How to Refresh Grout Quickly & Easily

If you have old tile in your home that is starting to look a little shabby, you might want to consider painting the grout.  Sometimes freshening up the grout can completely change the look of the tile and it is incredibly cheap and easy to do.

I have seen Subway tile with white grout get colored a dark shade and it made the old, dated tile look so much more modern.

In our situation, we have a very high traffic laundry room with old, tan tile.  I don’t love the look of the tile and the grout in particular is pretty dingy from years of wear and tear.  I have scrubbed it over and over using all sorts of cleaning products.  Literally hands and knees with a super scrub brush and the grout is still dingy.

So I decided to try and paint the grout back to a brighter, lighter shade and it actually worked really well.  I think this particular product is really best suited for light tile but it will stain the color of the grout on any tile you have.  There are tons of grout colors to choose from.  I used “Snow White” which is a blue based white color.  I did purchase in store as opposed to online and the selection was extremely limited.

Here is the before on our laundry room tile:

And the after!

Here is how it works-

• Pick up a container of Grout Renew by clicking here for Amazon or by heading into your local home improvement store.  (Ours was found near the stain and paint section)
• Also pick up some plastic gloves and either a toothbrush or a thin, craft paintbrush and dig out an old rag
• Unfortunately you do need to start with a very clean floor so be sure to scrub away and allow the tile to completely dry
• Next you can either apply the grout renew with an old toothbrush (a small child’s toothbrush works best) or for thin grout, I preferred a craft paint brush
• Finally use an old rag or towel to clean off the excess Grout Renew as you go
• Once finished, allow to dry and you can seal the Grout Renew if you like

Here are some tips that I found worked best with this product:

The instructions read to dab a small amount of Grout Renew in the center of your tile and work it outward with the toothbrush. The grout renew dries incredibly quickly and I found this process to just create extra mess on the tile.  Instead, I poured out a bit of Grout Renew into a disposable dish and dabbed the toothbrush in to apply.

You only want to do a very small section of grout and continue to wipe immediately or the excess Grout Renew will stain your tiles.  I was not super careful in the application process and the edges of the tiles were discolored slightly.  You can absolutely tape off the tile completely or the manufacturer recommends using a Qtip for very thin application.  I went through about 50 Q-Tips before realizing a thin craft paint brush would work as well.

All in all this was a really quick and easy process and fairly inexpensive and I think it made a really nice difference in the laundry room to brighten things up a bit.

And that is it!  About a $15 investment and I am pretty happy with the results.

If you are looking for more very simple and inexpensive home improvement ideas, check these out:

DIY Potting Bench (Just $60 to make)

DIY Dog Bed