Pink and gray bathroom: Jane’s retro renovation construction zone

SCATHING JANE IS READER OF THE YEAR — not because she has one of the most adventurous retro renovations under way (which she does), but because virtually each and every day she scours Craigslist nationwide and puts all kinds of neat stuff onto the Forum (now defunct). Steel cabinets, yes, but also tons of Bathroom Stuff, in particular. She also sends me lots of great tips, directly – she’s become very studied in knowing when there’s something wicked good I need to see. Jan has recently sent me lots of photos of her projects and for today let’s look at: her bathroom.

It looks like Scathing Jane’s original grey bathroom is a really nice size, and had some great tile work. But, she wanted to reconfigure and raise the vanity, add a Cinderella tub, move some stuff around — and add pink to the mix. She found new/old tile-in sinks… new tile to mesh with the old… and that cool square tub. Here are a few of her comments:

• I ended up using American Universal ceramic tile SX-207 to fill in areas that had never been tiled due to built-ins.  I could not match the original greenish gray porcelain tile. Michael Montgomery (contractor) tried very hard to get me to just tile over the floor, but I wouldn’t budge.  I actually had a grey tile down in those areas, hated it, and had them rip it out.  Russ Carnes, Michael’s partner, did a beautiful job of getting the tile to work out.
• I had white going up around through/around the window originally, but didn’t like it.  At that point, we were trying to save the original greenish gray ceramic base tile.  Once I realized that could not be accomplished, the white came out and the new grey went in, replacing the original base tile with the new grey (American Olean). Again Russ did a great job, using spacers to get the tiles to line up correctly; old tile seems to be bigger.  I think I am getting away with the slightly wider space between tiles because of the color difference between the old and new.
• Nothing grouted yet.  I toyed with the idea of grey grout on the grey and pink on the new pink, but Russ recommended matching the old grout, “Jane, they didn’t use colored grout in the fifties.”, sealed that deal.
• I included an old shot of the BR.  The old vanity height was too low; toilet location put your knees in doorway.  Closets were removed so that vanity and toilet could be relocated.
• The sinks came from a great salvage yard in California — Ohmega Salvage General Store in Berkeley.  Reasonably priced for “retail”; shipping sucked, but was to be expected.  Well packed.
• The interesting thing about the sinks (FABULOUS sinks, shown at top in lead photo–pam) is that they are not exact clones.  It drove Michael (contractor) crazy until he realized that he would have to build the openings in the cabinet around each individual sink, not just use one as a template for both.  Russ did the detail work of tiling them in. (I asked Jane and she recalls they are American Standards.)

Finally, Jane wants to be sure to credit her long-suffering spouse.  “I found the house, but he said ‘This is the one!’  He provides muscle and moral support (and sometimes grumbling laced with choice adjectives.…)” she says. Don’t they all, Jane. Don’t they all.

More from Scathing Jane to come. Readers, many many of you have sent me photos and stories over the past few months. These are the most time-consuming for me to configure into posts and, yes, my life has been a three-ring circus. Life has not gotten any less circus-y, in fact, someone lit some hoops on fire. But sunshiney summer and lots of recent notes from readers have given me boundless energy and I am attacking all your emails like a demon…reader-blitz in progress. 🙂 Happy Monday.