How To Easily “Paint” Your Dark Tile Grout for a Brand New Look | Thrifty Decor Chick

Dark tile grout. A brief context to set expectations.

Dark tile grout: Quick notes

Did you know changing the grout color in your kitchen or bathroom only takes a few minutes and around $20? 

This product makes such easy and quick work of refreshing grout, and is a small change that completely changes the look of your tile!

When we picked the design details for this house nearly ten years ago, I was still in a farmhouse-style phase. Not super farmhouse, but farmhouse-ish. 😂

I chose a gray grout for our white subway backsplash in the kitchen, to give it a bit of dimension and contrast: 

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A reader mentioned on that blog post (about “outdated” trends I don’t agree with) that there is a grout refresher product I should check out. 

That was last summer, and I finally looked into that product a few weeks ago. I’m so glad I did! 

This grout product would also be perfect for refreshing dirty, dingy floor grout. 

I chose a warm white color called Eggshell and it looks great with our white subway tile. 

The application couldn’t be easier and no prep is needed! This is one of the easiest DIY projects I’ve tackled in a long time. 

The product doesn’t come with an applicator, so I used a small craft brush I already had. You’ll want it to have shorter, stiff bristles so you can easily apply the grout “paint:” 

It was so simple and quick, and actually quite satisfying as well. 😊

I made sure to work in small sections so I didn’t miss any spots. Because of our gray grout, I ended up letting the first coat dry well (it dries fast), then applying a second coat on top: 

The “painting” process goes very quickly. The directions say to wipe the excess with a towel a few minutes after application, but I found that didn’t remove the residue on the tile well enough. 

I quickly learned it was much easier to let it dry completely on the tile first: 

I tried to get a good photo of the remaining product that dried around the edge of each tile. 

You can remove it with your nails easily, but to make quick work of it I used a flat razor blade to remove the residue around the tiles: 

If you try this when it’s wet or even slightly damp, it becomes a mess. Waiting until it is dry makes for a very quick clean up. 

This part is the most time consuming by far! But still quick for the end result. 

This grout refresh comes in a TON of colors/shades (at least 25 from what I can tell) and can be used on just about anything…it is so versatile!

A few more facts about this Mapei grout paint: 

• It can be used on sanded or unsanded, cement, epoxy, urethane and acrylic grouts. 
• This product cannot be used on pools or natural stone, but can be used on practically anything else — from marble to cement to brick.
• It can be used on regular tile flooring as well as shower floors and is walkable in around two hours.
• Kitchen backsplashes and countertops are another great place to use this product.
• You can also use this on garage floors and even vinyl flooring.
• The refresher comes with a sealant built in, which saves SO much time!

Of course, it’s not only for lightening dark grout — going from light to dark is an option as well. 

Let’s check out a few before and after pics, my favorite! Here’s how the backsplash under our revamped custom range hood looked before: 

And here is is after about 45 minutes of “painting” and clean up :

It’s an odd mix of subtle but impactful result — almost like the tile got a filter that softens it a bit. 

The area under the cabinet before: 

And with the refreshed grout now: 

I LOVE IT. There’s still plenty of dimension — you can see where the tiles start and stop. But all of the harsh lines are gone and the backsplash becomes the backdrop instead of a focal point. 

Thank you anonymous reader for sharing this product with me! So pleased with this. 

And after the brighter, cleaner light grout: 

The small bottle easily covered all of our grout twice — we don’t have a ton of tile to cover but it went way further than I thought it would. There’s still plenty left over. 

This is such a great way to give your kitchen or bathroom a new look, I just had to share! Have you tried this product on your tile grout? 

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