Has anyone done this before? Any advice or other suggestions?
I've thought about just using some exterior paint, but I heard that wasn't a good idea.
Thanks

Not saying you can't do what you envision, but tile by itself isn't waterproof and you would need to rebuild the walls behind the tile, so at that point, you might as well rip out the shower and do the whole thing in tile.

Sue

I removed the drywall above because it was in poor shape, and used an Easyboard type product.

Although it's not best practice, you can tile over regular drywall. Personally, at the very minimum I'd use something like Humitek, a water-resistant drywall.

I also used Redgard as a waterproofing undercoat.

If you just want to do the minimum, you could use a Schluter edge to run the tiles up to.

The setup you have there is just like my bathroom, I tiled completely around the shower, plus the little wall adjacent to the toilet. Gives you a nice, logical place to end the tiles, and you just caulk the corner there (no grout) as a nice, crack-free transition.

alan_s_thefirst,
thanks for the tips. I think I will use Redgard undercoating. The wall dampness is minimal so it should provide great protection. Also, I'm leaning towards plain white tile. If I may ask, what size tile did you use?
I'll take some more pics, so you can see the area better.

Thanks again.

jasper

I had to buy more tiles to do the whole thing and noticed when I got the new ones that there was a slight colour difference. I had a boatload of the blue feature tiles (on sale, $20 for a whole box) so we hit on the idea of doing the back of the shower wall entirely in the blue tiles, and using the different coloured tiles from there on. With that blue separating them, you really can't tell the difference.

White tiles with white grout allowed me to caulk with white bathroom mould-resistant silicone (which was my preference over regular caulk.) It looks great and very clean.

How bad is the drywall? If you're going to the trouble of tiling, you don't want a bad substrate. Removing the drywall isn't as hard as you think, if you're careful.

That being said, I tiled a part of a dropped ceiling - just one row- above my vanity because it was very close to where my light fixture was going, and I was concerned about heat discolouring the ceiling, because of the proximity, so I put a row of tiles there. They adhered perfectly to the existing drywall.

Also, after thinking more about Sue's comment on the shower head, I decided to take a shower. Yes, believe it or not, this is the first time I ever used this shower. It's a basement bath and has mainly been used by house guest. On a side note, I was very impressed with it.

Anywho, I now have a better understanding of my problem. It's not the walls being sprayed or splashed during showers, but I did notice condensation from the steam. I think the problem is magnified if the shower was run w/o the exhaust fan, which I believe was the case when my in-laws came to visit for a couple weeks! :(
In the pics below, those water marks are permanent.
edit: Actually there are just on the paint surface and wiped clean.

With that said, now I wonder why the condensation? Could the fan be too weak? I checked it and is drawing air. The first thing I will do is wire the fan to the light switch. Any other ideas?

jasper

I left my existing ceiling, it was sound. The bottom of the drywall (drywall in bathrooms and above tubs here in BC is pretty much universal, and it's not even moisture-resistant, stupid I know.

If the drywall isn't squishy, and, like I mentioned, none are outside walls, you could go the cheapy way and paint on Redgard, then tile.

As for the fan, I'd use the Dewstop switch. It turns itself on, therefor bypassing the idiot factor. I have to confess I'm sometimes the idiot, when I'm showering and hear the fan turn itself on, I go "oh yeah" but am pleased it figures out for itself it needs to be on.