Janice is one busy woman, who Gets Things Done. A year ago, she sent in a fabulous, detailed story about remodeling her kitchen with retro style. Now, along with her husband Greg, she has completed an entire bathoom remodel. And boo to the hoo to all those TV decorating and house hunting shows that still don’t get it: Janice sought to embrace — rather and erase — her midcentury home’s aesthetic roots and added a Mamie Eisenhower pink bathroom, replacing a nondescript one that included painted-over plastic tiles. Read on for all her experiences — and resources –>
Janice writes:
My love affair with pink bathrooms is a new one. I never once thought about wanting or needing a pink bathroom when my husband and I first started searching for a mid-century ranch three years ago. Had I known then what I know now, I might have held out until I found the perfect time capsule bathroom. But, I didn’t know better and we bought a house with two bathrooms – neither of which are pink.
After reading all about the Save the Pink Bathrooms crusade and drooling over the RR Blog’s readers’ own pink beauties, I decided I might not have inherited a pink bathroom, but by golly, I could build my own. First order of business was convincing my husband of the idea. My husband is a Harley ridin’ guy’s guy and I thought I would have to whine, pout, nag, threaten, and blackmail to get my way. However, when I gingerly approached him with the idea, I was dumfounded to hear him say, “That’s fine – I don’t care.” That’s all it took. With a green light in my pocket and the RR Blog’s inspirational ideas in my head, I started designing.
The first step was deciding on a coordinating color. I noodled around with pink and brown and pink and burgundy, before settling on pink and black. I was initially concerned that black would look very harsh up against all the pink, but after studying pictures on the RR Blog and internet, I decided it made the quintessential 50’s bathroom and I owned it all the way from that point on. It didn’t hurt that the black tile I needed was a stock item at Lowe’s and could be purchased at a much lower cost than a special order tile.
I learned from the RR Blog that one could still buy mid-century colors in ceramic 4 x 4 field tile at B&W Tile in California. I have to say that was one of the best leads ever! B&W are nothing short of fabulous to work with. Example: After receiving my order, I discovered that I ordered the wrong size of pink bullnose. When I contacted B&W, they said I could send it back for a full refund. I carefully re-packed the pieces in the box they came in. When it arrived in California (I’m in Kansas), they called to tell me that every piece in the box was shattered. Since I was the packer, I took full responsibility and told them I understood they wouldn’t be able to refund my money. To my total surprise, they wanted me to know they blamed the shipping company and not me for the damage, so a full refund was still coming my way. Are you kidding?? That prompted me to write a letter to the general manager of B&W Tile to compliment all of them for customer service that seems to be as forgotten as pink tile. I fully recommend B&W Tile for your unique color tile needs. By the way, the color I selected from the B&W Tile color catalog is 70W (after asking Pam what she recommended.)
I found the black and white mosaic tile used on our floor at Lowe’s [American Olean Chloe pinwheel tile with black dot], and while I would have given my right arm to have some of the wonderful vintage mosaic tile floors I’ve seen on the RR Blog, I decided that this was a very close second. I want to give a shameless plug to my husband who came up with the idea to add a strip of the same mosaic on the wall for an accent row. Yep, same ole Harley ridin’, guy’s guy came up with that all on his own. Brilliant!
I agonized over what to do with the top half of the walls and even considered wallpapering, but DH hates wallpaper and I didn’t think he would go for it. He didn’t. After considering all sorts of color options, I thought the only real viable complimentary color to pink and black was a slightly lighter shade of pink than the tile. When selecting the color, I uncustomarily nailed it on the first try. It’s Valspar “Sugar Pink” purchased at Lowe’s. We did use a very high dollar primer on the walls that we purchased from a specialty paint store that is specifically designed for bathrooms since it’s such a wet environment. However, this is a 2nd bathroom, so other than the toilet, it gets very little water use, but better safe than sorry! Seriously. It’s rare that I get the right color on the first try. My husband and I even had to re-paint our family room three times before I was happy.
As you can see from the before pictures, we had a chrome toilet paper holder, towel bars, etc. I really, really wanted ceramic so I went on an Ebay hunt. I found some that looked the same shade of pink, but holy cow, there are like a million shades of pink (as I discovered when looking at paint samples), so it was a crapshoot when I hit “Buy It Now” on Ebay. I was half afraid to open the box with the tile sample in my hand, but the Renovation Gods blessed me with a toilet paper holder, soap dish and towel bar brackets that were the…exact…same…shade…of…pink. I guarded them like the Hope Diamond until installation day for fear that one would get damaged. I knew I would never be that lucky again.
With all the supplies on hand, we started demolition right after the vintage aluminum Christmas tree came down in January.
We discovered that the tile we had (which we could tell had been painted) wasn’t ceramic at all, but rather plastic. There behind where the toilet once stood, was the original chartreuse plastic tile. Had it not been painted in the 80’s, I would have embraced it and been happy to have this original unique color. But as you can tell from the pictures, chartreuse had been converted to bland off-white, so hundreds of vintage plastic squares of tile met their demise.
Of course, there’s no saving sheetrock when you remove tile so we took everything down to the studs. As is often the case when you demo a room where water is the main feature, we discovered the subfloor was mildewed and rotten so it also had to be removed. You know how we talk about how everything was built to last back in the 50’s, well, the builder hammered a nail in that subfloor at about every 2 inch intervals. The floor came up more in splinters than sections. We also took up the original ceramic shower floor which we discovered was on top of 4” of solid concrete which had to be sledge hammered apart.
