Dulux Easycare Bathroom: what the soft sheen paint does, its 36 ready-mixed colours, and how to make it last in a steamy room

Dulux Easycare Bathroom is Dulux's bathroom wall paint: a water-based soft sheen emulsion that Dulux describes as "an exceptionally tough moisture and steam resistant paint" whose "mould resistant formulation protects the paint against mould for five years". It covers up to 13 m² per litre in two coats, needs 6 hours between coats and at least 24 hours before the room is exposed to condensation, and comes in 1 litre (£15.50) and 2.5 litre (£33) tins on dulux.co.uk, in 36 ready-mixed colours or any Dulux colour mixed to order. The mould claim covers the paint film, not the wall behind it: if the room cannot clear its steam, the paint will not solve that, and the extractor fan comes first.

Every figure below was read on the Dulux UK product pages, the AkzoNobel safety data sheet and the UK government documents cited in October 2026. This is the bathroom counterpart to our Dulux kitchen paint guide; if you are still comparing brands rather than choosing a Dulux product, our bathroom paint colours guide sets Easycare Bathroom against Farrow & Ball and Zinsser and lists fifteen shades by room type.

What Dulux Easycare Bathroom actually is

The Easycare Bathroom Soft Sheen product page gives the working figures. The AkzoNobel safety data sheet for Easycare Bathroom (version 5.01, June 2023) adds what kind of paint it is.

Two things are missing from the UK page, and it is better to know than to guess. Dulux does not publish a wet scrub class under BS EN 13300 for Easycare Bathroom, and the page does not list the surfaces it is for. A retailer listing from Wood Finishes Direct describes it as "designed for plastered walls and ceilings only", which matches the safety data sheet's interior coating and the way Dulux markets it. Timber is a separate job, covered further down.

"Mould resistant for five years": what the claim covers

Read the wording carefully: the formulation "protects the paint against mould". The biocide in the film makes it harder for mould to grow on the paint surface itself. It does nothing about the cause of mould, which in a bathroom is almost always water vapour condensing on cold surfaces faster than it can be extracted.

The UK government's guidance on understanding and addressing the health risks of damp and mould in the home (developed by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities with MHCLG and UKHSA, updated 1 April 2026, applying to England) is blunt on the point. "Condensation is one of the most common causes of damp and mould in homes", it says, and "it is particularly important that rooms that inevitably involve a lot of moisture production, such as kitchens and bathrooms, have adequate ventilation". It also warns that "simply removing surface mould will not prevent the damp and mould from reappearing".

So the order of work is fixed. First the ventilation, then the existing mould, then the paint. Dulux's own preparation step agrees: "Treat surfaces affected by mould growth with a suitable fungicidal wash." The government guidance adds that "mould and mildew products should be used in preference to bleach, for health and safety reasons". If the mould comes back through new paint within a season, the problem is the room, not the tin; our guide to condensation problems explains how to tell condensation from rising or penetrating damp.

Easycare Bathroom against the other Easycare paints

Dulux's Easycare family has three wall paints, and they are not interchangeable. The figures are from each product page on dulux.co.uk in October 2026.

All three cover up to 13 m² per litre and all three can be mixed to any Dulux colour, so the decision is about the room rather than the shade. Easycare Bathroom is the only one sold on moisture, steam and mould, and the only one with a sheen. A sheen reflects more light than a matt, so dents, filler patches and roller marks show more: fill and sand properly before the first coat. In an en-suite that opens off a bedroom, the bedroom can take Washable & Tough in the same colour, and the change of sheen at the doorway reads as a change of room rather than a mistake.

The 36 ready-mixed Easycare Bathroom colours

The product page carries a safety data sheet for each ready-mixed shade, which is the clearest list of what is on the shelf: 36 colours in October 2026. Dulux says its ready-mixed range "is based on our most popular colours", and that any Dulux colour can be mixed into its Easycare ranges, so the list is a shortcut rather than a limit. The grouping by family is ours, made from the swatches.

Each colour page on dulux.co.uk suggests a white and several partners, which helps when the walls have to sit with white sanitaryware and existing tiles. Teal Voyage, the shade in the bathroom image below, gets Chalk Dust as its "perfect white", Almost Black and Goose Down as neutral partners, Teal Tension and Coastal Breeze as tonal ones, and Denim Drift and Village Maze as harmonising colours. Denim Drift, a cool grey-blue, is also paired with Chalk Dust, with Misty Mirror (another ready-mixed bathroom shade) among its neutrals. Dewy Lawn, a soft green, is matched with White Cotton and harmonises with Guild Green, so the two greens in the range can share a bathroom, the paler one on the walls and the deeper one on a bath panel or below a dado.

Bathroom light is the hardest in the house to judge: a frosted window, a single ceiling light and the bounce off white tiles can turn a grey-blue grey or a soft green almost white. Paint a large sample, look at it in the morning and with the light on at night, and compare it against the grout and the bath as well as the tiles. Our guide to testing paint colours before you buy sets out how to do that without wasting testers.

Ventilation first: what Approved Document F expects in a bathroom

In England, ventilation in homes is covered by Approved Document F, Volume 1 (dwellings). Its figures are the benchmark for whether a bathroom can clear the steam that Easycare Bathroom is meant to withstand:

• Extract rate. Table 1.1 sets a minimum intermittent extract rate of 15 litres per second for a bathroom; Table 1.2 sets a high rate of 8 litres per second where the fan runs continuously.
• Fan position. Extract fans should be installed "as high as is practicable in the room" and "a maximum of 400mm below the ceiling" (paragraph 1.20), which is where the warmest, wettest air collects.
• Rooms with no opening window. An intermittent fan "should be provided with controls which continue to operate the fan for at least 15 minutes after the room is vacated" (paragraph 1.51), and any humidity control should have a manual override (paragraph 1.50).
• Refurbishments. When building work is carried out in a bathroom, existing fans "should be retained or replaced" and checked to see if they work (paragraph 3.30); replacing a fan on the existing cabling does not need to be notified to building control (paragraph 3.32).

