To the baby pink bathroom lovers out there… I am sorry. I know that some bathrooms like ours are looked at as vintage… and should be preserved as such. I, however, could not walk into our pink half bath to brush my teeth, without cringing at the color. Other than the tile color, it really is in great shape, and so we had no intentions of gutting the bathroom, but instead, giving it a bit of a makeover. We had friends who painted their tile and it turned out great, so we thought, why not give it a shot. Keep reading for our bathroom transformation!
*full disclosure we are not experts* I am merely writing this to share our experience.
Let’s Talk Supplies:
- Rustoleum Tub & Tile Refinishing Kit
- Bleach, Comet & Lime-A-Way (Yes, all three).
- 400/600 Grit Sandpaper
- Abrasive Sponge
- Tack Cloths
- Foam Brushes and Rollers
- Respirator (This paint stinks!)
We started with removing the toilet. Well, we called my dad to remove the toilet. For whatever reason, removing our toilet may have been the hardest part of this entire experience… remember, I said we are not experts. So feel free to laugh now. 🙂
We used Rustoleum Tub & Tile Refinishing Kit, and let me just say, this stuff rocks. It has very detailed instructions in how to prep, paint and care for the treated tile.
Prep:
- Clean entire surface with Bleach to remove any mildew
- Rinse
- Scrub entire surface with Comet
- Rinse
- Clean entire surface with abrasive sponge and Lime-A-Way
- Rinse
We did the last step twice and let the tile dry (just to be safe). Don’t fret… there is still more prep to go. I just wanted to take a quick break here to say all of the preparation is worth it. Who knows how it would have turned out had we skipped a step.
- Sand entire surface with 400/600 grit sandpaper
- Rinse and allow surface to dry
- Wipe entire surface with tack cloth to remove any residue
Whoop whoop! You tired yet? The prep may have been the longest part. But now we can get to painting! I will share one oops, we were not properly ventilated before and during painting. This bathroom is small… with one window. We always had the door and window open, but we ended up having to add a fan and opening up every window in our bedroom as well. This paint is no joke, it has a horrendous smell. We slept on the couch during this entire process just to avoid the smell.
Paint:
- Mix Part A & B of your tile kit thoroughly
- Tape off any areas you do not want to get paint on
- Do the damn thing!
This was after two coats of the paint.
We ended up doing three coats in our bathroom, and waited 24 hours in between each coat. (This is not necessary, the box said to allow one hour before reapplying.) We did not start early enough to make this a one day job, unfortunately. This required two boxes of the paint kit. We did three coats as we did not want any sort of color peeking through.
Next, we laid peel-stick tile. I have to admit, this stuff is not my favorite, but wow it looks good. Let me be honest again, I did not lay the tile… this was definitely all Corey. Laying the tile took a lot of effort and a lot of time was spent watching Youtube videos of other people doing it.
Cutting the tile was easy with a box cutter, our floor is not very big so measuring/cutting did not take as much time as expected. Now, with a bigger space, this may take awhile.
We prepped our floor the same exact way we prepped our tile for the paint (probably not necessary, but we thought, why not?). & Corey laid away, measuring and cutting as he went. When we would come across tile not sticking we grabbed my hair dryer and heat the tile up. This would probably be more effective with a heat gun, but hey, we had what we had. I have to say, for under $100, we are very happy with our transformation.
Have you ever painted tile? Laid peel stick floor? Comment your experience below! Plan on doing it yourself? Leave any questions & I will do my best to answer them!
No Comments