There is one option you don't appear to have considered .

Give the hire companies a call , and see how much the long term rate is to get a Portaloo dropped off . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Pottsy99, sorry to appear dense but I don’t get your meaning

how much space in the rooms isn't tiled, is there are wall or ceiling? I hate the tile in our bathroom, but it has to stay for a bit, it works. It's this ugly mottled blue. there were blue walls and dark blue trim and this weird rustic timber vanity. I decided to paint above the tile and repaint the window trims and architraves just to make it tidy. I don't even like the colour I chose, it was called bamboo stalk and its a weird dull brown but I chose it to mellow and balance the blue and it works. it's not my taste but because they match each other it works. So... my point is what if you can match the tile that's there and make it less ugly? You've got options for the mirrors, repainting the vanities, the trims... painted tile looks... well... like painted tile. It's not a nice finish. It's a shame to paint over new tile no matter how ugly. I'm sure the interior design wizards here could help you style each bathroom so the ugly tiles just kind of fade and don't bother you as much.

Oh and the gloss white I chose to repaint the trims really helped brighten it all and make it look tidier and crisper. Maybe adding gloss white trim and/or cabinets would give you that clean white feeling. It's hard meeting both your needs, and I commend you for trying to find a way to express both your tastes. There are a lot of micro decisions and sometimes you just don't know till its all done how it's going to look. Try some ideas that don't involve retiling first. If you add some potted plants, some coordinated bathmats and handtowels how would it look?

Could you use accessories to improve the look? Coloured towels and bathmats, plants, etc might help to jazz it up.

Many years ago in the cities, there were companies that resurfaced baths and tiles. I saw them on TV shows. I would prefer that to painting as it is supposed to be long lasting.

Susan, so sorry to hear that you made some misguided choices. I can tell you that your option 3 is not really an option. New tiles need a good substrate, and another layer of tiles is not a good starting point, especially if you get any water between the layers. I would be looking at paint and accessories to try and counterbalance the choices. Unfortunately the range of paint colours suitable for bathroom tiles is limited. Use your floor tiles as the starting point for your other choices as you can't paint them, and they will be the hardest to remove and replace.
Best of luck and let me know if I can be of any more help,
Alistair

Thanks so much Alastair. And especially for the advice. We like the floors so that is a good thing. The lighting is being installed now so we are looking forward to seeing that in a couple of weeks. 👍

Thank you Dreamer. I am so envious of all those women who get to pick the colour schemes of their homes. This is our second build and we’ve had 2 major renovations and umpteen minor ones, and every single time is a fight to the death over colour schemes. Paint jobs we are pretty relaxed about now but kitchens and tiling is still a problem. We’ll probably argue about the decor in our nursing home.

Hi Susan, sorry to hear you hate the new look. I would suggest you urgently get an interior decorator in to advise. They will look at whether any fittings fixtures, lighting and decor can help This will be worth your money.

Hi Susan, do you have any photos of the bathrooms you could upload? Years ago we renovated our bathroom in our 1970's brick house by having the wall tiles resurfaced and the result was really good - the original wall tiles were a light apricot colour and the floor tiles were mosaics in khaki (a terrible combination) but we couldnt afford to retile so we kept the khaki coloured mosaics on the floor (even though we didnt like them) and just resurfaced the wall tiles in a an off-white colour. The end look was actually better than we expected and we ended up liking the floor tiles So if you have to do a major colour change I would suggest just resurfacing the wall tiles and keeping the floors as is.

But even less cost would be to add some interesting and colourful accessories to off-set the offending tile colours. For example blue/green tones like aqua, teal, duck egg and eau de nil actually work really well with orange/peach so adding some towels and accessories in this colour could really transform bathroom number 3. And dont underestimate large plants - plants look great in bathrooms and adding some really large ones will break up the tiled areas

I'd love to see the bathrooms... maybe its not so bad?

Thank you all. I’m afraid I was so appalled at the bathrooms I didn’t take photos during our walkthrough and I won’t get another chance for a couple of weeks.

I have seen the term “tile resurfacing” used a lot - is this any different to painting the tiles? And if not, is having a pro do the job much different to doing it as a DIY?

Tile resurfacing companies are now being used a great deal. Tiles in homes can sometimes be in good order, and yours are brand new, this would be the case. So, resurfacing with a professional glaze is a lot better than ripping everything out.

im concerned that the reaction to your tiles may be more than warranted. If you only saw them once and didn't take photos. I would go back on your next visit, with an open mind, to really look at them, and assess what you don't like, before resurfacing or ripping them all out.

Have you asked for a quote to replace one wall of tiles? Weigh up having it done properly with the costs of tile paint etc.

While not a complete fix , things like a wooden freestanding towel rail , with colour co-ordinated towels , a floor mat and one around the toilet , maybe a couple of mirrors , 2 or 3 coloured pottery vases , a toothbrush holder that matches , etc will disguise and refocus 1/4 of the room .

lighting and towels are probably going to help at least in the first instance. Also grout colour can make a difference. I ordered large matte white wall tiles but they were very off white when they arrived. I used a fairly dark grey as contrast and that brightened them up considerably.