Tile paint - is it worth it?

[MrsMuddle]

We have blue, cream, green and terracotta-coloured tiles in the kitchen, and the units are cream-ish, the floor tiles and beige-ish and the walls are sand-ish. The whole room is a bit insipid. (It was like that when we moved in!) I want to paint the walls a nice bright colour, but not one that goes with the tiles. Rather than re-tile, I thought I'd use tile paint. DH thinks it will look crap, and we'd be better re-tiling, but we've been here 4 years and haven't even done the essential jobs yet, so the chances of us getting a tiler, choosing tiles etc are remote. Grudgingly, he's away to B&Q to get tile paint. Has anyone used it? Post your success stories and your disaster stories here please.

I found it to be crap and flaked off almost straight away, but probably didn't help that it was bathroom tiles and they had a raised flowery pattern on them (which is what I was trying to get rid of!).

Might have been more successful on flat tiles in a drier room. They were also very glossy tiles, so nothing for the paint to grip to. Ended up picking it off - luckily I had only done a small area. Can't remember the brand, but it was a spray can. Good luck!

when we movied into our hose one of the first things we did as a temporary measure is paint our kitchen tiles and the cabinets, the wall were a horrible burnt orange colour, the tiles were yellow and orange, and the units were sort of an orangeish wood effect. in other words nasty had to paint over the walls the cabinet doors and the tiles. The tile paint worked for two years but is a bit scrathed up now but we are getting a new kitchen soon. (yippie) I would say its worth a try and cheaper as a quick fix when you dont want to mess about with tiles just yet. good luck

oh god sorry about the typing i'm way too tired for this. Living in plague house of various coughs and runny noses.

We used it in our old house, in the kitchen and found it fine. It covered up some truly hideous tiles for several years - we just used a creamish colour; think dp did three coats of it.

The key to success IMO is to ensure you end up with white grout. Also preparation is vital - the tiles must be completely clean and dust/grease free.

DId this in our old bathroom which had brown rippled tiles interspersed with an embossed flower pattern. I stuck tile transfers over the patterend ones to disguise them and it was wonderful. Did it to sell the house so do't know how well it lasted! As a cheap quick fix it's fine I think.

Soup dragon - I wondered about the grout. Do you paint each tile individually, or just paint the whole expanse then rewhiten the grout IYSWIM?

He's back from B&Q now with a HORRIBLE shade of blue tile paint!! It'll have to go back. Thanks for all your advice. I'll have to think about whether to bother going ahead or not. The thought of cleaning the tiles thoroughly has put me off a bit. Can you tell I'm a bit slovenly about the house??

Not sure about the grout - I painted my tiles white You can get stuff to whiten grout though - not sure how it works on painted grout (ie does it stick)

For us it was a question of money and it was a lot cheaper to paint the tiles than to replace them all. Its not perfect but its a lot better than they looked before. I painted my kitchen about 8 years ago and its fine although it has started to peel slightly just around the sink area. My bathroom i painted about 5 years ago and its has started to peel in those area where it gets wet but otherwise its ok. I found it easiest to paint over the grout and then go over it with a grout whitening pen afterwards.

If money wasn't an issue though I would definately retile rather than paint

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!Better to buy some plain inexpensive tiles It looks terrible imo.