Painting tiles

[WinterAndRoughWeather]

Hi everyone, I’m on the hunt for advice about tile paint.

Last year I stumbled across an old, abandoned restaurant where every wall had been covered in cheap white tiles which had then been beautifully hand painted with all kinds of designs - people, animals, birds, plants and flowers, phrases and mottoes. It was amazing, and the work of years (it was signed and dated in various places).

It’s something I’d like to replicate on a small scale, but I have no idea what type of paint this person used. It must have been very hard wearing and washable, because it was in the kitchen and bathrooms as well. There were lots of bright colours and even metallics.

I’ve tried googling it but I’m just getting a load of stuff about DIY store tile paint or painting tiles to make ornaments.

Anyone got any thoughts? Would it have been painted then sealed maybe?

Thanks!

[SoupDragon]

Its possible they were painted as "bisque" tiles and then glazed and fired - like the pottery painting cafe places do.

You can get ceramic paints which are either cold setting or you bake in the oven (but it's been a good while since I did that so may be misremembering the oven bit!)

I'm not sure how hard wearing anything other than the fired version is though.

[WinterAndRoughWeather]

Thanks SoupDragon

They definitely weren’t bisque then fired - one of the rooms (a wine cellar, if you please!) had only the outlines of the design. It was clear these murals were all painted in situ. Also there was a pile of unused white tiles outside - just bog standard glazed ceramic.

I wonder whether enamel paints would work? It looked like enamel paint.

I’ll see if I can upload a pic, it was an amazing place.

[wowfudge]

You can buy porcelain and glass paints which work on different surfaces. Some of them are available as felt tip pens. They are washable once dried and if you bake them in the oven they stand up to going in the dishwasher.

[WinterAndRoughWeather]

Thanks wowfudge, that sounds like a strong possibility.

[WinterAndRoughWeather]

I thought I’d posted some pictures - where did they go?

[WinterAndRoughWeather]

Another go:

[wowfudge]

They may not have been painted in situ - there's an episode of Escape to the Chateau DIY where one of the chateau owners paints her own peacock design on tiles and fires them in a kiln before they're fitted in a shower. She drew the design on a large piece of paper then gridded it so she could see which part of the design went on each tile, sketched it on to the tiles then painted them. It's something I'd love to do.

[WinterAndRoughWeather]

Did she paint them on glazed tiles or bisque?

I’m pretty sure these were done in situ - every wall of the place (and it’s huge) was done like this, and one room had only outlines of a mural. It looked like it had been started but abandoned.

[wowfudge]

I can't remember, but I think it was Amy at Chateau de Rosieres who did it. All the episodes are on the 4 hub. Pretty sure it wasn't the first series as I've watched that recently.

[WinterAndRoughWeather]

Thanks. Yes I’ve seen the first series of that but not any of the others. I’ll see if I can find a clip.

[wowfudge]

I think it must be in the third or fourth series as I've now watched the whole second series - I hadn't realised there were so many episodes I hadn't seen or had only seen bits of.

[wowfudge]

@WinterAndRoughWeather it's Series 3, episode 5. Amy's on twitter, etc. although she does have a three month old baby so I'm not sure how responsive she is to ask her for details.

[WinterAndRoughWeather]

Brill, thanks for tracking it down, I’ll look it up.

This is for a project for next year but I don’t know whether to attempt the painting myself or draft in my sister who is a much better artist.