Inexpensive Bathroom Makeover with DIY Painted Floor

Hello hello! Today I am sharing a really fun makeover with you guys that’s been long overdue. We moved into our home two years ago and then started our long list of projects. Something we really wanted to renovate was our bathroom. We try to do a lot of DIY stuff, but knew the bathroom couldn’t be something easy for us to do since we are still freshly new to the DIY world. We got a quote for the bathroom and it was going to be around $5,000 to get the shower and tub that we want, get rid of the tile on the walls, and redo the floors. Ummmm, no thank you! We decided we would hold off. I’ve been seeing lots about people painting tile/linoleum floors and figured I could give that a try to really make a statement in the bathroom. We also had a dated pink tub (AH!) and I’ve seen a tub and tile paint that could change the color of that. Let me start by showing you guys a before photo from when we had our home inspection before moving in.

Definitely livable, just not too pretty. Behind the door is a stand-up shower with black and white tile. We don’t hate it, but we don’t love it, so we just decided to leave it alone for now. What we did to completely change the space was: removed popcorn ceiling, took out the built-in above the toilet, painted the vanity/mirror, painted the tub, painted the walls, and my favorite part- painted the floor!

I shared a bunch of videos on my Instagram Stories, and had lots of questions about the paint we used to paint the tub. We used the Rustoleum Tub and Tile Refinishing Kit. It seriously worked like magic, even though after a few coats there were some bubbles, my husband lightly took sandpaper to take them right off. Two big tips I have for this would be to make sure your space is HIGHLY ventilated. My husband did the whole project, but it literally stunk up my house for a day or two and gave me a MASSIVE headache. My other tip is to really make sure you clean the tub/tile really well before painting. It will not adhere properly if you do not follow the directions on the box to a T. The box will give you all of the materials and supplies you’ll need to do so.

The wood shelves were done using the same steps as our living room ones here. Next, I want to share with you guys how I did the floor! I knew this would be a time consuming project, but it was the last thing to check off our list. I was struggling to get up and down off the floor being just about 7 months pregnant, but I didn’t trust my husband to do the artistic part of the makeover, lol. This part was really easy, and it looks like we bought expensive tile when we really just painted over our linoleum floors!

Supplies for painting floor:
–Toledo Stencil from Royal Design Studio
-Greased Lightening
-Scrub Brush and Rags
-Rustoleum Chalk Paint in Linen White
-Rustoleum Chalk Paint in Aged Gray
-Zinsser 1-2-3 Primer
-6-inch foam rollers
-Minwax Polycrylic in Clear Matte
-Painter’s Tape

Just like the prep work for the tub, this is just as important for the floors. You want to make sure you clean your floors VERY well so the paint adheres. To start, I used the Greased Lightening and scrub brush  and followed the directions on the bottle. You want to wipe it up with a wet rag. I went a little further and used rubbing alcohol to make sure the floors were really clear and free of the grime and dirt. I let this dry for about a half hour and then taped off the baseboards, toilet, tub & vanity with painter’s tape. Then, I applied the primer. I let the primer dry for about 2 hours and applied another coat.

I let the next coat dry for about 3 hours, because I was applying them pretty thick to make sure no yellow would come through. I then applied the chalk paint in linen white and let this dry overnight. The following morning I was ready to stencil! This part was so intimidating, but once you begin it’s pretty easy. Make sure not to have too much paint on the roller. I started doing all of the full tiles first as I knew I would have to eventually bend and cut the stencil to get around certain areas. For this reason, I wish I got two stencils to work with but one worked just fine. I taped the stencil down so that it did not move, but it still moved a few times and resulted in some bleeding and imperfections, but I really think that it makes the design look even better. Plus, I’m not a professional, so I was pleased with what I could get done being this far along and barely being able to breathe! A tip I did use was using a blow dryer to dry the paint a bit before lifting the stencil and moving along to the next one.

Once I was done stenciling, I let it dry for 2 hours and then started to apply the polycrylic. I applied about 4 coats of polycrylic so it would hold up well getting wet and what not. I did sweep every time before applying another coat, because my labradoodle sheds like crazy, but we still got some hair stuck to the floor, whoopsie! I am in love with the final results of everything though. It isn’t our dream bathroom, but it’s way better than what it looked like before, and it cost us less than $100 to do everything.

Leave any questions you have in the comments and I’ll get back to you! We sat on this project for awhile, but I’m so glad we buckled down before the baby comes and decided to get it all done. I’m going to paint the tile in our mudroom next, and will use the same steps as above. These steps will work on tile and linoleum floors!

xoxo,