If you were redoing a bathroom today...

[dr.girlfriend]

Would you have just plain paint walls outside of the shower?  My contractor said the half-tiled walls and wainscoting are not as common these days, and it does seem like maybe it would be a cleaner look in a smaller space.

[orval]

Both of my bathrooms have no tile outside of the shower/tub areas. Well, except the floors. They are just paint.

ETA one of them was redone in 2020 so recently

[momin2013]

Well, all the bathrooms in our house (built in 2016) are just plain painted walls, so I’d say yes to just plain paint. The only places we have tile (besides floors) are inside shower stalls and then halfway up the wall around a built-in tub.

[ckay]

Yes, just paint

[penguingrrl]

We’re redoing all of our bathrooms starting this month and are only putting tile in the showers. We’re doing plain wall in one, white headboard in the other two. I’m less worried about what’s in than what I like and can afford. But I don’t plan to sell for 30+ years.

[Susie]

I like having tile, ideally white tile, about halfway up.  For me it is functional rather than aesthetic.  I'm a mom of young kids who seem to bring home all manner of illness, and one of my kids seems particularly prone to GI issues, both viral and not.  Puking is basically my kryptonite, so it isn't a great combination.  I feel better about a bathroom where I can do a broad, all surfaces sweep with the bleach when the situation arises, without worrying about harming the paint.  As a bonus, if/when I want to repaint the walls, it's much a much smaller scope project.

All of our current bathrooms are original to the house we bought last year, and just have paint outside the showers.  In our old house I chose to do tile or wainscoting both times.  When we redo the bathrooms in this house I absolutely plan to continue with that.

[glw]

My house is old, so we plan to replace the half-tiled walls with more tile. It's in keeping with the era of the house. In a newer house, I would probably just paint.

[origami]

Ours are only paint as well. I would not change that if I were redoing them

[mpm]

It depends. I strongly dislike almost all vanity backsplashes. We don’t have a layout option in any of our bathrooms where a full tiled wall would work or where a tile backsplash could end at a corner or cabinet, so I feel like the only option for necessary water protection around the sink that leaves me would be a half-tiled wall that provides some necessary protection to the wall behind the sink but doesn’t have the backsplash just end awkwardly (what I dislike about them).

[krystee]

We just redid ours and went from floor to ceiling tile (yuck) to paint only.

[simpsongal]

I don't think there's a right/wrong answer - just depends on the look you're going for. I think wainscoting and bead board are as timeless and classic as crown molding. So if it would look appropriate in your house, it will look nice. That said, I wouldn't wonder where the tile/wainscoting is if I walked into a powder room w/neither.

The style of tile is probably the biggest candidate for looking dated. Like if you did square tile, which is apparently in, that might look dated in a few years. That said, I think anything done well just looks good, ya know? I always hated those tiny square glass tiles, even when they were in in the mid 2000s. But a gorgeous handmade square tile - whether it's in or out, could be just gorgeous.

[k3am]

All of ours are plain paint and I never considered otherwise.. but it would be nice to have tile on a portion of the walls in the bathroom we bathe the dog in, cuz that fuzz monster comes out and immediately body slams the walls.

[kadams767]

I guess I am an outlier, but I prefer the half-wall for both looks and function and would do them again in my bathrooms (renovated in 2015 and 2016). I have just above half-wall board/batten in my half bathroom, and subway tile in my full bathroom. I think they are both classic looks, and for the full bathroom especially, I HATE dealing with steam and drip-like issues showing on the painted walls eventually. It's much easier and cleaner to wipe down the subway tile portion than the painted portion. Same if there are any spills or other mess in there.

[wildrice]

I don't know! I want to redo our main bathroom at some point and right now it's just paint outside of the shower. The walls are pretty damaged though so if we were to redo, I'd want to either tile or fix the drywall. Depending on the tile, I am not sure which would be more economical...

One thing that drives me nuts in the bathroom is that condensation ends up making the paint look kind of streaky. So functionally I think I'd lean toward more tile, maybe tiling halfway up. But stylistically I think I like the look of all paint better.

[deadwing]

Jan 6, 2023 10:28:00 GMT -5 wildrice said:

I don't know! I want to redo our main bathroom at some point and right now it's just paint outside of the shower. The walls are pretty damaged though so if we were to redo, I'd want to either tile or fix the drywall. Depending on the tile, I am not sure which would be more economical...

One thing that drives me nuts in the bathroom is that condensation ends up making the paint look kind of streaky. So functionally I think I'd lean toward more tile, maybe tiling halfway up. But stylistically I think I like the look of all paint better.

Benjamin Moore has a paint designed for high humidity rooms - Aura Bath & Spa.  I used it in my bathroom 6ish years ago and there is zero streaking or visible moisture damage to the paint.  It was stupid expensive (like $100/gal), but so worth it.  Luckily my bath is tiny and a gallon was more than enough.

[wildrice]

Jan 6, 2023 11:44:50 GMT -5 deadwing said:

Jan 6, 2023 10:28:00 GMT -5 wildrice said:

I don't know! I want to redo our main bathroom at some point and right now it's just paint outside of the shower. The walls are pretty damaged though so if we were to redo, I'd want to either tile or fix the drywall. Depending on the tile, I am not sure which would be more economical...

One thing that drives me nuts in the bathroom is that condensation ends up making the paint look kind of streaky. So functionally I think I'd lean toward more tile, maybe tiling halfway up. But stylistically I think I like the look of all paint better.

Benjamin Moore has a paint designed for high humidity rooms - Aura Bath & Spa.  I used it in my bathroom 6ish years ago and there is zero streaking or visible moisture damage to the paint.  It was stupid expensive (like $100/gal), but so worth it.  Luckily my bath is tiny and a gallon was more than enough.

I've used the Aura paint in all of our other rooms that I've painted so far, so that's good to know about the bath and spa version! It is definitely expensive but it's my favorite paint - such good quality and the other rooms I've painted still look great after a couple of years. Unfortunately I did not know about this paint when I did our main bathroom so it has not held up nearly as well.

[k3am]

Jan 6, 2023 11:44:50 GMT -5 deadwing said:

Jan 6, 2023 10:28:00 GMT -5 wildrice said:

I don't know! I want to redo our main bathroom at some point and right now it's just paint outside of the shower. The walls are pretty damaged though so if we were to redo, I'd want to either tile or fix the drywall. Depending on the tile, I am not sure which would be more economical...

One thing that drives me nuts in the bathroom is that condensation ends up making the paint look kind of streaky. So functionally I think I'd lean toward more tile, maybe tiling halfway up. But stylistically I think I like the look of all paint better.

Benjamin Moore has a paint designed for high humidity rooms - Aura Bath & Spa.  I used it in my bathroom 6ish years ago and there is zero streaking or visible moisture damage to the paint.  It was stupid expensive (like $100/gal), but so worth it.  Luckily my bath is tiny and a gallon was more than enough.

Con confirm that this paint is amazing. Our contractor hadn't even heard of it and was shocked when I said I wanted this matte paint in our bathroom. The painter said it's his favorite paint but joked that he'd prefer it not become too popular since he makes money when people paint more frequently. 

[lucybrown]

We will redo our bathroom with tile halfway up the walls. It fits with the era/style of both our house and neighborhood. If we remodeled today, I’d probably even pick white, square tiles again vs. subway or something more in line with current trends.

[susiebw]

We redid ours a few years ago, and went from half tile to half wainscot. I dislike the half tile look, but I live in New England and love the coastal aesthetic of wainscot. So I would do it again.

[definitelyO]

when we redid our en-suite bathroom - we removed the 1/2 beadboard and now just have painted walls. I like it better.