Bathroom Painters in Somerville & Greater Boston

Small room, hard conditions

A bathroom is usually the smallest room in the house and one of the hardest to paint well. It gets steam every day, it is full of edges — tile, tub, vanity, mirror, fixtures — and there is very little room to work.

Most bathroom paint failures come from moisture: paint that bubbles, peels at the ceiling, or grows mildew in the corners. A good bathroom job deals with that before any color goes on.

Preparation does most of the work

Mildew is killed, not covered. Paint over live mildew and it grows straight back through. It gets treated and cleaned off first.

Loose paint comes off. Anything bubbling or peeling is scraped back to a sound edge, sanded smooth and primed, so the new coat is not sitting on something already failing.

Caulk gets renewed. Cracked or moldy caulk around the tub, the vanity and the trim lets water behind the paint. Fresh caulk is part of the job, not an extra.

A finish made for steam

Flat paint holds moisture and marks easily. Bathrooms want a satin or semi-gloss finish, or a paint made specifically for bathrooms, that sheds water and stands up to wiping. Ask Cayo which he recommends for your bathroom, and why.

The bathrooms on this page

The photographs are Cayo’s own: bathrooms in Norwood and Roxbury, and others where he did not record the town. Several are painted above wainscot or alongside tiled walls, where the line between paint and tile is the first thing anyone notices.

One Norwood photo elsewhere on the site shows a bathroom mid-remodel by other trades — new board up, wiring still out. That is the room as a painter often finds it. Painting is the last trade in, and the surface has to be ready before it starts.