I would experiment with gluing thin plywood beadboard on the tile. If that works, to finish off the top, nail on trim above the tile line, and glue or nail on the baseboard trim.

I'd be worried about mold/mildew between the tile and the wainscoating. I guess you could very heavily seal it with silicone but I'd personally just remove the tile.

Absolutely.You may want to consider using a PVC product due to moisture/splashing concerns though. These kits (beadboard, baseboard, cap) are nice.
http://www.aicmillworks.com/wainscot-panels/1/BeadBoard/Kit/PVC/finishing/height/detail/

An incredibly bad idea. There is a saying, don't put good over bad. It's a good saying. Removing tile can be tedious and a pain sometimes, but it is a job that anyone can do. There are tons of instructional videos on youtube that can show you how to remove tile in the bathroom, prep the wall and also how to install wainscotting. Do not put anything over the existing tile. Do it right the first time

Save yourself the aggravation of having to take it all down in a half a doz years or so when water gets between the tile and the board and creates problems and just take down the tile on the wall now. Putting in wallboard (get the special drywall for bathrooms) is really easy and then applying the pvc beadboard or wainscoting is super easy - a glue job.

My hubby and I did this in our tiny bathroom in our apt (which we now rent) about 4 years ago when I was 7 months pregnant. It really was easy, is super low maintenance, and still looks great!

You definitely want to get the PVC wainscoting. They sell it at both Home Depot and Lowes. Sometimes it's hard to find though, so don't be afraid to ask. I just redid my bath in November 2011. When I bought the house the previous owners had covered all of the tile (including the inside of the bath stall) with regular MDF beadboard. Needless to say, it didn't hold up. What was in the shower disintegrated and got moldy. What was on the walls started warping and coming popping off. I ended up spending *a lot* of money to have a contractor come in and fix the mess. I chose to remove all of the tile and put PVC beadboard over greenboard, but I probably could have gone over tile too. I just couldn't afford to make any more mistakes.

I've removed tile its easy !! I've also trimmed out two of the bathrooms here with wood beadboard, base and casings. Its held up like new for ten years I've never had any problems.

A reminder that in addition to PVC and MDF beadboard there's always good old wood. With proper installation and a thorough coat of paint it will be the most durable, forgiving, and attractive.

Whatever you decide, enjoy the results.

Did you think of having the tile refinished? my current bathroom had a similar ugly tile to the one in the pic, that shade of puky beige, but it was in good condition (it's a 50's house). I had it refinished in white, and looks great. They did the whole tile and the bathtub in probably 5 hours. It cost $ 500, but it was fast, easy and clean, and I was able to preserve the 50's look and charm.

Remove the tile...If you place something over the tile you will get mold and the material will need to replaced. Another drawback of going over the tile will be that the wainscoting will cause your bathroom to look smaller. If you remove the tile then place the wainscoting the room will not look closed in.

I have nothing to contribute except sympathy. I have the same (or similar) egregious tile floor to ceiling in my main bathroom.

Now, I'm going to Youtube to look for tips on removing tile. Thanks for the idea, Anash, I don't know why I didn't think of that before.

I'm not sure why you wouldn't bother just removing the tile where you want to add wainscoting. It's just a little demo, and since you'll be installing wainscoting over the walls there it's okay if the removal is a bit messy.

We replaced tile with board and batten wainscoting-- all on the cheap. First we removed to the tile but left up the nasty wallboard, since we were just going to cover it. Then we put sheets of plywood over the nastywalls, and then used strips of wood to create the board and batten look. Very successful-- definitley DIY and very cheap! good luck!

I agree with most of the others who say to remove the tile. It's really not that much work to demo. If you're worried about moisture between the drywall and wainscotting, use a waterproof membrane product that you paint on. Something like RedGard. It's good stuff! Sure, you could go over the top of the tile, but I think you'll run into more problems during the install as well as down the road.

