How to Paint Your Bathtub and Shower Professionally: Step-by-Step Guide

I can’t imagine a time when someone looked at marbled beige fiberglass and was like ‘OMG how GOOD would this look in our shower?!’ but I guess that happened back in the 50s when our house was built.

It’s kind of funny to think that someday our grandchildrens’ generation will walk through older homes and probably judge our slat walls, exposed hardwood floors and subway tile and think ‘why would you remove beautiful carpeted rooms?!’

Anyway, back to our bathroom. The bigger bathroom in our house was originally a standalone bathroom with access from the hallway, but we made a doorway between it and our bedroom so it became like a master bathroom.

We initially painted the vanity a moody green (Muted Sage by Behr) and switched out the vanity hardware for black drawer pulls, but otherwise have left it in all its beige glory until now.

Our quick one-day makeover

We had planned a budget refresh with a new light fixture above the vanity, new faucets and a nice new black shower trim kit but on a whim I decided to just go all out and refinish the bathtub and shower surround like I’d planned to do at some point on the neverending house project list. In hindsight I’m so glad I did because it was only one night of painting and the results really are amazing.

I mean, check out this before and after:

We used a tub and tile refinishing kit, which we’d previously used in our guest bathroom makeover. We bought a whole extra kit we didn’t end up using in that project so I already had the paint and decided to just go for it using the lessons we learned from the first go-around in the other bathroom (which were a lot).

Tools & Materials

• Rustoleum Tub & Tile Refinishing Kit in white
• 4” mini roller
• Paint tray
• Foam brush
• Ventilator mask
• Painters tape
• Sander
• Sandpaper (the kit calls for 400 grit but the highest I had was 220 and it worked fine)
• Tack cloth
• Cleaning solution (I just used a regular bathroom cleaner)
• Some kind of knife like a box cutter, exacto knife, caulk removing tool etc.
• Caulk

Prep is the most important step

I know, I know, prep work sucks but it’s especially important in this project.

Before you start, open any windows you can nearby and use the exhaust fan in your bathroom plus any other plug-in fans you’ve got nearby. Those fumes are no joke.

The instructions on the tub refinishing kit are pretty thorough, but you’ll need to clean those panels like you’ve never cleaned before. Clean like your judgy grandma is visiting and get rid of any build-up or mildew so your surface is really smooth.

It seems kind of counterintuitive but once it’s all clean you’ve got to then run your sander over the whole thing so the paint has something rough to adhere to. Give it all a wipe over with your tack cloth to get rid of any dust.

This was the first time I’ve used a tack cloth and, damn, do I hate the texture of it. It feels like dunking your hand in hot wax then wiping the walls but that weird, sticky material really does pick up all those little dust particles a regular cloth wouldn’t get.

Next remove any caulk around the edges, corners, wherever there’s caulk or silicone that your paint is going to touch. To be honest, I skipped this step in the instructions thinking it’d be fine and it did turn out okay, but would’ve been much easier had I have just done what I was told. Shocker.

Throw some painters tape up around all your edges and around your drain/tub spout/shower head and you’re good to go.

Warning: It’s not like regular paint

This stuff is epoxy paint so it’s not like using a regular paintbrush and just slapping it on there. The kit comes with a Part A and Part B tub. The Part A, the little one, is poured into the Part B to create the epoxy paint you’ll use.

At first it seems really watery and you’re like ‘good lord how many coats will I need’, but you’ve got to stir that tub of the mixed solution for a solid five minutes I would say to make sure the more paint-like consistency that’s settled at the bottom mixes with the more watery top stuff. It still will look thinner than normal paint, but don’t worry, because epoxy hardens when it dries.

Get to work

By this point, all that mixing probably has it pretty fumey in your work area. Make sure you’re wearing a mask and pour some of the paint into a tray (or if you’re me and can’t find a tray, use a paper plate).

Load up your roller but make sure it’s not too full – because of how thin the solution is, it’s really easy to drip. Start rolling the same way you would with normal paint and work section-by-section.

I found the best method was to paint one quadrant of each panel, move onto the next one, then after a few minutes drying go back to the previous part I’d just painted to go over it and smooth out any bubbles.

The paint is supposed to be self-leveling which means any bubbles should work themselves out, but I made sure to go over any obvious bubbly spots just in case.

Make sure to blend the edges

Because you’re working in sections and this paint dries so hard, when you’re done a whole panel, load up your roller and lightly go over the whole thing to make sure the edges of each section you worked on blend together.

The main thing we learned about this type of paint is that you’ve got to work fairly quickly – there’s no putting the paint roller in the fridge for a while, taking a break and coming back. On the box it says the tub has to be used within six hours of mixing.

Use a foam brush to get the corners and edges

I found that my roller got pretty close to all the edges but there were a few spots that needed some extra attention. Use the foam brush to lightly dab over the corners, but don’t wipe or it’ll make brush strokes that look obviously different to the rest of the area. Remember that you’ll re-caulk the corners and edges of the tub and shower surround so don’t worry too much about the real depths of those corners.

Paint at least one more coat

Mine took three to look the most covered, but in all honesty it still looks a little splotchy in spots. You’ve got to wait an hour between coats but I found that by the time I got to the end of the whole shower surround and waited about 20 minutes, I was able to circle back to the first part I’d done and start again.

Onto the tub

The bottom of our tub was a NIGHTMARE. It has those little circles of nonslip texture and those were brown with who-knows-what. It was disgusting and I’d scrubbed and scrubbed with everything I could find before giving up. I tried bleach, cleaning solutions and even went full witch’s cauldron sprinkling baking soda and vinegar over it (my usual household cleaning go-to) but to no avail.

Luckily this tub and tile kit had my back.

Painting the tub will be the same theory as the walls, but with a lot more curves.

I found the best method was to work bottom to top, painting over the floor of the tub where you stand then up the sides. The rounded edges at the bottom of the tub are such a pain to get right, but I just went smooth and steady along the bottom of the tub and up the first curve in one steady movement which gave the best results.

In the rounded corners of the bottom of the tub I needed the foam brush again, but after that was done I was able to hold the roller horizontally and cover the main inside of the tub fairly easily.

Make sure you do the top lip of the tub last so you don’t accidentally get paint all over your shirt when you lean over to do the bottom of the tub. Lesson learned there.

I did two coats on the tub – it didn’t need as much attention as the surround since it was already a white color to start with.

Leave the fans on and let dry for a really long time

We removed the painters tape and left the fans running overnight to help with the fumes, but were able to turn them off the next morning. Re-caulk all the edges of your tub the next day and don’t use the shower for three days if possible (that’s what’s recommended on the box kit). Don’t worry, you’ll still be able to walk by and marvel at how much of an improvement your refinished tub is in the meantime!

So that’s it. We were able to refinish our tub for under $30 in paint and it makes a huge difference when you don’t have the time or budget to do a full makeover in a bathroom.

If you liked learning how to paint your bathtub, check out our $500 guest bathroom refresh where we used the same tub and tile paint!

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