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.
Sherri says
I love the arches above your bath & shower,and of course your little pug!!
Vanessa says
i love that pug! you guys are an inspiration.. can’t wait to have a house to renovate… 🙂
Arcalus Bo says
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
Rachel says
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!
Genjenn says
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.
Genjenn says
Buttercream paint and jadite glass accessories (e.g. cotton ball, q-tip containers, drinking glass, planter/vase behind toilet (w/ plant…).
pam kueber says
oooooh, Genjenn, I like the idea of jadeite green accessories!
Jen8 says
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.
gavin hastings says
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….
Dix says
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.
christine says
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