Today we meet Rachel, Brian, and their pug Chloe… and look at their recent project to renovate their lovely 1920s yellow bathroom. The bathroom also features an unusually configured shower that stumps even my experts. Rachel writes:
Hi Pam, I’ve been a reader for quite a while, and LOVE your site!
I have a house from about the 1920s with a yellow bathroom. The tile is yellow, with black trim, and white fixtures. There’s also small border of green waves beneath the trim. Previous owners, however, had replaced the sink with a terrible particle board vanity with a cream/beige sink. They also put in a particleboard medicine cabinet, which they installed *on* the wall, not in it. This weekend my boyfriend and I replaced these with a vintage Kohler wall-hung sink and enamel medicine cabinet. (When we removed the particleboard medicine cabinet, we found the original hole — complete with used razor blades! We managed to find a replacement cabinet that fit the existing hole perfectly.)
I also have a question: my bathroom has 2 showers — or originally, I guess it would have been a shower and a bath. There’s a full-sized tub with a smaller, “attached” stall shower separated by a half-wall. (Unfortunately, the little shower no longer works, so the tub is now the shower as well.) I’ve never seen anything like it before — have you?Also, now that you can see the small wall between the tub and the shower. There’s a gap along the top, where we think maybe a piece of glass used to be? We’re just not sure.
A few more things — now that you can see the bathroom! =)
It’s currently painted a very pale green, and when we removed the old medicine cabinet and lowered the lights, we saw the earlier, darker green which matches the wave border. We’re currently deciding what color to paint — white or darker green. (Although I know you would probably suggest wallpaper!)
I know you’ve mentioned on the blog before that wall-hung sinks with legs makes bathrooms appear bigger, and I couldn’t agree more! The vintage sink we installed is actually a little larger than the one we replaced, but the bathroom *definitely* feels much roomier without the vanity. The same thing happened once we recessed the medicine cabinet. The built-in toothbrush holder and soap holders really stand out, since the medicine cabinet is no longer hanging over them.
Thank you!
Rachel
Cool bathroom – and it will be fun to talk about… But, of course, I also asked Rachel for her “retro renovation story”. She answered:
We’re in Western New York. I bought the house when I came here 6 years ago for graduate school (PhD in English….still working on it!). I met Brian after moving here, and he moved in about a year ago (he’s a graphic designer who works from home). We were recently visiting a local architectural salvage store (Rehouse) and saw some adorable vintage sinks for under a $100…that’s really what got us started! We realized that we HATED our particleboard vanity and sink-that-never-stayed-clean. We’re novice DIYers, but after some research, we felt like this could be a first real project – something we could actually afford and do ourselves! Replacing the sink is just the tip of the iceberg now, of course! We’re trying to decide about painting the walls, and we’ve re-sealed around the tub, but the grout in other places needs some work (not to mention the *other* areas in the house now begging for our attention!). But we’re really happy with the “new” sink and medicine cabinet — it dramatically changed the space and made it feel like an entirely new bathroom (for under $100!).
That’s our retro renovation story — for now, anyway!
RachelPS. We were at Rehouse this past weekend as well, and saw a new arrival — a set of metal cabinets (including two wall ovens) in TURQUOISE. It was gorgeous! They were GE, and although quite a few cabinets were there already, more were on the way.
What a lovely bathroom, Rachel — and the wall hung sink on chromes legs looks amazing.
Regarding that teeny tiny shower, I emailed John at deabath.com, one of my very favorite sources for salvage bathroom fixtures, to ask if he had ever seen a small shower like that. He says:
Hi Pam,
That’s got to be the smallest shower enclosure I’ve ever seen! Judging from the tile work, it appears to be a “Well, we have an extra 24″ on this wall, what are we going to do with it?” kind of thing. I agree, probably had glass in the groove, but I didn’t see any mountings on the side walls. Definitely not stock, and at 6’1″, I’d have a really hard time getting into it.
Regarding your wall color: I’ve been getting a lot of questions regarding wall colors to go with vintage pastel bathroom tile, and so I’ve been thinking about it a lot. I think that going lighter, rather than darker, is generally a good idea. The “lower” color anchors the room, so it makes sense if that’s a “heavier” color. You were right in guessing that my #1 choice would be wallpaper. Below is one that I found relatively quickly on HannahsTreasures.com. It’s not “perfect” but directionallygetting there — because it incorporates all the colors in your bathroom: The yellow, green, black — and even that touch of orange in the liner tile. These are all colors for you to work with in your accessories. One more thought — to my eye, the “buttercream” of this wallpaper (the light yellow-cream between the stripes) looks beautiful with the yellow tile. This might be another way to go…Buttercream: The color of fresh churned butter (with no yellow dye added.)
