Have any of you painted over tiles?

[MightyMcMe]

I hate our bathroom tiles. They are a cheap brown travertine fake. The suite is white and neutral. I wondered whether we could try painting the tiles on the floor, shower and bath. Or will it just look like horrible.

[finnthepink]

I've seen it done, it looks vaguely ok but not great.

You can tile over tiles, we have just had it done. Would that be an option? It's obviously more expensive but with plain white tiles it needn't cost a fortune. Of course you still need to have the money for it!

[finnthepink]

Oh, haven't seen painted floor tiles. Only wall tiles.

[finnthepink]

I just Googled and there are lots of great ideas there for painting tiles!

[PourquoiPas]

We did it in kitchen, tiles were square but horrible. We reasoned that if it looked awful we would go with plan B of tiling over them, but it was worth the cost of a can of paint.

It looks fine, not stunning but a million times better than it did before. It cost about £20 as opposed to £500 to get it all tiled over.

[MightyMcMe]

Hadn't thought of tiling over them. I suppose you'd need fairly thin tiles? Pictures on google of painted tiles look good but doesn't always translate into real life!

[finnthepink]

I thought it was the lazy option but apparently it's completely normal! You already have a flat surface ready to go and the lines are marked out for you. We used standard tiles (boring square ones), you really can't tell.

[finnthepink]

I like pourquoi's idea though of painting it first and if it looks terrible then just tile it anyway. Wasn't an option for us as the tiles were old, holey, chipped and cracked, but if they're merely ugly then you might as well give painting a try.

[MightyMcMe]

our walls are only half tiled so might be a bit obvious if we tiled over but tiling over the floor would definitely work. Might explore paint options first though.

[mathanxiety]

I painted over bathroom tiles, but only on a wall that wouldn't get wet. The job required a special base coat to adhere to the tiles. They looked fine, but were obviously painted-over-tiles. I would not use paint on tiles that were to be exposed to water.

Can you not remove the old tiles and start again? Tiling isn't as easy as falling off a log but if you follow directions, measure and cut accurately you can get it done. Depending on the style of tile you choose, you might not even have to cut them (thinking of mosaic tiles here).

[finnthepink]

Ours are half-tiled too! You really can't tell. Obviously you fill in the top edge with filler so it's all nice and neat.

I was dubious but it looks great.

Not sure if you can double-tile floors but it won't be hard to find out.

[Mumoftwoyoungkids]

I did it. Our old tiles were this awful awful dark dark green colour. I painted them white with a small amount of light blue.

It looked surprisingly good.

I did it as a temporary measure to make it bearable whilst we worked out what to do with the bathroom and we ended up keeping it for years.

Tile paint is horrible stuff though - wear clothes that you are happy to throw away afterwards!

[Mumoftwoyoungkids]

I did it. Our old tiles were this awful awful dark dark green colour. I painted them white with a small amount of light blue.

It looked surprisingly good.

I did it as a temporary measure to make it bearable whilst we worked out what to do with the bathroom and we ended up keeping it for years.

Tile paint is horrible stuff though - wear clothes that you are happy to throw away afterwards!

[honeyroar]

We did in a kitchen, it looked good for a year then started flaking in areas that condensation. I think it would scuff off on a floor. Once you've painted them I don't thnk that you can tile on top as they stick to the paint, not the original tiles and therefore come off easily..

[Hopefully]

We painted our bathroom tiles about a year ago, as a stopgap measure until we can afford to retile. It looks miles better than the brown and green awfulness that was there before, and has hidden the hairline cracks in some of the tiles. It's obviously not as nice as new tiles, but actually it's really not bad. It did take about three coats for a good finish rather than the one coat the tin promised though.

[Hopefully]

Also our tiles are round the shower and apart from one small 1" patch have not peeled or worn at all. Don't think it would be wildly hardwearing on floors though. Saying that, our floors are painted concrete (saving for new flooring too!), and we just repaint them every few months as it chips, it's really not much hassle if you just keep going over in the same colour.

[FatGirlWithChocolate]

Hopefully - please tell me about your painted concrete? We have a concrete kitchen floor that is on its second lot of link (disastrous both times), and at this point I am scared to pay for another lot of flooring (and broke - it's a large kitchen to floor) ..so I have thought about just painting it, but scared to do that too..did you have to seal it first etc?

[FatGirlWithChocolate]

Link = lino!

[TheDonald]

I did it 10 years ago above the bath and sink and it's still fine.

I used a spray but that didn't cover very well so I painted it with tile paint.

I have proper white tiles in the shower and you can tell the paint has yellowed slightly next to them.

The main problem is that I have got a splash of hair dye on the painted ones and it's stained them whereas proper ceramic ones would wash clean.

[architecturaldecor]

You can buy a product called ESP by Owatrol, its for painting onto shiny surfaces we used it for painting old melamine furniture, its works great.

[jimijack]

I did it in the bathroom.
Looks fine.
The only thing I do is I don't use anything abrasive to clean them as I believe it can make it peel off.
Lookalike 18 months on.