How to paint tiles

Preparation is the first and most important step in any DIY project. A little time invested now will give you a much better result and will speed the whole process up. Start by moving any furniture out of the room, this is necessary if the tiles you are painting are on the floor.

To protect the floor lay a Seriously Good Cotton Rich Dust Sheet. These are great because they have a polythene layer under the dust sheet to prevent paint from soaking through. If the tiles you are painting are on the wall, we recommend using some Masking Tape and actually tape the dust sheet down to the floor or carpet. If your tiles are on the floor leave the dust sheet loose so you can move it around later.

Before you start painting, we need to clean the tiles. Start by using a fungicidal spray and one of our Seriously Good Microfibre Cloths to remove any mould. Some mould or dirt might be very hard to remove, so you might also need an Essentials Mini Wire Brush to get in the cracks and really clean these tiles up.

When the grout repair has cured, clean the surface a final time with the Microfibre Cloth using some sugar soap to remove any grease. If you’re working on floor tiles, it’s a good idea to wear some Seriously Good Nitrile Gloves so you don’t transfer any grease from your fingers onto the freshly cleaned tiles.

Finally, with all other preparation tasks done, you can use some Seriously Good UV Tape to protect walls or skirting boards at the edge of the tiled area. This will let you work faster and keep things neat when adding the tile paint.

Now, there are a few ways to go about tile painting. The first way is to quickly paint the tiles in a single colour for a fast, low effort face lift in the room and that’s what we will focus on in this step. The second option is to use a stencil to paint tiles creating a whole new look, and we’ll cover that in the optional step 5.

To paint tiles quickly use a Taskmaster Flat Gloss Brush to get into the grout and cut in around the edges then, if the tiles are flat, switch to the Taskmaster Gloss Roller Sleeves and 4 Inch Mini Roller Set to get a very fine finish on the tiled surface. For uneven or patterned tiles continue to paint the whole area with the flat brush. When using the roller set on large areas paint in 1m sections. When using the flat brush make sure to finish a section by painting in vertical strokes.

Add the stencil and then use the Taskmaster Flat 1-inch Gloss Brush to paint in the stencil. This process can be more time consuming but it’s better to go slow and take regular brakes then rush and make a mistake. If you do make a mistake use a Microfibre Cloth or some Seriously Good Paper Towels to wipe away the paint before it sets.

A top tip is to use very little paint on the brush, we recommend painting in thinner coats, leaving to dry between coats. This will get you a better finish, but it does take longer.