Bathroom Painting Tips

These five bathroom painting tips cover taping, rolling, and more, and all the hacks are courtesy of experienced DIY bloggers.

So the time has come. We finally started our bathroom update. I’ve been planning and planning but never found the time to get started, until today. Nigel and I taped off the bathroom last night, removed the light fixture, and blocked off the sink and toilet. If our primary bathroom was out of commission, we assumed we would have no choice but to get to work as soon as possible. So we woke up early on Sunday and went straight for the paint. This was finally happening. Yay!

Now, it’s been a while since I’ve painted a bathroom. Actually, now that I think about it, I’ve never painted a bathroom before. I’ve done bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens, hallways, even closets, but for some reason I’ve never had to paint a bathroom before. How hard can it be? It’s a tiny little space with very little coverage. Easy peasy. But as I started taping the edges off, I began to see some potential roadblocks in my supposed “easy” project. What do I do when I need painting advice? I hit up the internet. Now assuming you already know the basics of painting, I wanted to share some great tips and hacks I came across that helped tremendously in our painting process.

I found these great taping tips from PBJ Stories and not only does this blogger have a great way to get the tape on, she has a great way to take it off, too. Her painters tape tricks were awesome and I followed them to the T.

Now this is so simple, yet so extremely genius. In all the (we’ll say twenty-something) years I’ve been painting, I have always grabbed a rag or old towel and wiped down the walls before painting. Let me just tell you, if you are still doing this, STOP. There is an easier way! I am so happy I found this tip from Driven by Decor because it has literally changed the way I prep for painting forever. A Swiffer duster! You know, the ones you use to sweep up pet fuzzies from under the sofa? Turns out, you can clean a whole wall in about ten seconds with this bad boy.

If I had a dollar for every paint tray I’ve trashed, I could probably pay two months of mortgage. Every single time I buy one, I think to myself, I’m going to keep this one. I’m not going to throw it away. But after hours of painting I’m not in the mood to wash and clean up tools and trays so I just trash it all. I’ve tried the little plastic liners and, well, in the most polite way possible…they suck. Paint ends up underneath them in the tray and makes an even bigger mess than not using one at all. And even the cheap-o plastic disposable trays are still pretty costly if you do a lot of painting. LiveLoveDIY solved that problem for me. Aluminum foil lining the tray! When you’re finished just wad it up and put the tray away. Clean as a whistle. (That phrase really doesn’t make much sense though because whistles really aren’t that clean.)

Ah, the toilet. My biggest obstacle. How the heck do you paint behind it anyway? I brainstormed and tested and threw in a little engineering problem-solving and still had no idea how to get a brush or roller back there. I saw some crazy rigged up sponges on sticks on Pinterest that just looked plain dangerous. But then I found House of Hepworths. Not only did she tell me how to get around that toilet tank, but offered a few other awesome tips while I was there. Great tutorial.

And last, but certainly not least, meet my new best friend, Shur-Line. This little sweetie is the greatest invention since an electric sander. You stick a brush pad on the tool, swipe it through the paint tray, and glide right around the trim, ceiling, and pretty much any other edge you come in contact with. The trusty wheels keep it straight and even. I cannot even begin to express my undying affection for this thing. It cut my edging time in half and didn’t leave those annoying brush strokes that paint brushes do. And the best part? It’s under nine bucks. You can make the Shur-Line your best friend too by picking one up at any home improvement store or here on Amazon.

We’ve moved! Want to see the new bathrooms? Follow @lelaburris on Instagram for all the latest project updates and advice to stay Organized-ish.