Bathroom Painting – How To Paint One Like A Pro

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As a house painter I've learned over the years that bathroom painting is a lot like painting kitchens because there is a lot of detail involved. In some bathrooms there can be a lot of work.

Also, a really small bathroom can take as long to paint as a large on due to detail and lack of room to work. So keep that in mind if you ever have to give an estimate on one.

To properly paint a bathroom sometimes I'll take down the vanity mirror and the decorative lighting above the mirror. This way when you're painting you can cut in really good and get a good edge around everything in a tight area.


Even the toilet tank many times has to come off so that you can paint or wallpaper behind it. Now some people may not go to these extremes but as a professional painter I'm expected to do the best job I possibly can.

There is also the vent fan and light combination on the ceiling that needs to come down and be cleaned up. I also take down the towel racks and things like that off the wall. Switch covers and wall socket covers need to come off also.

I like to give the walls and ceiling a light sand with my pole sander. It's even a good idea to wash the bathroom walls and ceiling down to get rid of water spots and hair due to steam build up.

When it comes to bathroom painting the paint that I use is usually a matte finish. You can use an eggshell finish if you want, you can even use a satin finish. I like the matte. The newer matte finish like Benjamin Moore has has the ceramic micro spheres technology and it makes it super washable. For the woodwork I would use satin.

Many bathrooms are small and you can get yourself a 7-inch roller and roller cover instead of the usual 9-inch roller and cage frame for rolling out the ceiling and the walls and to get around tight areas. Also while I cut it around stuff like ceiling lights I like to take my roller and roll around where I cut in with my brush to hide brush strokes. That way you get a nice even finish.

I usually put 2 coats of paint on everything. I let the room dry 4 hours between coats using a small fan for air circulation. Once the bathroom is finished you can let it dry overnight to let the paint harden really good. Put back your switch covers and your towel racks, put your light and vent fan back up on the ceiling. Put mirror and toilet tank back.

Toilet tanks usually come off easy. You don't have to take the whole toilet out, just the tank on top. I use a small shop vac to suck up the remaining water out of the tank after turning the water supply off and draining it. And that's about it for bathroom painting.

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