Painting tile
#1
03-21-20, 05:31 PM
Painting tile
My wife wants to add accent tiles to our shower. She wants to match the color of the floor tile. We have not been able to find a matching tile at local big boxes and our one surviving tile store. However we can find paint chips that closely match the color.
Can tiles in a shower be painted?
Can tiles in a shower be painted?
#2
03-21-20, 10:01 PM
Group Moderator
#3
03-21-20, 11:23 PM
Member
Tile is nonporous so it's not going to stick.
Good luck trying to paint just the tile and not getting it on the porous grout.
Good luck trying to paint just the tile and not getting it on the porous grout.
#4
03-22-20, 03:37 AM
Tub and tile paint does better than other paints on tile but I agree that it would be difficult to get a lasting paint job over tile especially in a shower.
#7
03-22-20, 08:12 AM
Group Moderator
My wife painted our wall tile in our bathroom but not in any of the wet areas (IE shower stall). We went to a "real" paint store and told them what we were doing and they sold us their best primer and paint. The paint has done very well on glazed, glass-smooth tile but it took many weeks to fully cure. I would not recommend any paint that will be exposed to water constantly.
#8
03-22-20, 10:51 AM
Thanks for all the comments. It was enough to convince me that painting is probably not the way to go. We're back to the local tile store to see if they can dig up a color match. If they can find one I suspect that we'll have to buy more than the dozen or so tiles that we need.
I did surf around and found lots of differing opinions. Apparently there is a specialty primer available at paint stores that can be used after sanding the tile surface to remove the glaze.
I did surf around and found lots of differing opinions. Apparently there is a specialty primer available at paint stores that can be used after sanding the tile surface to remove the glaze.
#9
03-23-20, 04:02 AM
Sometimes it may be better to contrast something you can't match and make a design element, than to use something that didn't quite make it. This is what I did when I couldn't find a match for the grey tile that was both sides of the plumbing wall. I didn't want to have just a black splotch where the mixing valve was that I replaced, so I just continued the black tile all around the tub and turned it down at the other end. Maybe not what everyone would like, but you get the idea
