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Guys. It's time.
The other day somebody asked me how my kitchen tiles were holding up and I realised that somewhere in between picking food off the carpet, playing mind-numbingly endless games of "dollies" and answering innumerable questions about such diverse topics as "why isn't there a toy library?" and "how do babies get out of your belly?", more than six freaking months had passed without me noticing!!!
So, it's definitely time for an update. As you might remember, back in August we finally bit the bullet and painted our ugly kitchen floor tiles. (You can read the original post here).
We didn't have the money to replace them and I had spent months reading blog posts that told me it could be done so we thought "what do we have to lose?!" and went for it.....
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| "What we had to lose" was this delightful throwback to 1999. |
Now, before we get to the pictures, I must just be very clear about how much wear the floor has gotten.
A lot. An awful lot!
I don't have the time or energy to try and keep things "good". Shoes are worn in here, toys are thrown, metal bowls are stood upon and "skated" around the island and a musical ride-on Mercedes Benz is regularly taken on joy rides by small naked children being chased by other, smaller naked children determined not to miss out on the naked joy-riding!
To be fair, it does look like a lot of fun.
So yeah, I haven't been doing anything in particular to try and save the paint!
And it still looks good! I'm still absolutely happy that we went ahead and did it, but to be absolutely honest I do feel like it photographs a bit better than it looks in real life ~ or maybe I just notice things that are really not obvious to anyone else?
As I said in the original post, this does need maintenance. It does get the odd scuff and chip, especially in front of the cooker and between the island and table, which are the highest traffic areas, so every six/eight weeks I go around with a little pot of leftover paint and touch it up.
I took these photos last week, and it had been at least two months since I had last done any touching up on it.
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| Those two weird tiles are actually bits of plywood put there to fill the gaps when we cut the hole in the wall and moved the radiator. Just like in the magazines! We could replace them with actual tiles...and maybe some day we will. And yes, that wall will be pink just as soon as I get the time to do it. |
This is right in front of the cooker, the area that gets the most abuse, and you can see that there are a few small marks on the tiles, but what actually bothers me more is the fact that the grout lines are gathering dirt here. It's showing up my lack of house-wifey skillz dammit! Now, I'm sure this is exactly why all grout eventually changes colour (don't believe me? go look at the grout in the out of the way areas of you kitchen/bathroom, I guarantee it's a lighter colour than everywhere else) but it's pretty disgusting to have to witness it happening. I could probably clean it with a toothbrush or something, but that sounds like a lot of hard work.
I've actually noticed that the tiles do get dirtier now than they did before. This is partly due to the fact that I now have a solid colour floor where I used to have a dirt-hiding pattern, but the painted surface definitely seems to hold on to dirt a little bit more. I'm ok with this as I'd rather know when the floor is really clean, but I do need to mop it several times a week. And on the subject of mopping, I treat this floor exactly the same as all the others, using boiling hot water with a tiny bit of bleach and some floor cleaner in it (my kids get most of their nutrition from things they find on this floor, I feel like I need to try and sterilise it!)
This is between the island and table, another high-traffic area.
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| Socks ~ bloggers own. |
And here you can see the chips and black smudges that the rubber feet on the barstools sometimes leave. I did put felt pads on the feet of all the chairs, but these stools are heavy and get pulled in and out several times a day so it does eventually take it's toll.
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So am I happy with how it held up? Would I do it again?
Yes!!!!!!
However, as I said in the original post, this isn't a forever fix, and even as a temporary one it does require a bit of maintenance. So, if my tiles were not perfect, but fairly inoffensive, or I had pets, or a penchant for strutting around in stilettos, then this probably wouldn't be worth doing. But for us this was a definite winner. It's changed the whole feel of the kitchen, and helped turn it into something that we can live with quite happily until we can afford more permanent updates, and that's a win in my eyes!
I'll be back next week with an update on how the rest of the kitchen is holding up, there are some surprises so don't miss it!
If you would like to read about the other projects in my kitchen makeover:
