What you need to know before Painting Tiles
Painting tiles is only a temporary solution. They are not going to last forever and be absolutely perfect. So keeping in mind its a temporary solution, this does not work on any type of tile. I love testing paint and seeing how well it holds up. A super shiny tile that gets painting isn’t going to last long. It does work though on lots of different tiles so be sure to test your tile first before committing.
Paint Brands
So I tryed loads of different paint brands for painting tiles. I haven’t tested them all but I have tested a lot of them. Please take my advice when I say they don’t all work. Below are the steps and paint I used to paint tiles and this works out for me all the time. I have tried paint thats ‘especially formulated’ for painting tiles. It chipped within days. I tested one coat tile paint brands, on a cream to white tile took about 4 coats and was a nightmare to use.
I have heard to real horror stories of paint peeling off in nearly sheets and lots of people thinking that they maybe haven’t done something correctly but its the paint.
Painting Tiles
Make sure your tiles are completely clean before painting.It’s really important that they need to be spotless with no soap residue of any kind and completely dust free.
MOST IMPORTANT STEP You must do a TEST first
Step One
Please make sure you don’t skip this step.If you have a spare tile test it on that if not, test a tile somewhere that it would not be seen.
Do not paint all the tiles and then find out afterwards it wasn’t working for some reason.
Test the primer and leave dry for 24 hours.
Come back and scratch test, really try and scratch it off. If the paint doesn’t come off your good to go! This is a little different with showers and bathrooms but I will write a separate Blog Post explaining this.
Step Two
Clean down your tiles. Sand the tiles with a 80 grit sand paper so that it can scuff the tiles so the primer has something to grab onto. Sand each tile up and down and over and back to insure you have hit the whole surface in multiple directions.
Step Three
Hoover off all the dust from sanding. With a damp cloth remove any remaining dust. Leave the tiles to fully dry.
Step Four
Tape off any areas that you don’t want to get paint on. Cut in any edges with a brush. Using colourtrend prime 2 and the two fussy blokes rollers, roll the paint onto the surface. Leave to fully dry and repeat.
Step Five
Once you have 2 coats of primer. I always use Colourtend Prime Two. Please make sure you are using a decent primer, trim paint and undercoat will not work. You can sand back any imperfections with a 120 grit fine sandpaper. Make sure that you hoover up any dust afterwards.
Step Six
With the two fussy blokes rollers paint the tiles with the Colourtrend satin paint. Give it two coats letting it dry in-between coats. I paint right over the grout lines.
Step Seven
Once the paint is fully dry. It’s time for your stencil. Place the stencil in place with a piece of frog tape, so that it doesn’t move.
The secret to using a stencil is to use a roller. Roll up your paint onto your roller like normal and roll it onto a piece of card. This removes all the access paint.
You will feel like there isn’t enough paint on the roller but trust me you don’t need it. Less is more
The roll onto the stencil and remove immediately. You will need to wash the stencil in between using it, so have an old towel ready so you can quickly clean it.
If you have any questions about painting tile please pop them below