AT reader Nancy is struggling with the bathroom "remodel" in the condo she's renting: I rent an adorable 1950's condo that has a lot of nice touches. Unfortunately, the bathroom makes me sick. Someone - and I don't know if it's my landlord or previous owners - decided to lay some beige vinyl over the original yellow tile, and glaze the bathtub and tub tile white. The old flooring is still visible along the wall, and I can make out the impression of tiles underneath the vinyl too. I really want to fix this, but I also don't want to spend a whole lot of money re-doing someone ELSE'S bathroom. I tried FLOR, but it just looked weird after I had to cut 95% of the tiles to fit all the weird angles in my bathroom, the toilet, the pedestal sink, etc.
This is really obnoxious remodeling, like something off of one of HGTV's crazy band-aid remodel TV programs, where they encourage people to cover up their retro pastel tiles with glaze and boring neutral shades. The worst part is I have a neighbor who kept her bathroom in its original state, and it's really lovely! Is there anything I can do in the meantime? Or should I just suck it up until I buy my own place?
[ Photo from HGTV ]
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I don't understand what the photo is showing me.
But I think from reading your post it sounds like you can take the vinyl flooring off if the old tile is still there. That's a yucky job, but not that hard to do yourself. And get a nice shower curtain in the style you're going for to hide the white reglaze. Reglazing is expensive and usually looks crappy, so there's not much point in paying to do it over in a better color in a rental.
It doesn't sound like there is much you can do in the way of camoflaging the problem. Maybe you can talk to the owner about it? If you have been a stable renter and the owner is interested in keeping you there, he/she might be amenable to fixing it up. But honestly, in today's economic climate, I wouldn't hold my breath.
Floor mats! Yes, the flooring's crappy, but by using a bathmat and a toilet mat, it'll take the focus off the crappy floor tiles and help accent the bathroom. Since it's a rental, your best bet is to work with what you've got, rather than waste your money on something you won't be keeping or making a profit from.
Hi. I'm the Nancy that posted this question. And I really wish I had a picture of my bathroom to help illustrate this! I read up on a number of web sites about putting vinyl over ceramic tiles, and I'm pretty sure the original flooring is all jacked up now. Since the vinyl job that was done in the bathroom was done rather badly, I was thinking maybe re-vinyling it might not be so expensive, and then I could paint - something not permanent though, any ideas? - the tiles along the while in a decorative accent color like blue or green in a color that goes with the newer, better vinyl I would lay down. Suggestions? I don't plan to buy for at least two more years...
My grandparents always had floormats that covered the entire bathroom floor. I don't know where they got the material, but they literally cut it to fit the entire bathroom so that none of the original tile was showing. It looks pretty decent, kept your feet dry and was easy to clean. Its probably the cheapest way you can address your problem since you will be buying your own place in a couple of years.
Sigh... I have this same problem. The one room I would like most to have is a beautiful, relaxing bathroom. And this is the one thing it seems hardest to find in a rental in my price range. My bathroom right now is horrible. I too have ugly vinyl over messed up old black and white tile floors. And the vinyl flooring is blue while the wall tiles are still yellow. It's just gross. Sorry I have no advice, but I certainly feel your pain. For my part, I am waiting until I buy. I know I would have to put several thousand dollars into my rental bathroom to see a real improvement, so I am instead going to put that money toward my downpayment for my own place. I hate living with it as it is, but I know I would be kicking myself later if I poured money into a rental, wishing I had the money to put into my own home.
For our half-bath, we used the starch fabric trick that's normally used on walls, and just ran it across the disgusting new vinyl floor and up the walls to the edge of the old tile (the vinyl and tile were clashing patterns). It was very cheap, maybe $20 for all the materials (fabric from Ikea). And it looks pretty good, although cutting the fabric was a pain and we do have to re-apply the starch now and again when the cats peel down the edges.
But I'm not sure how well it would work in a room with a tub given that water gets on the floor, not to mention the steam. Also the old tile on our walls only goes up about a foot, and it looks like yours is much more expansive. But for us it's been a cheap fix that makes going into the bathroom a lot more pleasant, and because it doesn't make any permanent changes the landlord doesn't mind. Then again, it's so inexpensive it might be worth a try.
If you just want to cover the floor, someone on AT LA used rubber gym flooring cut to shape for this and it looked really good, and cost something like $100. We considered that but it didn't work for our purposes because the rubber's too thick to go up the walls and stay put. But the rubber mats resists water and steam, so they're probably better for a full bath.
I've certainly never tried this, but you might be able to use those "wall stickers" to cover the yucky vinyl. Some of those wall stickers places (like Wall Slicks for example) sell fairly large sheets of "wallpaper" stickers that I think would be really easy to cut to fit around your bathroom appliances, and as vinyl is a nice smooth surface, they would certainly stick... Just an idea...