How to Easily Change the Color of Grout

Make your old grout look new with this easy grout refresh application.

How often do we pick finishes in our home and regret them later? I can tell you this is a common occurrence when our grand ideas conflict with logistics of real life. This is also why home projects are never-ending!

Our home is only a few years old, but I quickly learned the hard way that grout color makes a difference when our white grout stayed dirty. Easily fix your grout stains by changing the color of your grout in a few simple steps.

Dirty Grout

When designing our mudroom and connecting small bathroom I found beautiful floor tiles to do a herringbone pattern. Since we were doing the herringbone pattern I wanted a lighter color grout so the design stood out. Color choice matters! I mean, look how good it turned out.

It's always a good idea to listen when wiser individuals give good advice. I decided to ignore everything people were telling me and go with my original color choice - white.

Well, it turns out that a good grout sealer doesn't help much with color change. And putting a rug by the door to catch the dirt is basically useless.

But I was right about how amazing the white grout looks against the darker color, when it is clean. Cleaning helped to preserve the original color but not without a lot of physical labor. After cleaning tile floors on my hands and knees with a scrub brush three different times, it was time to try something new.

Supplies for Changing Grout

Electric scrub brush or other grout brush
Clean water
Dial soap
New grout color - Mapei's Grout Refresh - Timberwolf and Bone
Paint touch up pen
Damp cloth
Knee pads or a towel to rest your knees

How to Change the Color of Grout

Clean Your Existing Grout

First, your floor needs a good grout cleaning. You can't apply color directly to your existing grout because that's basically just putting a coat of color on top of dirt.

You don't need extravagant supplies to clean grout, but this electric scrub brush makes it so much easier and saves your arms. Use water and a simple soap as a grout cleaner. You can try this in small sections before moving on to the entire floor.

Picking a New Grout Color

Next, you will need to pick out a new color for your grout lines. Changing your grout color is a much simpler and cheaper solution than having to replace your entire tile floor. To change the tile grout color I am using Mapei's grout refresh. I bought a few darker grout colors to test out.

The darker color on the left is Timberwolf and the light color on the right is Cobblestone. As it turned out I didn't like either one of these, so back to the drawing board. Next, I ordered the color Bone. I liked the tone but felt like the color of the grout was still too light.

Instead of buying a 4th bottle, I mixed half of the Bone with half of the Timberwolf into a small container. It gave me the perfect color variation!

Applying the Grout Refresh

I found it easiest to put the new grout color into my paint touch up pen. This allowed for faster and easier application. Simply fill your pen with the colored grout and begin painting along your grout line.

Make sure to cover all the grout up. Don't worry about getting a little bit of grout on your tile. But don't put too much grout refresh on or it will be a mess.

Allow the grout refresh to sit on the grout for about 5 minutes and then use a slightly wet cloth to remove the excess grout from the tile.

Finished Product

This is how my grout looked after I had cleaned it. Even with cleaning, you can see the grout color with dirty spots that didn't come off. Regular use in this area makes it hard to have a white grout.

And here is the final color. It is a lighter grout but still enough change that there is a good contrasting grout color with the tile. Hopefully it will be dark enough that it will stay clean!

It is so easy to change grout color if you end up having problems with the color like we did. Save yourself the cost of replacing your floor by painting over your light grout. I love how our bathroom floor and mudroom look now.