PAINT Your Bathroom Sink

Laura | @HartLaneHome
by Laura | @HartLaneHome
6 Materials
$15
3 Days
Easy

Yes, you read that correctly! Paint your bathroom sink with a special little product from rustoleum called appliance epoxy. Intended for refreshing your old fridge, it can also be used in the bathroom to freshen your yellowed or funky colored countertop.


Please note that this isn’t a permanent fix and is intended to get you by in a fix while you’re saving up or deciding what you want, but it looks a lot better than it did and is holding up well enough that it will give us a season or two of use until we rip out this bathroom.

This hack only takes a few minutes per each application, the length of time is solely due to paint drying.

This is how the sink started (sorry I didn’t close the toilet lid!!) but you can see it was crazy yellow, I don’t know if that’s how it came originally, or if it’s yellowed over almost 20 years of use. First things first you’re going to need to remove the sink plug and either remove the taps or lift them enough to be able to paint underneath. I used an old teeth floss carton which fit perfectly to rest the tap on.

You’re going to need 2 foam brushes, 2 foam rollers, a vapor mask (this stuff smells!) a disposable roller tray, masking tape to tape off edges and of course your epoxy.

Tape off any edges you need to protect and apply your first coat, using the brush to get into places the roller can’t reach. I will tell you, the first coat looks AWFUL. You’re going to panic and stress out that you’ve made a huge mistake and now you’re going to have to just replace the whole unit, but don’t worry. The product builds, don’t try to make the coat thick, it won’t help in the long run we just have to persevere and layer up.

Make sure to put your roller tray inside a plastic bag and wrap your brush and roller in one too so they don’t dry. I found that recommended drying time between coats was off, and it all depends on the air flow, temperature, moisture etc. So I actually left mine for 1 hour before I applied the second coat. If the first layer is tacky then the second coat will just pull it right back off when you roll it.

After the second coat I actually let it dry for a full 24 hours and then lightly sanded it with a super fine grit before I hit it with a 3rd coat. This epoxy is super runny, which means it’s also thin. I can tell you that it is available as a spray paint too, and I have seen a lot of people have success with that but be aware that the spray paint goes EVERYWHERE, so you would need to plastic cover every single inch of the room and yourself. DO NOT GET THIS STUFF IN YOUR HAIR!

3 coats was fine, but I sanded and put a final 4th coat on 24 hours later because I wanted to ensure that this thing is durable enough for guest usage. What I will say is that the spray paint will give you a smoother finish. The canned epoxy dries grainy in texture due to roller use so be aware of that when choosing between spray and roll on. But this cheap hack changed the whole room!

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  • Laura Harp-Biven Laura Harp-Biven on Feb 20, 2021

    I have little hairline cracks by the plug. Do you think this would fill them in enough that they wouldn’t be that noticeable?

  • Patsy Patsy on Feb 19, 2022

    I would love to do my bathroom vanity with this idea but it’s a regular wood underneath and I’m not sure what on top. It’s like every countertop in most American homes between the 80’s and 2000’s. What kind of paint could I use on it?

  • Julianna Smith Julianna Smith on Feb 15, 2023

    Looks a lot better. Wonder how it will hold up over time?

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