A detailed account of how to paint your dated tile floor with chalk mineral paints
The before! Say goodbye to awful 70s tile.
Please raise your hand if you’ve been personally victimized by dated 70’s tile. And I’m not talking cute, boho-chic, coming back in style tile. I’m talking puke-pink tile that just doesn’t look good no matter what you do.
Well, that was me and my laundry room. The previous owners did a lot of updates to the bathrooms before we moved in, but we still had the tile to tackle in the laundry room and entryway area. With baby #1 on the way, it’s just not in the budget or timeline to replace all of the tile in our laundry room.
Fate decided, however, that this chalk mineral painting tile project would need to happen pre-baby when our dryer suddenly went out (RIP). It felt like the perfect time to start this project since we already had to remove the old machines from the area (and hey, what’s another week’s worth of backed up laundry, right?). Did I mention that this was also right before a week long vacation? I may actually be crazy, but that’s okay. At least I have a good looking laundry room!
Step 1: Clean your Tile For Painting
Okay, this one is a little bit obvious (I hope). I recommend something that will help in removing the shine and any cleaners that you’ve used on the floor. White Lightening is a great option for this since it’s a de-glosser and degreaser.
Take out a nice bristle brush or sponge, and fill a spray bottle with warm water and the appropriate amount of white lightening (instructions are on the back of the bottle).
After you give everything a good scrub down, take a clean cloth with water and wipe the tile down to ensure no residue from the cleaner is remaining. Take a dry towel and try the entire area.
Step 2: Prime your Tile for Painting
This is probably the most important part of prepping your tile flooring for painting. Tile is naturally very slick, glazed and not a lot of things are going to stick to it, including paint, without some help. That’s where using a good primer comes into play.
I used slick stick, which has far less smell and chemicals than many other primers and is water based. Being in my second trimester while deciding to tackle this project, using low toxic products was important to me.
To apply the slick stick, I used a brush. You could also use a roller, especially if you had a really large surface area. But I decided to do this project spur of the moment and only had a brush, so I went with it. It was actually much quicker than I thought.
I let it dry a few hours and then went in with my second coat. I let the primer dry on the tile about 24 hours after the second coat. This is a crucial step you don’t want to rush, because this is a basis of ensuring you have long lasting finishes.
After the second coat of primer!
Stay tuned for part 2!