Painting Kitchen Wall Instead Of Tiling

[purpledino 1]

Hi,

I just spoke to an ID - one which is recommended a fair bit in this forum - who suggested the below:

1) tile only the area between the top-hung and bottom cabinets

2) backsplash - glass/stainless steel

3) paint the rest of the kitchen using more hard-wearing, washable paint

a few reasons why he recommended it

1) cost savings - obviously (close to $1K savings)

2) more contemporary feel to it (i can imagine since can use nicer color combos/ even hang up pictures on painted wall and will look quote nice) - i think most kitchen walls overseas are painted

he says from experience, maintanence will be ok since we will be having a cooker hood to suck up the smoke and what not.

wondering if any of you have done it before. i mean, will it mean that we have to clean the painted kitchen wall often?

[waileong 0]

Obviously, it depends on how often you cook and how you cook. Stir frying chinese style creates lots of oil in the air. Your hood will not be able to cope.

[hobbes11 0]

i did not do any wall tiles for the whole of my kitchen, i chose painted walls instead, i did glass backing throughout the start to the end of my cabinets. glass backing is easier to maintain than stainless steel.

painted walls is cheaper and i tot easier to maintain. At most after few years just repaint with other colours if it really get very dirty.

It is difficult to really clean properly with tiles present esp the cooking area. Those suction hood i feel only will help little bit during cooking even though i also has one installed in my kitchen

[white_affair 0]

I too did not do any wall tiles for my kitchen.. I only did glass backing between my top bottom kitchen cabinets... But since I have my hob on my island and I do not have a hood, I do forsee that I have to paint my walls sooner than most people...

If you want plastered walls instead of tiles, make sure its not the wall near where you are doing your cooking.. Other walls should be fine..

[christinetan 0]

In fact, i'm looking to plaster over tiles in a resale flat I'll be doing up for a relative coz it's more tiring to regrout/ clean tiles than it is to paint... so i do think that ID made a decent proposal... Will use a combination of tiles and glass backsplash for areas between cabinets and hob area too... but of course, tiling whole kitchen creates a diff look and there are very unique looking tiles now which can create wallpaper effects even... Depends on a combination of budget, style needs and maintanence ability i guess.. !!

Edited September 3, 2007 by christinetan

[Miu Miu 0]

What is backsplash?

[FifiGal 0]

What is backsplash?

If I'm not wrong, backsplash is that wall behind your stove area..presumably its called that becoz you "splash" against it when you cook? hee

christinetan, I'm interested in your idea of plastering over the tiles, becoz i am cracking my head how to re-do my old kitchen without too much fuss. I guess replacing or repainting just cabinet doors should not involve hacking, but i dunno wat to do with the backsplash.

Mine is the original HDB tiles and it looks just plain awful esp as the plaster between the tiles ( is that called grouting?) has come off after many years of cleaning. But I'm not keen on hacking as that would mean dust, fuss and possibly affecting the cabinets.

One ID (whom i was consulting for other parts of my house reno) suggested overlaying with glass. But I have doubts of the safety. Last thing i want, is to have the glass panel suddenly fall on my pots n pans while cooking.

Am also trying to look for ways to refresh the awful tiles in the rest of my kitchen without having to do hacking....has anyone else done it before?

[Miu Miu 0]

i think i agar noe wat is backsplash liao...

Isit got ppl use stainless steel too? but seems not cheap...

So if i wana hack away the wall tiles, but no laying tiles for all walls. I can paint the walls but the side that require cooking, will use backsplash & tiles... is it ok?

[white_affair 0]

i think i agar noe wat is backsplash liao...

Isit got ppl use stainless steel too? but seems not cheap...

So if i wana hack away the wall tiles, but no laying tiles for all walls. I can paint the walls but the side that require cooking, will use backsplash & tiles... is it ok?

Yup, there is also stainless steel backsplash.

If you want plain plastered walls for your kitchen, you can plaster over your existing tiles without any hacking.. This is what I did too ... But of cos, must check that the tiles are not hollow, if not, they may pop in future..

For the wall behind your hob, best to have backsplash or tiles... easier to clean away oil and grime..

[FifiGal 0]

If you want plain plastered walls for your kitchen, you can plaster over your existing tiles without any hacking.. This is what I did too ... But of cos, must check that the tiles are not hollow, if not, they may pop in future..

Thanks! now i have a possible idea of how to cover-up my old ugly hdb kitchen tiles without ripping apart the entire kitchen to renovate....

As for the backsplash ideas..i did a quick google just now and found this site http://www.mykitchenbacksplash.com/. Looks like an US site so no useful contacts there for us but we can look-see-look-see some nice backspash ideas ..

[Miu Miu 0]

OT abit...

What is the diff between plastered & painting?

[FifiGal 0]

Thanks! now i have a possible idea of how to cover-up my old ugly hdb kitchen tiles without ripping apart the entire kitchen to renovate....

As for the backsplash ideas..i did a quick google just now and found this site http://www.mykitchenbacksplash.com/. Looks like an US site so no useful contacts there for us but we can look-see-look-see some nice backspash ideas ..

Just to add - found some old threads here on similar topic of kitchen wall tiling/ backsplash.

http://www.renotalk.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=4994

http://www.renotalk.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=7444

[white_affair 0]

OT abit...

What is the diff between plastered & painting?

Plastering will achieve the same results as your bedroom or living room.. Plain white walls.. If you want different colour for your walls, then you paint it.. The good thing is, you can paint a new colour in future to achieve a different look or feel..

If you still want to maintain tiles for your kitchen and do not want to hack, you can also have the option to do spray painting on tiles.. Its quite nice and saves cost on hacking.. There are some topics on that too, can just do a search..

[purpledino 1]

OT abit...

What is the diff between plastered & painting?

well, in the context of painting kitchen walls, if u don't want to hack the existing tiles away, you will need to plaster over the tiles - meaning a thin 2mm layer of plaster is layered over the wall to smoothen and hide the tilesso you can paint over them.

you can't just paint over the existing tiles cos you will still see the existing tile texture if you just paint over (unless that's what you want of course)...

anyone has any recommended paint types i should use for my kitchen walls?

[gendon 0]

well, in the context of painting kitchen walls, if u don't want to hack the existing tiles away, you will need to plaster over the tiles - meaning a thin 2mm layer of plaster is layered over the wall to smoothen and hide the tilesso you can paint over them.

you can't just paint over the existing tiles cos you will still see the existing tile texture if you just paint over (unless that's what you want of course)...

anyone has any recommended paint types i should use for my kitchen walls?

Painting for tiled surfaces require special tile paints that has primer within. U can try checking out at either Self-Fix or Home-Fix, if you wanna try DIY.

Edited September 4, 2007 by gendon