Ever since we moved into this house (almost two years ago!), I have hated the grout color in Katie Wynn's (and Thomas's) bathroom. I have always thought it looked dark and gross. Here, take a look for yourself.
Isn't that nasty? Not to mention that the color was inconsistent across the floor.
After reading this tutorial from Young House Love and seeing a couple other success stories (here and here), I felt pretty confident that I could give my gross grout an inexpensive face lift. And with Matt's parents in town for the week to help take care of Thomas, now seemed like the perfect time to knock it out. So I sent Matt to Home Depot after work on Tuesday to pick up a $12 bottle of Polyblend Grout Renew. I told him to pick a light grey or putty color and he ended up bringing home Oyster Gray, the same color used by John and Sherry from YHL.
He brought it home Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning I went to work in the bathroom! I did not scrub my floors in preparation because A) I'm too lazy and B) the grout renew is supposed to be applied to dry floors and I was ready to get it done. No time to let floors dry!
Still in my pajamas, I grabbed the bottle and a tiny paintbrush and crouched down to get started behind the toilet. After doing one tile I was pretty sure I would not be knocking out this project in one day. It took forever, and I was already hurting from contorting my body to get behind the toilet. Thankfully, my pace picked up a little as I moved out into the open floor.
Here are some progress shots.
Three and a half hours later and I was finally done! And in desperate need of a back and shoulder massage. I think it was worth it, though. My paint job is far from perfect up close, but who is going to get down on their hands and knees to inspect this bathroom floor? Hopefully only our cleaning lady. :)
Here are some side-by-side before and after pics. Do you think the new color looks better? I don't necessarily think it's the perfect shade for these tiles, but I still think it's way better than before!
The bottle of Grout Renew says it's a paint and sealer in one, so I have zero plans to add another separate sealer. That means that BOOM, this home improvement project is DONE. Which is a good thing since I need to move on to the next project. This bathroom is undergoing a mini makeover so now I've got to get busy finishing some art work for the walls.