Also, Rachel, I see you shower curtain choice is definitely more graphical/modern, so I know that the wallpaper above is probably not to your taste! I like it, though — especially how it recognizes the strength of the black trim tile. Maybe all you really need now are coordinating towels and rugs — in green like the liner tile? — and some artwork on the walls that includes each and every color in the bathroom. If you want to go mod – maybe JennSki has a print up your alley?
Thank you so much for sharing, and good luck with everything… just looking at you and Brian reminds me of my early married days and how much fun (yes!) Mr. Retro Renovation and I had, feathering the nest, renovating this and that. Happiness.
Tiny porcelain animals – Rachel’s contest entry 
Rachel and her 1964 Comet Caliente time capsule car 
“Don’t be afraid of color. Promise me,” says Amy — 16 photos from her 1920s row house 
Become a fan
…the best part of that is the little guy sitting in the sink–so cute!
What a handsome family. What a beautiful bathroom. With that ittle “ocean wave” border of tile, I would look for a wallpaper that has some sort of fish or seaside theme to it. Rosie’s has this cool paper:
http://www.rosiesvintagewallpaper.com/servlet/Detail?no=79
This renovation convinces me that we need to replace our clunky old sink cabinet with a wall-mounted sink.
The yellow tile is great! I think that I would seriously consider using a somewhat light gray paint on the upper walls, possible a gray that has a hint of green int it. But then again, I really like gray. Good luck with your decision. I hope we can see the after pictures when you have decided what color to paint (or wallpaper).
I adore that tile work. Lovely! Good luck with the rest of your renovations, as well as with your degree!
Love your sink choice! The shape of the legs, great. I was thinking gray on the walls as well and then read Missouri Michael, I agree, a pale gray. One color I used in a bath with black tile is “Ice Mint” or “Mint Ice” from Lowe’s (may be one of their Laura Ashley colors but not 100% on that recall). Totally a vintage color, very pale, green/grey, would complement the green wave and it is gorgeous with black. Is your current shower curtain white and black or beige and black? Maybe also try a wall paint that is a shade deeper than the light color on the shower curtain. If you go with wallpaper, Hannah’s Treasures has some great flamingo wallpaper, that would be awesome with the waves. Re: the shower, believe it or not I had one that was even more bizarre, but yours is pretty darn interesting! You could install glass block above the half wall. If the shower is defunct and you don’t plan to restore the plumbing, I’d turn the space into a cabinet; keep the tile, but put in a wall between shower/bath space, then build shelving facing out toward the bathroom. Could leave a few shelves open, create a space on the bottom for a laundry basket, put some cupboard doors on the top portion — make the cupboard doors curved to copy the arched top of the shower entry. This would give you great storage for towels and it is always nice to have a laundry area tucked away. Best part is you could build that in without demolishing the original shower, and then at some point if you wanted to do something with the shower, you could undo the cabinet. Another alternative — you could turn the shower cavity into a mini atrium. Put some grow lights on top, put in a gorgeous retro ceramic planter on the bottom, add some palms and ferns, you’d have a fabulous complement to the flamingo wallpaper!
Would love to see your ultimate solution!!
Best,
Julianna in Portland
P.S. If you did the cabinet concept, you could mirror the wall that would be inside the shower (between the shower/bath). That would reflect the existing tile in the bath surround, thus visually “continuing” the tile around the surround. Also would make it easy to shave in the shower! And make the space feel bigger; and make it “romantic”… Another idea for that dividing wall would be a painted mural with a 1920s design theme. Or, you could tile it in, and add some shelves for shampoo, candles, soaps.
Cool bathroom- I LOVE the arches and that shower is hilarious!
I love the tiles that look like the waves of the ocean. A pale paint above sounds good as a seaside type wallpaper might overpower the unique tile detail – unless it was super simple.
We have small bathrooms here, too, and they’re a challenge. But they can be jewels!
Gorgeous and that shower is bananas! I vote plant area as well. Maybe papyrus or something else “reedy” that will grow mostly straight up, or orchids if you could get a light in there.
Of course, a matching pug is the best accessory.
Great…but that shower area would be the perfect place for the new linen/toiletries closet! Best wishes on your next endeavors.
Love it!
The arches are great, and I agree if you don’t plan to use that little shower either storage or plants. If your aren’t going to go vintage for shelving, try improvements catalog for chrome shelving (to match your sinks legs!) http://www.improvementscatalog.com/product/chrome-bathroom-shelving.do
OMG–I LOVE this bathroom! It just kills me when people destroy lovely old tile bathrooms. Fantastic!
