How to Paint or Wallpaper Behind a Toilet

When painting or wallpapering a bathroom you will need to deal with the section of wall behind the toilet. While some have no problems with removing the toilet or the tank on the toilet in order to access the wall behind the toilet, I find this to be a huge time waster. For the three roller passes that it will take to paint behind the toilet, I just can't justify taking 30 minutes or longer to remove and re-install the toilet (or tank).

Maybe it's just me, but I'd rather leave the toilet in place and work around it. So unless it is absolutely necessary, I don't remove the toilet. The following is how I navigate aroung the toilet for painting, removing wallpaper or installing wallpaper.

Removing the toilet

In some cases you will have to remove the toilet. So I am going to touch on removing the toilet first. You usually don’t need to remove the entire toilet for paint or wallpaper. Just remove the upper tank, leaving the base installed in the floor. You may need to replace the bolts and washers when re-installing the tank because the washers will be deteriorated and the bolts rusty. You will get the washers and bolts from the hardware store. See the U tube clip for more complete instructions for removal and re-installation of the toilet.

How to paint behind a toilet (without removing it)

I don’t like to remove the toilet or the tank if I don’t have to. It is slow, and you run the risk of breaking something if you do the removal.

The spacing between the toilet and the wall is too narrow to fit a standard roller into, and a brush will not reach all the way behind.

Tucking the paint in

If the spacing between the wall and the toilet are too close for even a mini roller, you can simply “tuck” the paint in behind the toilet. Tucking means you will use your brush and get the paint in behind the toilet as far as the brush will go, then you leave the rest unpainted. Since the toilet is so close to the wall, you won’t be able to see behind the toilet to know if the paint is “tucked” in only or not.

How to remove wallpaper and install wallpaper behind a toilet

Removing wallpaper

This is tougher to do than painting or installing wallpaper. You need to use a long handled mini roller with some gel remover and wet the wallpaper thoroughly behind and around the toilet.. Let that sit for 10 min and reapply.

Try pulling the paper off carefully by getting a grip on something that is close but not behind the toilet. If you can get it away from the wall, use the roller handle (without the roller on it) to help pry the paper off behind the toilet.

You can push a sponge through behind the toilet with the handle of the mini roller too to rinse off the glue. You can kind of hook the handle (without a mini roller on it) into the sponge and pull it back and forth to accomplish this task. Use warm water and rinse the sponge out often.

Installing wallpaper

This is easier. If you can center the strip behind the toilet then you won’t have to “seam” it together so deeply behind the toilet. If you’ve already started the installation and the seam runs directly center of the toilet (the worst case senario) it still is not that difficult to do. You will use a mini roller again (kind of the universal tool for working behind the toilet) with a dry roller on it as a smoother. The dry roller cover will act as a buffer to prevent the roller wire from ripping the wallpaper. Simply smooth down your paper in the usual fashion right up to the toilet, then tuck it down behind and to the floor with the long handled mini roller. After the paper is in place smooth it down - again with the mini roller.

The mini roller

The best way to paint behind a toilet (without removing the tank) is to use a mini roller. Mini rollers are thin rollers that fit onto a wire frame of various handle lengths.

You can paint behind most toilets with a mini roller with a long handle. Reach down as far as you can from the top, reach in as far as you can from each side, then reach up from the bottom. Cut in and paint the baseboard trim / wall joint by reaching in with your brush. The base of the toilet will be far enough away from the way to maneuver around, it is the tank of the toilet that gets close to the wall and is hard to paint around.

How to Paint Around a Toilet

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