My husband and I fancy ourselves as pretty decent DIYers, but nothing we’ve done has been as frustrating as installing and grouting tile – at least for me. Admittedly, this process was made more difficult by my slant toward perfectionism, but wow, it’s nowhere near as easy as they make it look on HGTV! Are there mistakes in our work? You bet. Did I fret/obsess over it? You bet. But in the end, I know none of my friends or family will be sitting on the toilet critiquing each grout line so I’m over it.
We had a hard surface shower pan custom made for us. This shower isn’t a standard size, so nothing on the market worked. We have a plumber friend who suggested we go this route. You can get a better look at it in one of the pictures I sent of me standing in the shower. It’s secured by sitting on a bed of mortar. Our plumber friend did help DH install this as it was definitely a two man job – very, very heavy!
The Sexton metal cats were an Ebay purchase, as was the vintage wastebasket, the wall shelf unit (cleaned up and repainted) and the obligatory poodle. The lime green towels were a Christmas gift last year from my sister-in-law and at the time, I had no idea where I would use them. I love the splash of lime green in the room. I found a vendor on Ebay who monograms towels and she did the His and Her towels for me (I have her card if anyone needs monogrammed towels.) I went to Target immediately after your post about your Mom’s bathroom to find the pink towel hanging on the shower door (thank you for that tip!)
The shower doors were a special order from Menards – they are not stock so don’t expect to see them on the show room floor, but they can order unique designs and we found they have a better selection at a lower cost than Lowe’s or Home Depot. The chalkware fish are a combination of Ebay and local antique store finds.
So, that’s my story of how I created a pink and black 1950’s bathroom. Pam, you saw me through my kitchen renovation last year, and you were with me every step of the way in the bathroom renovation this year. I can’t wait to see what room you and I work on next.
Janice, I think you are serious serious contention for the Retro Renovator of the Year. You and DH are amazing. Might I also point out: Can everyone see how all that pink tile — bouncing its pastel perfection onto Janice’s already glowy face — just lights her up even more? Pink bathrooms = Retro Botox, yet another reason to love them.
Well done, Janice and DH. And, thank you, too, for the fantastic write up, including that Menard’s shower door,which I love, and a great tip on a paint color we can all just snarf right up, no fuss no muss. As we discussed via email, I still don’t understand how you got your shower pan made. Possible to get more info on that??? xoxo, you rock!
Lynn-O-Matic says
Spectacular! What an amazing job. All the choices you made were perfect. Now, if only I could convince my husband to transform into a handy hubby like yours! 😉
JAMES says
how much did the pink tile cost ?
BlueJay says
I have the price list for B&W; 70W is $4.50/sq. ft. for the 4×4 tile.
Janice says
I don’t have the exact cost, but it was sort of expensive, but worth it! That said, we way over-ordered so the cost could have been a lot less. That was our mistake. We have boxes of tile left.
Cynthia says
Glorious! You are such an inspiration!
Guy H. says
Love it! Great job! The black and pink go well together!
75Heather says
Oh, wow – GORGEOUS!!
Jenny says
I LOVE your kitchen and think it’s amazing, but you out-did yourself with this bathroom! It’s so pretty and spot-on. Your talent and vision are truly inspirational. Thanks for sharing!!
Lauryn says
Wow, Janice, what an amazing job! Kudos to you and your husband, you guys absolutely rock. Your bathroom is perfect and without all the demo pictures it would be nearly impossible to believe was not an original bathroom. And I love, love, love your little corner sink. Adorable! Let’s hear it for inspiring people like you!
Terri B says
LOVE IT!! We need to re-do 2 of our 3 1948 bathrooms…I want them to look like the house. You’re a great inspiration. We currently have a blue bathroom with accent tile that looks like a wave and a double tiled (ie: your painted tile) in green/light yellow tiled bath, no idea what is beneath the green! Both were beautifully done, but the sinks are rusted, the stack pipes are 60 years old and I’m sure that the floor boards are not in the best of shape.
We’re going to do both bathrooms in black & white. One has a HUGE shower and the other has a “mini-tub”. We’re going to heat the floor and demo part of a hall closet so that we can get a standard sized tub in the green bathroom.
Thank you for confirming my need to keep my bathrooms in the correct era!!!
Terri
Jason says
Fabulous! I have a vintage 1956 yellow and black tiled bath that I love and I have been trying to decide- now that some repairs have been done to drywall and new window in there – what color to paint.
I thought lighter yellow than the tile was probably the best choice and seeing your bathroom confirms it! Thank you so much! Did you go with pink on the ceiling too? I have done white ceilings throughout the house, but I wasn’ sure in there if I should do white or carry the wall color up to the ceiling. Any suggestions anyone?
The accent of the white and black tile from the floor ties the two together beautifully!
It is perfect!
Lynn-O-Matic says
Jason, in smaller spaces like bathrooms I think it’s a great look to continue the color on the ceiling (especially in cases where there’s a lot of white already, like white field tile or wainscoting, which is not the case with your bathroom). It also has the advantage of being so much easier to paint, since you don’t have to cut in and be as careful where the walls and ceiling meet.
Do send pix when yours is done!
Patty says
There are no ceiling police — paint it whatever color you wish.
Jenny says
I just painted our bathroom pink and used the color on the ceiling as well. It looks great and now I wish I’d done it sooner. Worst case scenario, you paint the ceiling, don’t like it and change it back to white.
Janice says
Thank you Jason! Yes, we did paint the ceiling Sugar Pink. Like you, we have white ceilings in every room of our house, but my DH always says, Go bold or go home, so we wrapped that whole room in pink!
Jerry says
Janice, congradulations to you and DH. That is one beautiful bathroom, I think, and from scratch, you have the eye for mid-century Miss Janice. 🙂