Painting floor tiles - any advice?

[EmmaGrundyForPM]

We've recently moved into an Edwardian house with original floors, including a tiled floor in the kitchen. The tiles are a mix of reddish and yellowish, and are big. They look awful but we can't afford to replace the floor at the moment.

I'm considering painting them, but don't know if it's worth the effort. Has anyone painted floor tiles? Any tips?

I rather like them!

I've read up on tile painting as considered it for my bathroom but despite looking good it seems to need constant maintenance and touch ups. Kitchen is a very high traffic area, lots of chair scraping etc.

You could try vinyl tile stickers but as your tiles aren't flat they might not adhere well.

Thank you. Yes I worried about the wear on a kitchen floor. I looked at RustOleum paints which claim they are very hard-wearing on the floor.

We are having the kitchen painted and new blinds, but can't afford to refloor but it's really difficult to choose blinds etc with these floor tiles.

I quite like those tiles but I often see them in houses where the type of kitchen installed really clashes with them. They work best with a simple country kitchen with clean lines in cream/linen colours.

Rather than the hard work and hassle of maintaining floor paint, I would suggest trying to chose a colour to paint your cupboards that works well with the tiles. You may find you hate them far less when things don't clash. Then save up for completely new flooring.

I’d just change the colour of the grouting.

I really like them. Agree with the advice about making the other colours work with them. They are original tiles and already quite historical.

Honestly, it's not worth the hassle and if they are in original and in such good shape maybe revive them by regrouting and making them work with other room colours:
They look beautiful.

Thanks everyone. Sadly I don't think they're beautiful 🤣. In real life the colours are quite jarring. But maybe I need to live with them until we can afford to redo the kitchen.

People always used to paint quarry tiles. Our house has got them and if I mop them the paint comes off - and on white socks etc!

If you really hate them then cover them up with rugs for now. I wouldn’t bother trying to paint as it will chip and look worse.

Rust oleum is great stuff, but even with how strong that is, not sure how it would stand up to chairs being scraped on it etc. I would clean the tiles up and leave them be tbh until I could afford new flooring. Once the kitchen is painted and new blinds are up, you might not be as focused on the floor. I do get what you mean about quarry tiles they do make a kitchen look dark. I actually had them put in a kitchen years ago, never again.

Nooooo! Don't paint floor tiles! The paint will wear off in the high traffic areas and they will look much much worse.
Those are beautiful original terracotta tiles that will look great with a professional clean and seal. If the old grout still looks grey and patchy after a professional clean there are some great grout colourant products available now (look up Aquamix grout colourant) that can be painted over the old patchy grout lines and will revive your whole floor. My DH does this for a living so I'm well versed in the options available for this type of flooring. If you really really hate them then get them ripped up and replaced, don't paint them.

They are terracotta tiles look beautiful needs a good clean and polish may be

Thanks everyone for your advice. The tiles really don't look that great IRL but I take the point about paint not being robust enough.

Maybe I'll just have to learn to live with them!