Monday 1 June 2020

How to paint tiles - how I updated my kitchen for £10

How to paint kitchen or bathroom tiles on a budget. Tips and advice on how to transform a room simply with tile paint, and give a new lease of life to a small kitchen. How to DIY your kitchen and get rid of dark or old fashioned tiles and backsplashes. DIY advice with this major project.

How painting the tiles transformed my dated kitchen on a tight budget 

Last year I'd finally had enough of my tired 1990's kitchen, and took matters into my own hands. A brand new kitchen is out of the option at the moment (I shared before exactly what I've have if I could though), but there's only so much peach tiles one person can take. 

After doing a lot of research I decided I was going to paint them. I'm not gonna lie, I've done a lot of DIY projects myself in our home, but this is the one I was most scared about going wrong, as obviously it could be a very expensive mistake. However, it's been one of the best DIY's I've done, and has completely changed the whole look of the kitchen. And the best part? It cost me less than a ten pound to do!

So I thought I'd share exactly what I did - and some tips in case you're looking to do the same thing. 

How to paint kitchen or bathroom tiles on a budget. Tips and advice on how to transform a room simply with tile paint, and give a new lease of life to a small kitchen. How to DIY your kitchen and get rid of dark or old fashioned tiles and backsplashes. DIY advice with this major project.
The rather gruesome before and much better after (I've since replaced the worktops & sink too)

To paint tiles you will need:

Tile paint - I used one of Aldi's bargain buys which was a complete steal at £4.99, but most hardware stores stock lots of different variations
Mini roller and a small paintbrush 
Lots of dust sheets
Rubber gloves
Sugar soap
Sponge for spillages 


How to paint kitchen or bathroom tiles on a budget. Tips and advice on how to transform a room simply with tile paint, and give a new lease of life to a small kitchen. How to DIY your kitchen and get rid of dark or old fashioned tiles and backsplashes. DIY advice with this major project.
                   
There's really not a lot to this one to be honest - its literally a case of painting directly onto your tiles! While its a very simple DIY, it's not a quick one at all. Although the change it makes to a space is so worth the graft.

Start by giving your tiles a really good scrub. Use sugar soap and a sponge, and make sure to get rid of all grease and grime. Taking your time on this is really important, as any muck on the surface of the tiles will prevent the paint from sticking. Once they're scrubbed clean and dried off you're ready to start.

Before you start, cover your worktops and appliances really well. Frog tape around the wall too if needed. The paint is really thick and sticky, and not easy to get rid of once dry. Wipe any spillages with a damp cloth straight away. I missed a bit on my stainless steel sink (which we've since had replaced), and it was a nightmare to get rid of once it had dried.

Because the paint is so thick, I'd recommend using a mini roller rather than a brush, as this will avoid brush strokes being visible on your tiles. I also had a small brush to hand too, for any hard-to-reach bits, such as behind the pipes of my boiler.

How to paint kitchen or bathroom tiles on a budget. Tips and advice on how to transform a room simply with tile paint, and give a new lease of life to a small kitchen. How to DIY your kitchen and get rid of dark or old fashioned tiles and backsplashes. DIY advice with this major project.

I painted straight over my grout too, but if you want your grout to be a different colour to the tiles the best thing to do is to use a grout pen, which you can find in most hardware stores. Once the paint has dried, you can then use this to literally draw the grout back in over the top.

You'll probably need to do at least two coats, particularly if your tiles are a dark colour, like mine were. I only used one can though - so it was a real bargain! My kitchen isn't very big, so bear this in mind if you've got more space, but two coats took me around 6-7 hours in total, including around an hour waiting for the first coat to dry. So while its definitely a taxing job, I'd say its worth the hard work. Just get that kettle filled up before you start!

How to paint kitchen or bathroom tiles on a budget. Tips and advice on how to transform a room simply with tile paint, and give a new lease of life to a small kitchen. How to DIY your kitchen and get rid of dark or old fashioned tiles and backsplashes. DIY advice with this major project.

Tip: The paint can be quite smelly so its best to do this with all windows/doors open - I even had my extractor fan on too

As you can tell, its made a HUGE difference in this room. Not only has it made the room look bigger and brighter, its made me feel much better about a room I absolutely hated previously - and for less than £10, you can't really go wrong can you? I'll admit, it did take me a couple of days to get used to - I shared exactly how I felt about it in this post, which I wrote straight after finishing.

Update: How the kitchen tiles have held up
It's been over a year since I did this now, and its held up really well. I had to touch up the edges a bit, but this is because I stupidly chose to have the worktops replaced a few months later. Apart from that, the paint has held well with no chips at all. If you get any mess or cooking splatters on them, simply wipe carefully with a damp cloth.

Since painting the tiles, I've made a few other DIY changes in the kitchen - I've laid a new vinyl floor and painted the cupboards, all of which have successfully transformed a very tired space on a really tight budget

How to paint kitchen or bathroom tiles on a budget. Tips and advice on how to transform a room simply with tile paint, and give a new lease of life to a small kitchen. How to DIY your kitchen and get rid of dark or old fashioned tiles and backsplashes. DIY advice with this major project.

So there you have it - how to update your kitchen simply by painting your kitchen tiles. This would also work well in a bathroom too. 

Is this something you'd consider doing in your home?

Thanks for reading,
Sam Xx
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2 comments

  1. I like your transformation and it is encouraging me to do the same in my kitchen.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What type of roller and brush did you use please.

    ReplyDelete

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