Liquid Masking for Glass
Roll-on masking film that peels off window panes in one sheet.
Bag the Toilet to Paint the Wall Behind It
Cover the whole toilet with a plastic bag, roll the wall behind it with a slim roller, and pull the bag off — no taping around porcelain, no drips on the tank, no wedging yourself behind the bowl.
painting in tight spaces, hard to reach wall painting, small bathroom paint tricks
The Problem
The wall behind a toilet is the worst few square feet of any bathroom paint job. The gap between tank and wall is too narrow for a normal roller with you behind it, cutting in around the tank's curves from an awkward crouch invites drips onto the porcelain, and masking a toilet's shape with tape is its own project.
The Technique
- Cover the toilet with a plastic bag — a large trash bag over the tank and bowl. The whole fixture becomes a drop cloth in the shape of itself, sealed against splatter with nothing to tape.
- Roll the wall behind and around it. A slim roller on a short handle reaches down the gap behind the tank; with the toilet bagged, the roller can brush right past the fixture without consequences. On installs where the tank sits too close to the wall for any roller, a flat painting pad slides into the gap instead.
- Pull the bag off once you're done. Any paint that grazed the toilet leaves with the bag.
Pro tip: The same bagging logic covers anything fiddly you'd rather not mask piece by piece — a wall-mounted sink pedestal, a radiator, a light fixture on a ceiling you're rolling. If its shape is the problem, wrap the shape.
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