A 2026 edition of Approved Document F has been published; it takes effect on 24 March 2027 for most building work in England and keeps the 15 litres per second bathroom rate. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own building regulations. A practical test before you paint: run a hot shower for ten minutes with the fan on and the door shut, then look at the mirror and the ceiling. If they are still running with water long after the shower stops, deal with the fan before the walls.

Ceilings, woodwork and tiles

Ceilings. The ceiling is where bathroom condensation does most damage, because warm air rises before it cools. Easycare Bathroom is sold for walls and ceilings, and putting the same product on both gives the ceiling the same mould-resistant film as the walls, rather than an ordinary ceiling white. Our bathroom colours guide has a section on preventing ceiling mould.

Woodwork. Skirting, the door, window frames and boxed-in pipes need a wood paint. Dulux's Quick Dry Satinwood is water-based, self-undercoating, "wipeable, non-yellowing and suitable for use on interior wood and metal", covers up to 16 m² per litre and needs 6 hours to dry (750 ml £25, 2.5 l £35 on dulux.co.uk). For a painted vanity unit or a radiator, Dulux lists Simply Refresh Multi Surface Eggshell, which goes onto wood, metal, melamine and MDF without a primer and needs 7 days to cure fully.

Tiles. Easycare Bathroom is not a tile paint. If the tiles are the problem rather than the walls, the bathroom colours guide covers what can and cannot be painted over. In a period house with original lime plaster, check our period property interior guide before choosing any modern washable emulsion.

How much Easycare Bathroom do you need?

Two worked examples at Dulux's maximum of 13 m² per litre. Measure your own room: tiling, the bath and the door change the paintable area a great deal.

Thirteen square metres per litre is a maximum, and Dulux warns that "if the colour change is strong, more coats may be required". Going from magnolia to Teal Voyage or Guild Green may need a third coat on the walls. If you would rather hand the job to a decorator, our interior decorator cost guide gives UK day rates and typical room prices.

Painting a bathroom with Easycare Bathroom, step by step

The steps follow Dulux's instructions on the product page, in the order a bathroom needs them, with the ventilation and mould points from the government guidance.

1. Check the fan against the Approved Document F figures above, and fix it first if the room stays steamy.
2. Treat any mould with a fungicidal wash, following the wash maker's instructions, and use a mould and mildew product rather than bleach.
3. Prepare the walls. Remove loose or flaking material and make sure the surface is "clean (no dirt or grease) and dry". Soap residue around the bath and basin counts as grease: wash it off and rinse.
4. Plan around the showers. You need two coats 6 hours apart and then at least 24 hours before the room sees condensation. In a one-bathroom home, start in the morning after the last shower and expect the room to be out of use for showers and baths until the following evening.
5. Apply two coats with a brush or roller. Do not paint in very damp or humid conditions or in extreme temperatures. If you use more than one can, mix them together in a large container or finish in a corner before starting a new one.
6. Leave the window open and the fan running while the paint dries, as long as it is not cold or wet outside.
7. Clean up responsibly. Dulux asks you to wash brushes and rollers in warm soapy water in a sealed container such as a bucket, let the solids settle and dry before putting them in the bin, and never pour paint or wash water down a drain.

If you rent, or let a property

The same government guidance is written for rented housing providers in England, and it is clear that paint and wiping are not the landlord's answer to a mouldy bathroom: "Tenant management of condensation and small amounts of mould should not be a substitute for assessing and addressing the underlying issue, which should always be the priority." It also lists working extractor fans in bathrooms among the points to check, and asks landlords to inspect the home at least six weeks after remedial work to make sure the damp and mould have not come back. A tenant who repaints with Easycare Bathroom should report persistent mould at the same time, not instead.

Whether you own or rent, the colour is the part you can try for free. The interior paint visualiser repaints your own photo, so you can see an Easycare Bathroom shade above your tiles and around your bath before you open a tin.

Sources and references

• Dulux UK, Dulux Easycare Bathroom Soft Sheen product page: description and mould claim, finish, coverage, coats and drying times, sizes and prices, mixing, the Dulux Promise, preparation, application and cleaning instructions, and the per-colour safety data sheets that list the 36 ready-mixed shades.
• AkzoNobel, Safety data sheet, Easycare Bathroom (version 5.01, 19 June 2023): waterborne coating for interior use, hazard classification, preservatives.
• Dulux UK, product pages for Easycare Kitchen Matt, Easycare Washable & Tough Matt and Quick Dry Satinwood, and colour pages for Teal Voyage, Denim Drift and Dewy Lawn: claims, finishes, drying times, prices and colour pairings.
• UK Government, Ventilation: Approved Document F, Volume 1 (dwellings), 2021 edition, Tables 1.1 and 1.2 and paragraphs 1.20, 1.50, 1.51 and 3.30 to 3.32, plus the 2026 edition (takes effect 24 March 2027): bathroom extract rates, fan position and overrun, refurbishment.
• Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, MHCLG and UKHSA, Understanding and addressing the health risks of damp and mould in the home (updated 1 April 2026): condensation as a cause, ventilation of bathrooms, mould removal products, landlord responsibilities.
• Wood Finishes Direct, Dulux Easycare Bathroom Soft Sheen (retailer listing): surfaces the product is designed for.