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.

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.

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

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.

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.