Painting carrelage skirting

[SaligoBay]

Trying to reduce the depressing BROWN in the house before winter sets in.

I'd like to paint the skirting board, but it's made of shiny carrelage tiles.  What kind of paint will work on it?

Thank you  

[Nick Trollope]

[quote]Trying to reduce the depressing BROWN in the house before winter sets in. I'd like to paint the skirting board, but it's made of shiny carrelage tiles. What kind of paint will work on it? Thank you[/quote]

Errrrrrr..... Tile paint? Very 1980's. Universally available.

 

[SaligoBay]

Thank you Nick, I didn't know there was such a thing in France!  

I know people did their bathroom tiles in the UK, but I've never heard of anyone doing that here, so kind of assumed it wasn't really an option - after all, if it's 1980s in Britain, it should only be arriving in France about now!

We've rented up till now and never had to worry about these things.  

[Alexis]

You will be sorry!

Brown skirtingboards are brown because:

1.  When you wash the floor, the mop touches the skirting and marks it.

2.  With a parquet floor, when you use polish it stains the skirting.  Bottom centimetre is muddy.

Not stupid, these Froggies.

 

[SaligoBay]

Not stupid, these Froggies.

No, but they do like brown!   It seems to me that the high incidence of BROWN in France is closely linked with the high incidence of SUICIDE.     

 

[Christine Animal]

Ours weren't brown, they were black!  Before we moved we had the kitchen and hall painted off-white.  The kitchen was covered in bright orange and brown sixties/seventies style wallpaper (like you love SB) and the skirting was black tiles    I too thought it would be difficult to change this, but asked the painter who said there was special paint.  He painted the tiles round the bottom the same colour as the walls, whether it was special paint or not, we shall never know .

Edit:  I have just had a look at the tiles where some of the "special paint" has come off, and they are a very, very dark brown, not black (probably to go with the wallpaper..). They need redoing, so I also would be interested to know what to use.

[Alexis]

In one of my DIY mags they tell you what paint to use.  Obviously, I can't find it.

I have a feeling though that you can use any paint, as long as you have used a special primer first.

I still think you are foolhardy with all the extra skirting board cleaning you will have to do and I will be certainly keeping mine - but I will search for it.

 

[Christine Animal]

Yes, I think you're right Alexis, maybe our painter said it was possible by putting something on first so the paint wouldn't "slip".  We do have black ones, in the bathroom (I knew I'd seen them somewhere!).  

[Mpprh]

Hi

judging by how difficult it is to get spilt drops off tiles, I'd try Valentine gloss paint.

 

Peter

 

[Chocolate]

We have shiny brown with greeny yellow tinged clouded effect tiles in one bathroom which are vile! However as they run behind the loo, two radiators, around the bath, around the bidet and in and out of the shower,(all floor to head height), removing them is not an option as the whole room would have to be gutted. Too much money I'm afraid. We also have the black tile skirtings mentioned in another place and very 70's big beige tiles with a HUGE blue flower in the centre of about every other one.  Oh and all the rest of the walls and ceilings are papered in very strongly patterned and vivid coloured wallpaper. Should count ourselves lucky as one house when hunting had wallpaper up the walls, across the ceilings and straight down the other wall opposite irrespective of the right way up design of the pattern. We also saw a 30 year old house that had brown tiles in every room including all the bedrooms. Soooo depressing!

French taste is very special and often of a particularly brown type. I can sympathise with Saligobay. It most certainly could be enough to depress anyone, or is it because it doesn't show the dirt and doesn't have to be redecorated too often given the cost of paint, wallpaper etc. in France?

If anyone has the answer would they please, please cough it up now! There is a whole bunch of us out here who would like to know.

 

[Christine Animal]

I don't have the answer, but it certainly is not French taste, but French bad taste.  You get it in some hotels or restaurants where when you walk in, you just want to run away (and they are often the ones who serve apple tart stone cold out of the fridge).  There are others where it is so class, soft and peaceful that you would stay forever...

I did ask in a brico shop when I went for something else and was shown a "sous-couche pour surfaces lisses" such as tiles, glass etc.  So it does look as if this has to be applied before the paint.  Is there paint in England for tiles and glass then?

Another one, and it can't therefore be for practical reasons, such as the wallpaper and the blue flowers on your tiles, is the colour and patterns on some carpets 

But, as they say here, "chacun son goût"...

 

 

[Christine Animal]

It looks as if we are not the only ones with the problem and France is not the only country with bad taste :

http://www.bobvila.com/wwwboard/messages/188784.html

[Teamedup]

Wouldn't the paint chip off quite quickly? I don't think that I would be painting them, replacing them maybe, but not painting.

A friend of mine had her house built and then has put horrible tiles as skirting, I shall never understand her doing this at all.

[bejay]

Yes, French brown. I feel it may have something to do with the way french use shutters to keep houses cool. They find advantage in dark interiors and this spills over into decorating style while in more northerly regions we need all the light we can get and have IKEA.

Or is that just pretentious nonsense.

To return to the original question, you might consider tiling on top of the existing tiles. Its a perfectly satsfactory process provided that the original tiles are still firmly attached. Dont use wall tiles use thin floor tiles possibly cut in half, perhaps using a pale marble pattern.

bj