Categories: Kitchens

How to Paint Your Tile Backsplash in 5 Simple Steps

Published by

James marcus

1 year ago

If your tile backsplash makes you cringe but you want a budget-friendly alternative to replacing it, you may have found yourself wondering, “can you paint a tile backsplash?” The answer is YES!!! Painting a tile backsplash is a simple, affordable and durable way to update your kitchen! This tutorial shows you exactly how to paint your tile backsplash in 5 easy steps.

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Can you paint a tile backsplash?

YES! In fact, painting a tile backsplash is far easier than painting floor tiles (which is one of my favorite gorgeous but cheap flooring ideas) or painting shower tiles because you don’t need any specialty paint products that release a ton of fumes. Painting a backsplash is easy and fun!

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What kind of tile backsplashes can you paint?

I have painted ceramic and travertine (natural stone) tiles using this method.

Why I’ve Painted THREE Different Tile Backsplashes

I have personally painted two different tile backsplashes when installing a new tile backsplash just wasn’t in the budget. Both times it was in an effort to transform an old, ugly backsplash in a budget-friendly way. And both times it worked perfectly.

The first time I painted a backsplash in our old home, I really didn’t know if it was going to work. Back then, no one else had really done it, so it was hard to find guidance on the subject.

But the tile backsplash in our old kitchen was so bad that I figured if the paint job didn’t work well, it couldn’t possibly be worse. We didn’t know how durable it would be at the time, but it held up without chipping or peeling for years before we replaced it! You can take a peek at the before and after below (we also painted our kitchen cabinets without priming or sanding).

Fast forward many years to when we moved into our current home and were giving our kitchen a makeover. The travertine backsplash was not our style at all, so I painted it using this same method! (I also painted the kitchen cabinets and used painted the counters with countertop paint to make the countertops look like marble).

Shortly after that, I started working on my friend Thea’s $1,000 kitchen makeover. She hated her red tile backsplash but we were on a tight budget (even tile stickers were out of the question) and needed to transform every surface in the kitchen. So for the third time, I tackled a DIY painted tile backsplash using the exact same process that I used back in 2014. But this time, I added a stencil detail to make it more interesting!

This is what Thea’s tile looked like before we started. Whoa.

Now, let’s dive into the tutorial!

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How to Paint a Tile Backsplash

Painting a tile backsplash is not hard and it only takes some fairly basic supplies to do it!

Supplies Needed

T.S.P. (trisodium phosphate)
A good quality primer (we used Sherwin-Williams general purpose primer)
General Finishes Milk Paint in the color of your choosing (we mixed the Snow White color with a little bit of Antique White)
- 1 quart will be PLENTY for most backsplashes
- This is the only paint I recommend for painting a backsplash-it’s a high-quality acrylic paint that has extraordinary adhesion
General Finishes High-Performance Water-Based Topcoat (we used satin finish)
Small foam roller
Paintbrush
Stencil (this is the exact stencil we used)
Stencil brushes
Painter’s tape

Steps for Painting a Tile Backsplash

You can watch the video tutorial below to see every step of this DIY painted tile backsplash project. But don’t worry-you can also find the full tutorial written out below the video 🙂

That’s it! This is a very simple project, y’all! If you choose to stencil, that portion of the project will be time-consuming, but it’s not hard! Check out the before and after!