Cheap bathroom change

[OhJustElfOff]

I have been living for several years in a modern house which came with several hideous bathrooms. They are all tiled floor to ceiling with the cheapest possible tiles the developers could afford several years ago. DH will not agree to change them due to cost as changing them will not increase the value of the house. It's a typical house on an estate made cheaply fitting in as many toileting areas as possible in a small space. Please any tips for cheaply changing the area so I can have at least one nice bathroom without ripping half the walls out

It's a tricky business. I have just transformed old fashioned white high gloss tiles with a nasty border so I have researched all the options. We decided to paint them - see below for how we did it. I'll cover the other options first. Most options work out quite expensive compared to new tiles. Wallpapering or painting are the cheapest options.

You can wallpaper over tiles - this isn't suitable in a room that gets steamy like a shower room but a downstairs toilet will be fine. Clean the walls sand them and then use a thick backing paper. Once that is dry apply your wallpaper. For best results - use tile adhesive (not grout) to fill in the lines between the tiles and create a flat surface before you apply the backing paper.

You can cover the walls with bathroom panels. You buy them in packs of 3-6, they are full height - like huge tongue and groove panels which come in marble effect or wood effect finishes. Clean the tiles and use a special glue to apply the panels. You need good cutting tools to shape the panels around sinks and loos etc. B&Q or homebase etc all have these panels and glues in stock.

You can buy big cork or polystyrene panels - you stick them to the walls and then if you want, paint them.

You can paint tiles but not if they are going to get wet all the time. So you can paint around the sinks and the walls but you should not try to paint the tiles within your shower enclosure. To paint you must clean the tiles and grout really well with a scrubbing brush and something abrasive like CIF. Then you must sand them really well - you can not skip this step otherwise the paint just won't stick. We bought a small handheld mouse sander and went over the tiles. Then fill in all the gaps in the grout and leave it to dry. Then we painted with specialist tile paint using a small tight foam roller. You might need two coats for full coverage. We only did one coat and then we used a similar coloured spray paint with some sparkle in it to go over the thin patches. This gave a natural stone effect which is really pretty. We are surprised how good it looks and we would definitely consider painting tiles again.

Personally I would prefer cheap plain tiles to ones that have been painted etc. I had one wall redone tilt-on-tile, which didn't cost much, if you don't mind losing a few millimeters.

Sorry, that should be tile-on-tile.

Wow, that's tonnes of useful info from Jenny.

I disagree with your husband. We have looked round houses with the very budget, medium size square white tiles and thought how annoying it was. The vendors were selling assuming it was "done up" but to me, they needed ripping out, so we factored the cost and inconvenience of that into what we were prepared to pay. I think upgrading from the most basic value tiles to something just a bit better would pay for itself.

Other than the tiles, I think I'd just focus on bright towels and a funky bathmat to draw the eye more to the middle of the room. Maybe a plant.

A beautiful piece of artwork (under glass) or a stunning mirror would be perfect.

Could you run to some encausted tiles on the floor? Probably a smaller area than than walls?
www.wallsandfloors.co.uk/ledbury-marina-blue-tiles?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIlZ6c_9mg4gIVicDACh0AngnbEAQYBCABEgK3v_D_BwE

Another option which I haven't used myself is tile decals, although I might limit myself to 1 area away from the shower etc
www.etsy.com/uk/listing/609892774/classic-white-marble-tiles-wall-stairs?ref=shop_home_active_26

Matalan is good for cheap bathroom mats/towels etc