks because I am a fraid to make bad worse. Good Luck!

HI, You can have the tiles re-glazed. Look in the yellow pages for tile people, or the guys who redo bathtubs. We had our bathtub re-glazed, and it looks new. And a friend of mine had a whole kitchen with this awful brown tile - she had it reglazed white for a few hundred dollars, and it looks gorgeous. If you don't want ti hire someone to do it, I'm sure you could ask the tile guys what product to use and try to do it yourself.

I don't know about painting, but a good option is reglazing.Basically, they spray a thin layer of liquid porcelain on whatever surface you want-tiles, or tubs, or whatever. You get a sparkling new surface, and they can make it any color.I priced getting our tub reglazed, and it would be about $250 versus $1000 + for a new tub. I don't know of anyone specifically to recommend, But you can Google "reglazing" to learn more about it.Hope that helps!
S.

Its hard to do big projects when you have little ones around the house, right? I now my brother in law painted the grout in his bathroom and I'm pretty sure you can paint the tile also. You should go into your local painting store- I prefer my Sherwin Williams, and ask them for tile paint. Good luck with it because it will probably be a lot work.