As the holidays arrive at lightning speed, so do our friends and relatives.  Sometime you want a quick update here and there especially in your kitchen or bathrooms where your guests will surely frequent.  Painting dated tile is a fast way to update the look of a room without having to bring in a crew for 3 days to demolition, and install.  You do have better things to do like shopping and cooking right?  In this blog we will take you through the steps of this quick update and show you some recent results from a client.

Before Photo:

 

 

After Photo:

 

The first step is to decide if you want to attempt a DYI project or hire a professional painter.  Unless you are a very confident painter we suggest hiring a painter.  The job can be done in one day which won’t tie you down to the house or cost you a small fortune.

The next step is to prep the tile by sanding with 100 Grit Sandpaper lightly after a thorough cleaning.  After sanding, the tile will need to be wiped with a damp cloth and dried.

There are then a few choices to make for the paint and primer.  If you are painting with color, the Jigsaw Designers suggest using high quality paint like Benjamin Moore Advanced Waterbase Paint.  The finish is smooth and glossy and can be applied with a brush or roller once the tile has been primed.  Be sure to use a primer that is suggested for tile or porcelain surfaces.  Go Prime Primer or Zinsser are both good quality ‘glossy surface’ primers for this type of job and can be applied with a roller.  Most primers should dry for about 3 hours.  After the primer has dried, then a second sanding is best with 220 grade grit.  Followed by a damp cloth to pick up any remaining dust.

Now that your tile is sanded and primed, the last step before painting is to tape and paper everything in the area.  Cabinets, counters, appliances, facets all need to be thoroughly covered by brown paper and low tack tape.

All white homes and kitchens are all the rage these days and if you find yourself wanting to paint your tile white another options would be to use white epoxy made for porcelain sinks, tubs, and tile.  The Jigsaw Designers recently did a kitchen update for a client that wanted to paint the existing tile with Homax Tub & Sink Refinishing Kit.  The epoxy comes in a spray so there is no risk of brush strokes, and this eliminates the step of primer.  The kit costs about $45 and you will likely need at least a few kits for perfect coverage.  The kitchen in the images below took 4 coats.  The full cure is about 96 hours so plan to eat take out for a few days if you are doing the kitchen.

While a tile redo may be the ideal answer, painting your tile can be a satisfying way fill in the gap until you have more time.  If your tile is still in good condition like this kitchen was, then painting is good solution to make that color change you desire.  The results in this update where fantastic and will give the client a great update to get through the busy holidays.

 

For more information on painting tile and resources visit the contact page on the Jigsaw Design Group website at www.jigsawdesigngroup.com.  Someone will quickly contact you with more information.  Please subscribe to the blog for more informative articles like these, and check out our Facebook page for more tips and images!  Be sure to ‘like us’ on Facebook!