The sight of yellowed, ugly, or old tiles can really ruin your day. When the first thing you see when you wake up in the morning is the outdated 1980s tiles, it’s pretty depressing. But don’t worry: Even if you don’t have the money to renovate your bathroom or kitchen at the moment, there are numerous ways that you can beautify the old tiles a little. We have summarized the best tips for pimping tiles for you here.

The simplest option: tile foil and tile stickers

Tile stickers can make boring plain tiles more exciting and hide ugly tiles entirely. The stickers combine many advantages when pimping tiles:

• They are available in a wide range.
• These are usually particularly inexpensive.
• Applying the stickers is easy.
• They are waterproof and therefore also suitable for wet rooms.
• It can be removed without leaving any residue. It is therefore not necessary to obtain the landlord’s consent for this.

However, before you stick the foils on, you should thoroughly clean and degrease the tiles. Cleaning the tiles works with home remedies, such as a cleaner made from vinegar and washing-up liquid. So that you can easily move the stickers into the desired position, moisten the surface with water and a little washing-up liquid beforehand. In any case, the costs are kept within limits. You can find high-quality foils on the Internet for as little as one euro each. In most cases, however, they are not available individually, but only in larger quantities. This is how you can beautify your old tiles in a large project.

Coat tiles with tile paint

If you do a little research on the internet, you will quickly notice that beautiful new tiles are often much cheaper than you thought. However, if you shy away from a complete renovation, you can pimp the old tiles by simply painting them over with a special tile varnish.

Just like when applying the tile foil, you have to clean and degrease the existing subsurface beforehand. The new color is applied in two steps. First, you have to ensure that the tiles are properly primed. You can apply the paint with a foam roller. Make sure that the joints in particular are well filled.

You should apply the second layer after a drying time of twelve hours at the earliest. Ideally, you’ll sleep on it for a night before you start. If the tiles are in wet areas, there is also a third finishing step, because in this case you also have to seal the tiles. Since the tile paint is very difficult to remove, you should also clarify this measure with your landlord in advance whether you can beautify your old tiles in this way.

Plaster and paint over tiles

If you no longer value the tile look and would rather have a smooth wall surface, you can simply smooth the tiles with a spatula and then simply paint over them. Here, too, you have to clean and degrease the tiles in the first step. In addition, you must also remove the silicone joints before you putty, as the putty will not stick to them.