How to Paint Ceramic Tile

Ceramic tiles are installed permanently. Unfortunately, colors that are in style seem to change every few months. If you have some perfectly fine ceramic tiles on your bathroom walls, kitchen counters or even your floors that have gone out of fashion, don’t fret. Using a little "elbow grease", some patience and paint you can get your tiles back in style (and at a cost that will leave enough money to buy a stylish outfit for someone).

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Bathroom cleanser or household ammonia
• Rubber gloves
• Fine grit sandpaper (200 grit)
• Painter's tape or masking tape
• Paint primer
• Oil-based (alkyd) semi gloss or high gloss paint
• Water-based urethane

Preparing Tiles

1. Start by giving your tiles a good cleaning. Use a good bathroom cleaner or a 50:50 mixture of household ammonia and water.
2. After the tiles have dried, give them a light sanding with fine sandpaper (about 200 grit). Here you just want to roughen the surface so the primer and paint will adhere to the hard, shiny tile surface.
3. Finally, clean up any sanding dust with a vacuum then wash the tiles with clean water and let them dry.

Painting Tiles

4. Protect the area around your tiles with painter’s tape or masking tape.
5. Apply a coat of primer to your tiles. If they’re in an area where they'll get lots of moisture (like around your bathtub) use an alcohol-based primer, in other areas a latex primer will be fine.
6. After the primer has dried, apply a coat of semi gloss or high gloss alkyd paint and allow it to dry thoroughly (overnight is good).
7. Apply a second coat of your chosen paint and allow it to dry. If you want to paint the grout lines in a contrasting color you can do it using an artist’s brush and alkyd paint.
8. Optionally, you can do some decorative painting or stenciling (again using alkyd paint) to customize your newly painted tiles.
9. Wait for two or three days to be sure the paint has dried completely and then apply a couple of coats of water based urethane finish to protect the paint. (Oil based urethane will brown or yellow over time while water based will remain clear).

Tips & Warnings

• Paint works best on clean surfaces. Be sure you give your tiles a good cleaning before moving on.
• The urethane will protect your painted tiles for years, whether they’re on the wall, backsplashes or even on the floor. It’s the stuff they use to protect the markings on gym floors and basketball courts.
• If you have any chipped or broken tiles, replace them before painting the wall or floor. (See eHow, How to Replace a Broken Ceramic Tile).
• Preparation is the most important of every paint job and usually the one people try to skip over. Don’t skimp on preparation when painting your ceramic tiles.
• Alkyd paint has a much stronger odor than latex paint. Be sure to have good ventilation in the room when you’re painting.