Part one of our bathroom makeover does not go according to your average makeover story. Spoiler: Not all DIYs by a DIY blogger work the way they should! Our bathroom didn’t turn out well. Like, at all! But, we’ve learnt a lot in the process and with the help of Prominent Paints we’re going to make it right!
Let’s start at the beginning. Our main bathroom came with slightly greeny yellow tiles and a yellow beige wall. We thought it would be a great place to start with updating the look of the house and went all in over a long weekend last year.
Trying to stick to a budget we decided to just repaint the tiles and the wall. Simple right? Even though we asked all the right questions, it later turned out that we didn’t get all the right answers. We didn’t get the right colours either. We primed the tiles correctly, but didn’t prepare them properly first. We painted the wall properly, but it was the wrong paint.
What we’ve been left with is a bathroom that doesn’t have the colours we were wanting, has peeling paint on the walls and a messy line of paint where the two colours meet. The dark colour was similar to what we wanted, but it makes the space feel much smaller. Although we specifically chose a light grey that wasn’t blue, once painted it still looked blue!
After living with it for a few months, we’ve finally taken the step to try again. Unfortunately this time we have to start by first removing all the paint from before.
Fortunately, we have learnt some lessons and now have the correct information from the helpful staff at Prominent Paint. I hope that they can prevent you from making the same mistakes with your own bathroom makeover.
Lesson 1: Check whether your walls are painted with water-based or oil-based paint.
Water-based paint will not stick to oil-based paint. These days there are such great water-based paints, that they are becoming much more popular that oil-based paints. Water-based paints make it simple to clean brushes (as you don’t need turpentine), they smell less when painting and do not let off the harmful chemicals that oil-based paints release while drying. If, like us, you are unsure whether your paints are water or oil-based simply clean a small section of the wall and then rub it with a cloth with some methylated spirits. If the paint comes off then it’s water based. If it doesn’t come off, it’s oil-based.
Lesson 2: Use a paint primer if painting water-based paint over oil-based paint.
If your paint is oil-based, you can still change to using water-based paint. All you need to do first is make sure that your wall is clean and then apply a coat of universal primer, allowing it to dry before repainting your walls.
Lesson 3: Sand your tiles before applying tile primer.
Tiles can have a very smooth surface. Glossy tiles especially need to be lightly sanded first to help the tile primer to adhere to them. Sanding them, followed by a good tile primer will make them perfect for painting whatever colour you want.
Lesson 4: Rather use painter’s tape or paint carefully around the edges than using masking tape.
We used normal masking tape to mark off painting boundaries and then painted pretty freely. Unfortunately paint seeped underneath the tape, leaving a very messy line. Rather paint carefully and wipe any excess paint away as you go along. Painter’s tape is also better than masking tape as it does not stick as firmly to the surface. Our masking tape pulled a little paint off one section of the cornices and a few spots on our (unsanded) newly painted tiles, where painter’s tape would not have done this.
Please save yourself the hassle of first having to undo your mistakes, before redoing the whole process properly! We’re busy with the process now and will be sure to share some final pictures once it’s looking all good and new!
We’ll share the new and improved bathroom makeover as soon as it’s done!
What DIY disasters have you had? Have you tried a bathroom makeover? Share them in the comments below.
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