Painting Radiators (Before/After)

I took on the project of painting our bathroom radiator. It had some chipping paint and the color was more of a cream than a white. We just recently painted our bathroom walls white and the cream looked dirty.

I cleaned the radiator really good with a vacuum and a radiator brush. The radiator brush was hanging in the stairwell of our basement when we moved in. I never knew what it was for, it looked like an extra long bottle brush with black bristles. I thought maybe it was to clean out a wood stove that perhaps the house had at one time. I never lived in a house with radiators before this one so I was clueless.

It wasn't until recently when I was cleaning the radiator with a Swiffer (I have 3 cats that like the radiator in the winter and the hair, oh my!) that I had a light bulb go on. I was thinking, "If only they made something that would fit between those little horizontal pipes and had bristles on it, or something of the sort, it would make cleaning these radiators much easier." Then I remembered that brush in the stairwell. Yep, fits perfectly and obviously is what it was made for.


After the good cleaning, I took a cloth soaked in denatured alcohol and cleaned the surfaces really, really good. Then I took a wire brush and a scratchy pad and made sure I got all the loose paint off. I slid paper under the feet of the radiator and cardboard behind it and used Rustoleum white spray paint. I have a few more places to touch up when it dries. I think I'll also coat it with the same white paint (acylic) that I used on the walls as the white doesn't match exactly.

So far it looks so much cleaner and nicer being white.

An additional bonus of this project is the date I found stamped on the radiator inside. Niagara 2-17. I had been wondering if the radiators were original or if they were added later. The house was built late in 1917 so now I know they were probably installed when the house was built.