While we're talking about Reversible Decor this month, let's talk about icky bathrooms.
Dingy, tacky bathrooms are notoriously difficult to reinvent if you're renting. Unless you feel like paying for tear out, plumbing, tile setting, and a new tub (or sink) your options are pathetically limited. Or so we thought. After several years of taking semi-disturbing baths in tub that no amount of scrubbing would whiten, we found out about a service called Miracle Method.
This national company specializes in refinishing old porcleain, tile, and laminate surfaces. They will send a specialist to your home to assess the relative ickiness of your surfaces and to recommend an approach for resurfacing them. Some surfaces need repair (usually sanding) before they can be restored, others just need the cosmetic work.
"Cometic work" here refers to a truly amazing acrylic coating that's finished with a proprietary bonding agent. The result is a very hard and durable finish that rivals a new surface but that is cleaner, smoother, or more color-appropriate that the one beneath it. The typical cost of this service is 75% less than tear out and replacement, which can put it within a renter's budget, or, if you're lucky, your landlord's.
In our case we had both our icky bathtub and our time-worn kitchen sink and tile counters refinished (in renter's white) by Miracle Method and the total cost was just shy of $250. The surfaces dried and became usable within a day, but be warned: the chemical smell is something awful. Even with all the windows open it didn't completely dissipate for a few weeks. Best to do this kind of thing when it's warmish outside.
MM's website has tons of before/after pics, an FAQ, and tons of info about the process. You can reach the San Francisco franchise of Miracle Method (which is a national company) at 415.883.6126
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We used Miracle Method in DC to turn our floor-to-ceiling pink tile bathroom (not cute art deco pink, we're talking early '90s Saved by the Bell pink) into a calm white tile heaven. We did not have any problems with smell, and we have no windows in the bathroom and crappy venting. Two years later, I can report we have no cracks or scratches.
i have to admit, there is at least one "before" that i think looks better (or at least has more character) than the "after." Great concept though!
Here's a question to those of you with tile: What happened to the grout? Was it coated, too? How's it look?
That "before" on the left is what we had in the downstairs bathroom of our townhouse! We used to call it the Cthulhu sink because it looked like a gateway to the Old Ones.
I agree with aquarabbit. Great to know it can be done, but there were one or two of those before pictures that just needed a deep cleaning or repair rather than total "whiteout".
Jeez, until they got to that one tiled kitchen counter, I liked ALL the befores better.
We did this in our master bath, and the caulk around the outside border is awful! Plus, there are areas where we have pinholes that immediately turned black.
It's better than the yellow swirly cultured marble we had before, but by no means would I consider it a good permanent solution.
As soon as we can rip out the tub and replace it, we will. In the meantime I get to start at the cracked nasty caulk every day. (We tried recaulking and it damaged the MM coating, so we quickly gave up. I had to settle for bleaching it and trying to cover it with another layer of caulk. That lasted about a few weeks before cracking/discoloring too.)
I'd avoid doing this in a bathroom that actually gets used.
And yes, if you apply it over tile, it covers the grout too.
I have to agree with many of these posts.
After living for years in rental apartments that "don't offend anyone, and yet offend everyone!" I am so tired of white tile, white sink, white tub, white toilet. the only color in most rental bathrooms is the BB&B shower curtain, how sad! Where's the character?
Can MM do anything but white?
I think the caulk should be removed before they do this process (by client or company) - also, on one of the plumbing repair sites, it recommends that repairs aren't really going to work well with any product on cast iron, if the damage is in a spot that gets continuous water (like under the faucet.) I have a great old sink in my kitchen but i think the part under the faucet is too rusted to repair (unless I ship it to that company that actually strips and refires the sink like new.)
the bathroom in our apartment was SOOOO BAD even crackheads would have run. I wouldn't let guests use the bathroom when they came over...it was THAT bad. I didn't want to pay for tiling (too expensive) and we don't expect to be here for more than 2 years so....
I bought the sheets of pvc that are at Home Depot in the "shower" section. Cut them with regular scissors to size it (they even had bump-outs with a soap dish & towel bar) and put it up with adhesive and caulk. Six months later and it still looks great. The bathroom was so bad the Landlord told me to do whatever I wanted to it! LOL Replaced the sink, vanity & medicine cabinet and installed a nice new light with a dimmer and put in Ikea's Lack shelving in white around the perimeter of the room and lastly new vinyl tile. Voila. Looks great and I spent less than $500. It's by no means designer...but it's worlds better than what it was.
Hi,
I'm a new blogger, and I found yours. I also Love home repairs. I like your blog a lot and will check back regularly.
Happy Holidays,
Sue~