Best paint for bathrooms and kitchens... what are your options?
There’s nothing like a coat of paint to give your bathroom or kitchen a total makeover.
It’s one of the cheapest ways of transforming your bathroom or kitchen, but if you use the wrong type of paint for areas like bathrooms and kitchens, the finish may not look terribly professional.
It can be confusing to look at all the different sorts of paints available in the large DIY stores, so what’s the best choice for your bathroom and kitchen?
Best paint for bathrooms and kitchens compared
A number of options are out there on the market for those looking for the best paint for bathrooms and kitchens.
These offerings from popular home improvement materials suppliers include:
Crown Kitchen and Bathroom Paint
This paint claims to be moisture resistant, steam proof, super tough, can be wiped clean and with a mouldguard ingredient for added protection.
Crown kitchen and bathroom paint retails at £11.50 for 1 litre and £20.00 for 2.5 litres (prices at July 2016 and may vary dependent upon home improvement materials retailers).
This product is available online from Toolstation.
No Nonsense Trade Kitchen And Bathroom Paint From Screwfix
This paint, from Screwfix.com claims to be specially formulated for kitchens and bathrooms.
It is grease, stain and moisture resistant and comes in 2.5 litre sized containers.
The finish is mid-sheen and the product is high opacity.
Coverage is 13 square metres per litre.
No Nonsense trade kitchen and bathroom paint from Screwfix retails at £13.59 for 2.5 litres (prices at July 2016).
The price indicates that this is either a budget option as it is at the lower end of the price range for 2.5 litres compared with other specialist bathroom and kitchen paints, or the price is based on this being essentially at trade price but for both trade and retail.
This product is available online from Screwfix.
Dulux Bathroom And Kitchen Paints
Dulux are one of the few paint manufacturers who produce separate products for bathrooms and kitchens.
Dulux Bathroom+ Paint
Dulux Bathroom+ paint features moisture and steam resistance formulations and also incorporates the MouldTec formulation which is designed to protect bathroom paint for up to 5 years.
Coverage is up to 13 square metres per litre.
Drying time is 24 hours but you can apply recoats within 6 hours.
This product is designed to produce a soft sheen.
Dulux Bathroom+ paint retails at £20.83 for a 2.5 litre container which is on the higher end of the prices for bathroom and kitchen specialist paints.
This product is available online from B & Q.
Dulux Kitchen+ Paint
Dulux Kitchen+ paint provides grease and stain protection.
The greaseproof formulation is specifically designed to protect against the grease which can come about as a result of everyday cooking activities in the kitchen.
It is also designed to be washable without colour fade.
It claims to have exceptionally tough durability and coverage is 13 square metres per litre.
Drying time is 5 hours and recoat time is also 5 hours.
The finish is matt.
This product retails for £20.83 for 2.5 litres and again is at the higher end of the specialist bathroom and kitchen price range.
This product is available from B & Q.
Dulux Kitchen & Bathroom Paint Colours
These Dulux products come in a range of colours and Dulux have a very handy interactive paint colour chart.
Standard Emulsion
When it comes to cheap and cheerful, you can’t beat standard emulsion.
If you opt for a basic white emulsion, all the large DIY stores will sell trade emulsion at around £2 per litre, although you will have to buy around 10 litres at a time to get the cheapest prices.
Emulsion is a great budget buy, but may not be the most appropriate choice for your bathroom.
Here are the advantages and disadvantages:
Advantages of standard emulsion
Emulsion is cheap, easy to apply and widely available.
It can be applied using any type of brush or roller, and dries quickly.
It is sold in a huge range of shades.
Exact colours can be matched or mixed to customer requirements.
Disadvantages of standard emulsion
Using cheaper emulsion, it can take several coats to get an even cover.
If the air in the room being decorated is moist – as if often the case in a bathroom or kitchen – emulsion can sometimes bubble or start to peel so it is not always the best paint for bathrooms and kitchens where moisture from steam is usually high.
Emulsion cannot be wiped clean if it gets marked.
Specialist Kitchen and Bathroom Paint
Also, let's cover the question which often comes up:
Are kitchen and bathroom paint the same?
The answer to this is there's no such thing as different kitchen and bathroom paint. The difference between these two types of paints and other types of paints is they are designed to handle moisture from cooking or steam from bathing better than other non-moisture-resistant paints.
Kitchen and bathroom paint is often marketed as the only paint to be used in those rooms, and it does have some advantages over standard emulsion paints.
Kitchen and bathroom specific paints have been formulated to address many of the issues found with using standard emulsion.
This type of paint has added polymers (a type of plastic) which form a solid barrier on the surface of the paint, which helps prevent the paint from becoming discoloured.
It also makes kitchen and bathroom paint wipeable, and easier to keep clean.
As the polymers in the paint form a solid barrier, this also stops moisture or condensation penetrating into the paint and any moisture will just collect on the surface.
Kitchen and bathroom paint can appear to be a little thicker than standard paint, and as such can be easier to apply – although if you are trying to cover a particularly vibrant colour, you will probably still have to give it a couple of coats.
The main downside to kitchen and bathroom paints are that they are usually sold in a more limited range of colours compared with standard emulsion.
Kitchen and bathroom paint is also more expensive at around £7 per litre, but keep an eye open for promotions in DIY stores which can cut the cost considerably.
Kitchen and bathroom paint also often has a soft sheen to it due to the addition of the polymers, although some of the more advanced matt finishes on the market have no sheen at all.
