Hi all. The apartment attached to my home has these golden brown 70's ceramic floor tiles. In fact, the whole apartment is a tribute to the 70's with pine wood panelled ceilings, dark brown stained doors and window frames and trims, fawn brown bathroom suite etc.....but I digress. I am sure I can get a more modern look overall with some paint and new upholstery & curtains and a general refresh of the furniture contents.

But what to do with the floor? This tile in the herringbone (?) layout runs throughout the entire apartment - every room! Too expensive and time consuming to rip it up. Don't want to paint it - it's a rental property and gets heavy wear. Not convinced of tiling over the top - too expensive and then the game of fixing door heights etc. Not convinced of carpet or vinyl overlay - again expensive and for the wear of a rental property near the beach, I suspect tile remains the more durable flooring option.

So, my question. Can anyone recommend a paint color that just might have the effect of making the tiles a little less stand out and dated? Currently all walls are white in that bumpy popcorn type plaster finish, which seems to only highlight the 70's effect of the floor. Every floor/wall join has the chocolate brown porcelain tile skirting seen in photo 3. The tiles have been very well laid, are in very good condition, and are actually kind of pretty with a sort of beachy color, and I'd much rather paint something complementary on the walls, and/or re-grout, than fuss about replacing the entire floor?

As I have the decorating nous of ....... a fly...... with no color co-ordination whatsover, I really could use some ideas from you decorating gurus... All room sizes are on the small side (and I guess the walls had been historically painted white to try and "enlarge" the spaces) but I have no issues bringing in other colors at this time - have found lots of other "space enlarging" tricks on houzz already!