When You Just Can’t Take Pink Tile Anymore: Painting my Bathroom Floor

We’re just gonna go ahead and stick this one in the “WHY THE HECK DIDN’T I DO THIS SOONER???” column.

I mean, seriously people. I’ve been living with this for a DECADE now, and haven’t done anything about it.

And it wasn’t hard, expensive, or time consuming?!

I know, I’m scratching my head, too.

As you might know, we own a house built in the 60s. Wasn’t a lovely decade, decor wise. I mean, the skinny trim, the lack of character, and the rainbow colored tiles. I just don’t think I’ll ever understand what was happening back then. We were lucky enough to have not just a yellow bathroom, but a pink one as well. And I’m even talking TOILETS. I know, try not to be too jealous. We gutted the yellow one a couple summers ago (you can check out our master bathroom makeover here), and of course, it ain’t in the budget to turn around and do the kids’ bathroom yet. It’s a total gut-job as well, and that’s a pretty penny.

We did at least upgrade from the pink the toilet back when we did our bathroom. We figured, we might as well have our guys rip both out while they were at it. What’s a few more hundred bucks when you’re hemorrhaging money anyway, right? 😉

WOW, can I tell you the day I came home and saw the yellow AND pink toilets on the front lawn?! One of the happiest days of my life…

So we’ve been living with the remaining pink tile floor and the pink tile shower/tub and just basically given up on that bathroom until we could renovate.

But hang on a sec…

What if I get a extra tall shower curtain to hide the tub and tile in the shower, and paint the floors! YES! And as long as the shower curtain remained close, no one but us has to know what’s going on behind it, right?!

BINGO.

And a mini budget bathroom makeover is born. 😉

I turned this:

painting bathroom floor

I know. Ouch.

Into this:

painting bathroom tile floor

I mean. I repeat: WHY DIDN’T I DO THIS SOONER???

Now, I really don’t know if I did this the “right” way – so if you’re looking for a floor that’s going to be guaranteed to last for a while in perfect condition, you might want to look that one up – for me, and my desire to simply hide the pink tile and not really caring if it lasts a year until I have to repaint again, this’ll do just fine. I mean, it’s a tiny room so it’s not like it’s the end of the world if I have to redo it in the future. And who knows, maybe by then we’ll be ready to rip everything out and do our big reno?? (wishful thinking perhaps). But for the past week or so, it hasn’t shown one inkling of wear and tear, so…so far so good! 😉 (A big area rug helps too!)

Here’s what I did. Again – for the expert way, look elsewhere. But if you’re in the boat I was in, here’s the info:

I cleaned the tile with a gentle soap and warm water.

Once it was dry, I painted on two coats of a multi-surface primer.

The next day, I painted on a coat of white semi-gloss. I ended up doing two coats.

painting bathroom floor

The day after that, I used the wipe-on poly I bought for my kitchen island. I took a rag and wiped on a layer, then a few hours later did it again. We stayed out of the bathroom for a day, and lucky for me, I did this when the weather was GORGEOUS, so every window in the house was open wide. That stuff is stinky and requires lots of ventilation.

And that’s it! I threw a rug down (from Marshalls) and ahhhh

painting a bathroom tile floor

I don’t even mind the paint color at all anymore! It was so minty green against the pink, but now it almost resembles my true love, SW Sea Salt. (In case you’re wondering what the existing paint color is, I have no idea – we painted it ten years ago when we moved in). I’m still going to repaint, because there are some big holes left from wall stuff, and it could use a refresh after a decade. I’m leaning towards SW Light French Grey (especially since I have a ton leftover from my son’s room!).

painting tile floor

I cannot even tell you how big this difference is – like, it’s just INSANE. I can’t wait to get my hands on everything else in here now, since it’s no longer the eyesore of the house! It’s actually going to be a cute bathroom, for the first time – so stay tuned for some fun posts!

RIP Pink Floor. It’s been real.

 

Comments

  1. Amazing job! And since one in every 20 tiles was already a white tile, you only had to pay 95% of the floor. Lucky you!

  2. Resurfacing the tub isn’t as labor intensive as you might think … just throwing that idea out there. 😉

    Well done on the floor!

  3. It looks great. I have a hideous linoleum kitchen floor that I’m just about to do the same to. I mean, like your original bathroom, I figure it can’t get worse- right?

  4. I was in a public bathroom today that had the same tile but in blue and I immediately thought “they need Liz to paint their tile!” lol!

  5. HUGE transformation!! It looks fantastic!

  6. Jessica Sheppard says:

    Looks great! How’s it holding up? We are in the process of buying a 60’s house with awful orange and black tile in bathroom (yikes!). A full kitchen reno is more important then gutting bathrooms right now, so I’ve got to get creative! I’ve been reading a bit about tile painting and most sites say to avoid painting tile in high moisture areas. Like you, I’m willing to take the risk until a reno is possible, but I’m worried the paint will peel or scratch faster than I’m willing to repaint 😉 I also have a 3 and 1 year old so chipping paint on the floor makes me nervous. Any suggestions??

    • Thanks! It’s only been up a few weeks, but so far so good – I have to say though, two of my kids are still bath kids so it doesn’t get a TON of humidity from showers, but no sign of peeling yet. 🙂 Good luck!

  7. I’m curious about the grout? You just painted that too? Was that difficult to get in the cracks? What kind of brush did you use? Unfortunately in both of my ugly brown and purple/pink bathrooms they continued the shower tile around all the walls. 😭

    • Yep – just primed everything well and made sure to get the cracks covered, then painted. Just used my regular 2.5 inch angled brush.

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