I love that sink. So much better than the cabinet sink.
Thought about this all day…
I would close that opening to the shower area with a sheet of tempered retro-ey strie opaque glass or tile it over and make it an inset shelving niche….disconnect the shower plumbing, square off the doorway (I think the 2 different arches are sabotaging one another) and make that area a closet with a door.
….Next….
My guesses– At one time that little shower was enclosed. Could it have been renovated so the wall between the shower stall and the tub was knocked down and the tile reused to finish it off as we see it now? Here in upstate NYS it seems the builders all were determined to fit a stall and a tub in every bathroom, no matter how small the space. Beeee-lieve me I had the tiny shower stall to prove it.
Buttercream paint and jadite glass accessories (e.g. cotton ball, q-tip containers, drinking glass, planter/vase behind toilet (w/ plant…).
oooooh, Genjenn, I like the idea of jadeite green accessories!
Thx, Pam. Jadite glass canisters can be a little pricey. Instead, check out the vintage glass refrigerator containers made by Pyrex and Fire King. I think they’d work perfectly in this bathroom. Try an ebay search for “refrigerator jadite”.
BTW: I use my mom’s vintage Pyrex red, yellow and turquoise set all the time to store leftovers.
Thank you so much for all the enthusiasm and great suggestions!
We really like the idea of painting the walls a shade of gray — actually, I had asked for some gray handtowels for Christmas, but didn’t think of using that as a paint color! I think we’ll also go for plants in the mini-shower (since we have plants everywhere anyway!), but are still deciding about their size and number (tho I love the idea of a tall, reedy one). And finally, *any* excuse to buy more Pyrex and Fire King is fine with me! I would love to get some Jadite, though, as it *always* catches my eye. We already use vintage Pyrex in the kitchen all the time, and love the idea of importing some into the bathroom. I have some milkglass in there now, but I think some color would be lovely.
Thanks for all the ideas!
If you ever decide to take on the lighting in this little charmer, I’d recommend considering the black porcelain fixture line available from Rejuvenation for wall and ceiling: http://www.rejuvenation.com/styles/Streamline_Porcelain_Lighting.html
Lots of cool color options for the shades, too. Even more fun is that you can supplement your hard-working recessed accessories with their black porcelain Chandler towel bars and other fittings:
http://www.rejuvenation.com/typepageChandler%20Collection/templates/houseparts_group.html
i love that pug! you guys are an inspiration.. can’t wait to have a house to renovate…
I love the arches above your bath & shower,and of course your little pug!!
That shower stall connected to the bathtub is the coolest thing I have ever seen!
Yes, isn’t it!
Absolutely magnificent!!!. Hard to choose but I think the BEST part is the shower part of the bathtub/shower combo…how very cool …ooh and th e little waves under the border tile…The whole place jut screams “Gramps”…Congratulations
oh and the rzor blades stuck in the hole is funny…we found an old pint of bourbon with about three gulps left sitting on the wood framing when we took out ours
I am so in love with that sink! Any idea where I can find one? The side towel rack are the bomb!
Please let me know where to buy that fabulous shower curtain!
@Karen: The shower curtain is by Plush Living. We bought ours a couple of years ago.
http://www.plush-living.com/AboutUs/Products/DoucheShowercurtain.htm
Thank you sooooo much!!!
Plush Living does not allow you to purchase anything..
I would LOVE to buy the Kaleidoscope Shower Curtain, but cannot find it anywhere…
Please help…
How strange that you can’t buy on their website! This page (http://www.plush-living.com/AboutUs/Products/ProductMain.htm) says you can click the “shop online” icon, but it seem to bring you to a totally different place. We purchased the shower curtain several years ago–we got it online, but I have no idea where. (Sorry!!)
Perhaps try contacting Plush Living directly? So sorry I can’t be more helpful!
It appears to me they are wholesalers, not retailers….Yes, you could contact them to see who carries their stock….
Love that you mentioned DEA Bath! I love them and their site! I recently took my bathroom from 1950′s to early 1920′s/19-teens. Our home was built in 1906 and my husband and I did a total gut and rebuild. Most of our purchases were made through Craigslist, but some were from places online like deabath.com and rensup.com. signofthecrab.com is another great site for info. DEA is one of their retailers. I loved that I was able to talk to a person on the phone instead of an automated deal at DEA. They’re clear across the country from me.
I think my fave part of this bathroom is the archway @ the mini-shower.