What would you do with mustard yellow tiles in a kitchen?

[lollilou]

We are moving to a house with mustard yellow wall tiles in the kitchen. I really don't like yellow in any shade. We can't afford to re-tile. Could we paint them? Has anyone tried this, can you get a good finish? Thanks.

[Devora]

Oh, I would LOVE mustard yellow wall tiles - I'm so jealous!

But I'm not you, so to be more constructive: I painted over about a zillion dark crimson wall tiles in my kitchen. The key to a good finish is:

• prepping well. My tiles were quite absorbent, and it was quite a job to get the grease scrubbed out.
  

• use either a proper tile paint or a specialist primer followed by a hardwearing paint.
  

• decide whether you can be arsed to deal with groutlines. Nancy is probably right that painting over looks shit, but I did that anyway. I thought masking a zillion tiles would be hugely time-consuming and if it didn't go well could look worse. I may have felt differently if I had fewer tiles.
  

• you may need to do a number of thin coats. Don't be tempted to speed up the process by painting thickly; this kind of paint is really, really drippy.

[BikeRunSki]

Paint them white, then the grout lines won't be so obvious.

[Devora]

Yes, I've painted tiles different colours in my time, and I have to say plain gloss white is by far the most effective. White just doesn't get noticed, and the gloss kind of disguises the texture contrast between tile and grout.

[lollilou]

Thanks everyone. I was thinking white (also hoping not to paint around grout!). I'll try and post a photo of yellow tiles. The kitchen has blue checked lino, yellow walls and blue doors! Kitchen units are white so that's good. The whole house needs doing so I will be back with more decorating questions.