We did this and it's worked fantastic! You put the beadboard right to the top of the tile and then you nail the trim directly to the wall above that. Caulk the hell out of it all, prime, and paint.

In order to do a more professional job, I would remove the tiles before doing this project for all the reasons mentioned above. I don't think wainscoting over tiles is a good idea. Take it from a girl who watched her dad renovate for 33 years...

I have a similar problem - even uglier tile in a rental. I don't think the landlord will permit us to change the tile or do it himself. Is there anything else to be done?

I'd probably do what Ayellowhouse did (the hell-caulking method, as long as it's PVC wainscotting). But it occurs to me, removing the tile could be a matter of just cutting out the entire wall board, not trying to meticulously pry the tiles off the wallboard which would then be ruined anyway. I think they were using sheetrock in the 50's which wouldn't be that hard to get off, with the help of a saw or knife run along the top of the tile and a nice fun sledge hammer to whack it in key places, then ripping it off in larger chunks.

Marcelaz's experience of having her tile refinished is also intriguing, though. $500 is probably a good price, though for me it would feel a bit high. I didn't see your original post about painting over the tile. But some of these modern primers, if allowed to cure a good long time, really CAN stick even to very slick tile. Lowe's had a partially-primed tile at their paint counter and you could NOT get it off, even scraping it with a key, etc. It was just their normal primer. HD has one called The Gripper that's similar. It's latex, ie soap-n-water cleanup, but avoid getting it on your hands - it REALLY does stick hard!

Also, there are epoxy paints for re-doing bathtubs and sinks. The 2-part epoxies would certainly work, but I've used a one-part called Poxy Coat directly on glazed porcelain. It took a while to cure (this was just a test tile, so I scraped it occasionally to test). It might have been a week or so before it became impenetrable. But I still have it and it's as tough as you could ever want.

I bet a bunch of people came on and told you you absolutely can't paint tile, am I right? They would be under-informed. It's just that you'd be painting over the grout too, which might look dopey unless you do all-white.

Ah, I painted my bathroom tiles with a high gloss, oil based paint about two years ago and they still look as good as new! Bright white, shiny, and perfect. Good luck on either option!

Are you looking to cover all the tile or just the tile on your walls? If the former, I don't see how wainscotting in the shower would work, and if the latter, I think the transition would look funny.

I am all for DIY, and I know there are many very informed and experienced commenters on AT, but I would consult a pro on this one. Any mistake you make could be more costly to fix in the end, and even if you end up doing much of the work yourself, you can at least get some guidance.

i have the same tile, only in 2 shades of blue. i have the same feeling as others here about the concern for mold with the wainscotting. we are looking into having a professional reglaze the tiles white, including the tile in the shower area. i heard it also helps block mold in the shower/bath, which would be an added benefit.

as one poster mentioned, no you're right, its not difficult to remove the tile, but it is terribly messy and could expose issues that will turn it into a much bigger project (experienced this too many times in my 1920s colonial already ;))

good luck with your decision, but i do suggest against wainscotting

Lemondrop - did you paint the tiles in the entire bathroom, including the bath area?

YES, we did the same as Yellowhouse and it looks wonderful 10 years later! The thing is that the top piece of trim will need to be pretty wide, but that's not a bad thing (it's like a tiny shelf).

I didn't see your earlier question and the comments so I'm wondering about the decision to abandon the original idea of painting. Did you consider this product: http://www.ronseal.co.uk/products/one-coat-tile-paint?

We've used it and it works perfectly, at least in a kitchen. This is a very quick and cost-effective solution and easy even for a layman to carry out. However, their color palette is limited and special attention is required when choosing the color for your project as the colors do not necessarily correspond with the ones given on their color map or printed on the paint pot. At least that was the case when we painted dark red tiles: 'sage' turned out to be light green with no hint of grey and 'outmeal' light yellow, rather like rich homemade valilla ice cream. Nevertheless, we were happy with the result, in the case of 'oatmeal' even more so than we would have been with the color from the color map.

