How I transformed my dull grey bathroom tile using paint, a stencil and a whole lotta patience....
As I sit here admiring this beautiful bathroom, I can almost forget how hard it was to get to this place…..almost…but the back pain is a friendly reminder. ;) Before we get to all that- LOOK LOOK at this beautiful bathroom! Now maybe it sounds like I’m bragging a little bit but if it took you 35-40 hours to complete the floor, you might feel the same way. Don’t worry friends- it likely won’t take you that long! It WILL be frustrating and definitely take longer then you think ( I can just about guarantee that) but I can hopefully help you avoid some of my missteps.
This is what my floor used to look like. Super boring right?
So let’s get to the meat and potatoes of this blog. You like my bathroom and you wanna know how to paint and stencil your tile too. Here we go!
STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS:
First things first, you’ll want to clean your floors really well, sweep up and vacuum all of the excess dirt and then wet and mop the floor and let it all dry. Then you’ll want to use painter’s tape to tape up all of the floorboards or edges of the wall so that they don’t get paint on them. Next you’ll want to put down two coats of Kilz Bonding Primer. I used a paint roller and a 2” flat paint brush for this. You’ll need to let it dry 24 hours between coats.
This is what two coats of the Primer looks like.
After your second coat has dried for 24 hours, you will go ahead and apply your first coat of paint. This will be the main color underneath your stencil. For me, that was “crystal clear” by Dunn Edwards which reads white but is actually a pale pink. You will paint two coats of this as well and let each coat dry for 24 hours. SUPREMA® is a complete line of ultra premium, ultra-low VOC, acrylic latex paints. It combines exceptional hide with superior durability, washability and block resistance. It is ideal for use in any interior setting where superior performance is required. It is fine for painting over tile as long as you use the primer AND the concrete sealer - otherwise it WILL get dirty quickly and not last as long. Let me stress that again for the people in the back- The concrete clear top sealer is crucial!
Now on to the fun part! 🤪 Stenciling! I’ve got to be honest, stenciling is NOT for the faint of heart. It is EXTREMELY time consuming and frustrating, back breaking labor. I’m so happy with the outcome, but in retrospect, I probably wouldn’t have done it had I known what it entailed and I certainly won’t do it again. 🤣 I know, I’m really selling you on it aren’t I? That being said, it IS an extremely affordable way to achieve a very expensive and unique look. I transformed our boring and dull dark grey cement tiles into these beautiful and colorful ones and for that, I have no regrets! It would have been SUPER expensive to create this look with the real tiles. After searching for a really long time, I chose the Calypso pattern because I knew that I really wanted to give the illusion of actual floor tile and I wanted it to be colorful, unique and modern. This pattern became the base for the whole bathroom revamp.
If you’re stenciling over a flat area, it’s MUCH easier. I was stenciling over tile with pretty thick grooves and that made it a little more difficult. You can lightly spray the back of the stencil with Elmer’s spray adhesive to help it stay in place on the floor in the middle of the stencil and tape down the edges with painters tape too.
I started off stenciling against the right wall in the center of the floor and worked right to left. I did one row all the way across and then did as much as I could above and below the main row before I had to cut up the stencil to fit to the curved areas like the toilet and shower. (Yes there WAS a shower when I started this project- we’ll get to that). Now one important tip I can bestow upon you- LESS IS MORE. I’m talking paint here people. You want to blot your stencil brush each time before you put it on the stencil. It’s more of a stamping motion rather then a typical sweeping brush motion. You want to have just a little bit of paint and dab dab dab with a stamping motion. I did all of the melting violet with the larger stencil brush and the plumville with the smaller stencil brush. I waited for it to dry for a bit and then applied a second coat. When you first lift your stencil- you WILL see bleeding. It’s pretty much inevitable. I don’t know who these people are that are creating perfect line stencils on the first try, but I’m convinced they aren’t human. Do not fret. That is why you have the angled artist paint brushes. So you can clean up all the lines. Yes that’s right- after I stenciled the whole floor, not once but three times in total, (there were incidents), I also hand painted and cleaned up the lines. I’m starting to sound bitter aren’t I?
Don’t be alarmed by this mess.
You can turn it into this!
After you’ve finished stenciling and cleaning up all of the lines nice and neat, you want to let it cure for 48 hours. Once the paint is fully dried, you will put down a coat of Sealkrete Concrete sealer to help waterproof it and to make sure that you don’t get it scuffed up and dirty. When I was almost finished stenciling the first time, my shower spontaneously exploded in the middle of the night. Yup. You read that right. It sounded like a crazy bomb went off! Apparently it’s a manufacturing defect that is more common then you think!
This is how far along I was in my stenciling when the shower exploded. Looks done right? It almost was.
I was so frustrated and in tears when this happened but that happy accident led me to this beautiful pink tub that absolutely MAKES the space! Don’t you think?!? But because of the glass and mess and everything else, I had to re-stencil a big portion of the space. Because there was SO much time in between finding the tub and not having a shower (thankfully we have a second bathroom but my husband is SO happy to have me out of his now 🤣) my floor, which hadn’t been finished and sealed yet, got extremely dirty. So YES I GOT TO PAINT IT AGAIN. AND YES I’M SO SICK OF STENCILING AT THIS POINT. Had things gone perfectly, it still probably would have taken me about 20 hours in total. I painted over the course of a few days and spread it out over weeks which ended up turning into months and almost a full year so it probably took me about 30-35 hours of time when it was all said and done.
If I can impart any wisdom to those of you who are wanting to undertake something similar? DON’T!!!! Haha I kid, I kid. But seriously, it’s not easy and it takes time. So be patient with yourself and the project. If you’re patient and you have time, it’s an excellent and super affordable way to achieve a show stopping look. Some stencils are definitely easier than others too- I chose a fairly difficult one in that it had essentially two patterns with three different colors. There are black and white stencils that I’ve seen people just paint the floor white, then use a roller in black paint over the stencil and it comes out perfectly. 🤷♀️ What can I say? Generally speaking, I tend to unintentionally always pick the most challenging things.
So I say this to all of you, and to myself, sometimes things happen in life where the rug gets pulled out from under us and it feels like a tragedy. I think a lot of us have faced that this year in many different ways. Know that many times what feels like the worst thing that could happen, is actually the thing that leads you to something greater than you could have ever imagined. Lean in and embrace the change. That pressure is creating a diamond.