Five Things You Need to Know Before You Paint a Bathroom

How to paint a room

1. Clean the Walls Before You Start

Many people forget to clean the walls in the bathroom before starting painting. But the walls have residue from months or even years of steam, humidity, hair spray and other products that can affect adhesion. You can use a bucket of warm soapy water or TSP to clean the walls before starting.

If you are thinking about painting the cabinets too, that's a different story read about how to do that here.

2. Prime the Walls with Tinted Primer

While lots of people remember to use a primer (paint and primer in one does not count). Using a tinted primer is often overlooked. This is a free pro-tip; have the paint store tint your primer to a shade that is close to the final color you will be applying. This will dramatically lessen the headache from having to apply additional coats of paint to cover a bright white primer in most cases. To read more about tinting primer read How to Properly Prime Before You Paint

3. Use Quality Tools

When I started as a painter, I tried, like everyone else to shortcut and buy cheap tools. That was a huge mistake for several reasons. First, cheap tools only last for possibly one job before becoming destroyed. So, in the long run, it was not cheaper to buy cheap brushes or roller covers. Second, the cheap applicators never really apply a smooth coat of paint causing me to have to continually re-do much of the job, or be left with a less than great finish.

4. Use Quality Paint

The next pro-tip is to spend the couple extra bucks for the quality paint from an actual paint supplier (not a big box store). I have found over the years that by using quality paint, it lasts longer, the finish is better, and it takes fewer coats to achieve great coverage.

5. Paint Two Coats

Even when using high-quality paint, you should always plan to paint two coats of paint over the primer. The second coat will go on much faster and take less paint but the difference will be substantial. 

If while painting you accidentally find a run in the paint, read How to Fix a Paint Drip to find out how to easily fix it.

Good Luck!