A bathroom is the hardest room in a Nigerian house to keep painted. Not because of the paint, but because of what the room does to it: steam every morning, water on the walls around the shower, and often almost no airflow in a house built tight to the boundary. A finish that works perfectly in a bedroom will fail here within two years.
Most bathroom repaints fail for one of two reasons. The wrong finish was used, or the wall was painted while it was still damp. Both are avoidable, and both show up the same way: blistering, then black spotting, then a film that lifts off the plaster.
Why bathroom paint fails
Water vapour is the whole problem. A hot shower puts moisture into the air, the air meets the coolest surface in the room, and the moisture condenses on it. That surface is usually an external wall, the ceiling above the shower, or a wall behind the door where air does not move.
If the wall is painted with a matt emulsion, that film absorbs the water, softens, and eventually lifts. Once water is behind the paint, mould starts inside the film rather than on top of it, which is why cleaning it off the surface does not fix the problem.
Three things make it worse:
- No ventilation — a window that never opens, or no extractor fan
- Cold external walls — condensation forms first on the coldest surface in the room
- Painting over a failure — a new coat over mould or loose paint fails in the same place, faster
The right finish
Prestige Satin Finish is the correct choice for bathroom walls. The film is harder than matt and, more importantly, it can be wiped. When condensation leaves marks, you clean them off instead of painting over them. Matt looks better for the first six months and worse for the next five years.
For the ceiling, use a ceiling product rather than a wall emulsion thinned down — Prestige Best for POP if the ceiling is plaster of Paris, or a matt ceiling paint over plaster. Ceilings take the steam first because steam rises.
Avoid dark colours in a small bathroom. They show every water mark and every patch of mould, and they make a room with one small window feel smaller than it is.
Ventilation before paint
If the bathroom has no window and no extractor, no coating will fix the mould. An extractor fan costs less than repainting the room every two years, and it is the only permanent answer. Where a window exists, it needs to be opened during and after every shower, not just left on the latch.
If neither is possible, accept that this is a room you will repaint more often than the rest of the house, and use the hardest washable finish available.
Preparation, in order
- Wash the walls with a bleach solution to kill mould, then rinse. Do not paint over black spotting; it grows through the new film.
- Scrape back any flaking or bubbling paint to a sound edge, and feather the edge with sandpaper.
- Fill cracks and holes with Prestige Super Filler, then sand flush.
- Let the wall dry completely. This is the step people skip. Painting a damp wall traps moisture and blisters the new coat, and a wall can feel dry while still holding water a centimetre down.
- Prime, particularly bare plaster and filled patches.
- Two coats of satin, with the room ventilated and the door open between coats.
Tiles, paint or both
Around a shower or above a bath, tiles are the sensible answer — the wall is wet rather than steamy, and no paint film lasts indefinitely under direct water. Paint works well on the other three walls and the ceiling, where the exposure is steam rather than splash.
If you are painting over previously tiled walls, that is a different job: tiles need an etch and a suitable primer, and the grout lines will always show through.
Colour in a small bathroom
Most Nigerian bathrooms are small and have one small window. Light colours on the walls and a white ceiling make the room feel larger and reflect what light there is. A deep colour in a room that size closes it in, and it shows water marks far more.
If you want depth, put it on one wall behind the mirror, not on all four.
How much paint a bathroom needs
A typical 2m by 2m bathroom with 2.7m ceilings:
- Perimeter is 8m, so 21.6 square metres of gross wall
- Deduct one door and one window, roughly 4 square metres, leaving about 17 square metres
- At two coats and around 11 square metres per litre per coat, that is just over 3 litres
- Budget one 4 litre tin, with enough left for touching up
- The ceiling is a further 4 square metres, needing about 1 litre at two coats
Check the coverage figure on the tin you actually buy; it varies by product. See our guide to working out paint quantities for the full method.
The mistakes that cause most failures
- Using matt emulsion because it was left over from the bedroom
- Painting over mould without killing it
- Painting a wall that is still damp from washing
- Skipping the primer on new plaster
- Ignoring ventilation and expecting the paint to cope
- Using a thinned coat to make the paint go further, which covers less and dries patchy
Questions people ask
Can I use the same paint as the bedroom? No. Use satin, not matt, in a room with this much moisture.
The ceiling has brown marks. Can I paint over them? Seal the stain first, or it bleeds through. And find the leak above — a mark on a bathroom ceiling is usually water from the roof or the floor above.
How often will I need to repaint? With satin and decent ventilation, several years. With matt and no ventilation, expect to be back in it inside two.
Getting it done
Tell us the room size, whether there is a window or an extractor, and what is on the walls now. We will tell you the finish and the quantity. Call +234 802 562 5333, message WhatsApp, or send your project details.