@marcelaz -- thanks for the tip! I had no idea there was such a thing as refinishing tile. My bathroom is covered in that same beige tile (in excellent condition, other than being ugly), and re-doing the entire bathroom to get rid of it is beyond our resources/energy right now. I'm definitely going to look into this refinishing idea. Thanks!

have your answer. I called my husband who is local builder; liquid nails will not work; they will leave bumpa all oave the tile; also you will have gaps at the top and bottom too wide for baseboards to cover at the bottom or crown molding or chair rail to cover at the top of where the tile was. You must remove the tile with a chisel; sand the dry wall to remove any excess tile or grout; ONLYthen can you apply the wanscottong. Otherwise it will be a waste of time. I am an interior redesigner; but wanted to check with my husband; which is why I did not have this answer in my first post I wnated to make sure I was correct.. I posted my other comment on FB good luck!

Tile paint would also work INSTEAD of the wanscotting. :>) Would save lots of woek time and money. I thought you were looking for a different look also; thus the lengthy answer I just posted. Have a great day!

Have you considered leaving the tile and decorating around it?

My bathroom has Mamie Eisenhower pink tiles, very blah. But the tile is in great condition. With the right paint color, a more modern vanity and light fixture, and a lovely shower curtain that pulls it all together, the room looks great now. Finding a complementary paint color that enhances the color of the tile was the most difficult part.

I know this might not work for every bathroom (my parents had avacado tile floor to ceiling), many can be saved with redecorating.

Our bathroom has had all of the tile reglazed. I can not say enough how wonderful the result has been. An added bonus? The grout was glazed too, making cleaning a breeze.

There are companys that can come in and change the whole color of your bathroom in a day. They have the correct chemicals to etch the service and apply a hard proprietary coating on top. Most warranty their work for a decent period of time. If it's just the color that you dislike I'd go that route.

I had a specialized contractor come in and do the refinishing/ reglazing, and as Talktoearthworms said, they can do it in any color. I chose white, and it looks great. Again, $ 500 for the whole tile and the bathtub in a few hours. I need to submit my before and after pics !!!! Good luck everyone !!!

They did so very successfully in this one. Little Budget, Big Bath Update

Bathroom tile CAN be refinished professionally. I had the tile and bathtub refinished in my townhouse by professionals. Both look great and it was not terribly expensive. Google "bathroom tile refinishing" to find a local service company.

As a designer, I always recommend to my clients to do it right the first time. You may make your life easier or less expensive by trying a quick fix, however it almost ALWAYS costs more to repair these mistakes in the end. Wood in a small bathroom will most likely get wet and is likely to warp and collect moisture between it and the wall. Putting wood over the tiles would be even worse and most certainly cause a moisture/mold problem. I'm not sure how long you plan to live in your home, but quick fixes usually do not increase property value, whereas a good bathroom renovation can improve the value of your home. I would recommend speaking to a local professional about your renovation goals. It may cost you a little bit more for their advice, but it could save you lots of money in repairs and lots of headache.
Best of luck!

Having renovated a 60s bathroom with half-walls of tile just like this (and replacing with bead board), I can attest that removing the wall tile may not be as "easy" as others have said. Our bathroom was built like a bunker with layers of tile/cement mortar/chicken wire/ and wall board that was at a different height than the rest of the drywall. Get a reciprocating saw, and just cut the tiled wall portion outta there, then replace with wallboard and beadboard. (Of course feel free to try demoing first, you may get lucky) Also refinishing the tile is a great, easy (less messy) option. I love our refinished bathtub, and there is something to be said for having a lot of tile in a damp place like a small bathroom!

So sad that you keep on looking for ways to cover up perfectly good tile. Check out http://savethepinkbathrooms.com/ for inspiration. Not that you have a pink bathroom but it's the same idea.