What to do to hide ugly tiles?

McTaggus

Hello all!

Delighted to have moved from the home buying forum to elsewhere on the site now that we have finally moved in!

Our lovely house is in a hideous state of decoration, most of which will take us a while to put right properly, but we're doing some short-term fixes just to make it a little less offensive to the eye - such as repainting the kitchen neutral tones rather than the unusual maroon and light blue combination it was originally!

In the longer term, I'll refit the entire kitchen, but that will be a couple of years away and with the walls now repainted I'm keen to see if anyone has any ideas for a short term fix for the equally unusual tiles that are currently in the kitchen. We have had a couple of suggestions, from paying to tile over the existing tiles through to simply painting some wood, applying a waterproof lacquer and gluing it to the current tiles.

Getting the kitchen retiled seems the more expensive option and I'm weighing up whether it would be worth it given the whole kitchen will be stripped (and likely retiled again) in a couple of years. Any suggestions for covering the existing tiles in the short term? Or anything that you guys have done that could give me some inspiration?

Any thoughts greatly appreciated! Thanks!

MX5huggy

Consider tile paint, I would now do it for a long term finish but if its just till you get a new kitchen I would expect it to be satisfactory.

Jamiesmum

Retiling need not be expensive if the work is done by yourselves or a friend etc. Tiling is relatively easy just a bit time consuming. Depending on how big your kitchen is and how much time you'll spend in there it may very well be worth it even with just standard white 30x30 tiles.

Depending on what tiles you have now you could use tile transfers if you've got a steady hand and a day to spend doing it. These are long lasting but IMO just as expensive as retiling.

As far as I'm aware tile paint is a load of crap. But maybe someone else could assist you with a decent brand. I've never really heard a good thing about it though.

You could get some wallcladding to go over the current tiles. Or big splashbacks but it's just gonna cost you money for a temp fix so probably better off just retiling.

Add up the cost and see what you think.

cattie

Tile paint is really gives a cheap & nasty look & you have to be careful to choose something that is not going to really going to satisfy you until you can get the kitchen refitted.

Perhaps something like mdf routed to give a cladding look which can be fixed over the existing tiles is worth considering.

McTaggus

Thanks all - I had tried tile paint a good 8 years ago and it looked horrendous, not sure if it's moved on since then? If anyone can recommend any good brands they have experience of, I could try it out on a hidden patch and see how it looks before I make a decision - I'm a little cautious of it given prior experience!!!!

I have no tiling experience, but guess practice could make perfect Will have a chat with my lovely hubby about it and see what he thinks! Otherwise I think we may go down the MDF route - will lacquer waterproof it sufficiently for use behind the sink, do you think?

peachyprice

I've had a recent great success with tile paint on my bathroom floor. I had used it before on a tile wall and as above it looked crap and peeled off like plastic. The stuff I used on the floor looks great, you can't tell they're painted BUT it's not the whole floor. I have octagon tiles with small square inserts, it was the small ones I painted. I made sure I didn't paint over the grout.

So, it depends really what colour they are to begin with. Are they a colour where you could paint some tiles and leave others?

My painted tiles

McTaggus

Thanks for the picture Peachyprice! Wow! Looks much better than my previous attempts ever did! Sadly there are no tiles we can easily leave and they're pretty big… a delightful mix between dark blue (to match the previous blue walls and offend against the maroon walls) plus and interspersed mix of floral tiles on a white background. I think had there been some semblance on uniformity, it may have been both easier on the eye and easier to potentially live with!

The tiles continue into the downstairs WC, so perhaps I'll give the painting a try in there behind the loo and see how it looks!

Edited to ask: what brand did you use, and did you have to use primer first?

Syman

Could you install a perspex splashback over the tiles?

peachyprice

I used the Ronseal One Coat, I didn't use a primer just cleaned the floor thoroughly first. The majority did cover in one coat, there was the odd corner that I dragged the brush over whilst it was drying that needed a going over, but on the whole the coverage was excellent. They were pale blue before I painted them black.

We only did it as a short term solution but I have to say I'm impressed with how well it's lasted.

flashg67

I've had decent results with Wilko tile paint but using a gloss roller. It isn't perfect but acceptable unless you're super critical!

McTaggus

Thanks all! Really helpful!!!