Having built my own life-sized Mamie pink bathroom, it was no question that my 1955 Betsy McCall DIY dollhouse would get its own pint-sized pink potty. Fortunately, Pam was looking for something she “needed” when she went to World of Tile’s epic liquidation sale — and she picked up a variety of small mosaics for me to consider for various spaces within my dollhouse project. This included several sheets of the perfect itsy bitsy pinks.
Pam also proudly pounced on streaky, shimmery white alabaster mosaic tiles that she had found. “Wait until you see them,” she told me on the google chat, “you’ll die.” She was right, I was in love, too. They are simply gorgeous.
The first step was to tile the three walls of the room. I knew I wanted the tile to span from the floor to the bottom of the window frame — and I was super lucky that the math just happened to work out so five square tiles and a mini bullnose tile fit perfectly. Yay for less cutting of tiny tiles!
I had pre-planned the layout of the room, so I knew where I wanted to put the vanity. I also wanted to pump as many retro design ideas into the space as possible.
I used a small pocket mirror — a freebee from the dentist’s office that has a toothpaste advertisement on the other side — to make a mini tiled-in mirror.
With the walls complete, my next task was to install the luxurious alabaster floor tiles. Seriously, have you ever seen such a posh dollhouse before? Real alabaster, folks!
I covered the rest of the upstairs floor with some sheet cork that Pam pulled out of her Mary Poppin’s handbag. Instead of continuing the bathroom tile floor all the way to the edge of the dollhouse, I opted to connect the cork to make a small hallway between the bedrooms and the bathroom.
As you may recall, Pam gave me a $100 budget to completely furnish all six rooms in my 1:12 scale house. I can use only only vintage and handmade furniture. One of my tactics for making my furniture budget go as far as possible was purchasing Ebay lots with several pieces of less than perfect vintage dollhouse furniture and making them work for me. This strategy made me end up with two ‘kitchen sinks’ and no bathroom sink. Even though the furniture in the bathroom would be a tight fit with a spacious vanity like this, I decided that the inhabitants of the dollhouse — having to already share one bathroom — would much appreciate the added counter and storage space this vanity would provide.
To give the vanity some mid mod pizzazz, I “laminated” the countertop using yet another scrap from Pam’s vintage wallpaper stash and topping it with Mod Podge. Ta-da! Instant retro upgrade. Don’t you wish we could get laminate that really looked like this?
The toilet and tub were also pretty sad — and the wrong color for my room — but they had beautiful lines. Painting was in order. I realized that the pink walls in my den were just the perfect light pink to coordinate with the bathroom wallpaper and laminate-topped vanity, so I used some of my stash of leftover paint to give the tub and toilet a quick make over.
By now, my pretty pink vintage bathroom was starting to give me a case of the smileys — it is so cute!
But hey, something is missing…something very important…
You guessed it — the toilet paper. How would the tiny residents of this home function without it? Also needed was a towel rack, towel and bath mat. I put my thinking cap on and quickly decided that I could make my own toilet paper, toilet paper holder and towel rack fairly easily using: a scrap piece of dowel rod with a hole drilled in it (for the toilet paper roll), a small scrap of white fabric to simulate the toilet paper, some carefully bent wire for the toilet paper holder and towel bar and a smaller square dowel (left over from making the window trim) with a hole drilled down the center, then cut into small slices to use for brackets. After painting the brackets with silver paint and getting the wire bent just so, I used super glue to attach the towel rod to the brackets and then super glued the completely dried and set bar to the wall.
Presto — instant “chrome” bathroom accessories!
Next it was time to find fabric to make a mini bath mat and towel: One of my microfiber cleaning cloths was just the right shade of pink.
The tiny loops of the microfiber cleaning cloth are perfect to simulate a bath towel, don’t you think?
I used a scrap of pink embroidery floss to hem the edges of the oval bath mat, but the towel is just a carefully cut rectangle. So far it seems that the hemming is an unnecessary step to keep the cloth from unraveling.
By this point, my smileys had turned into full on giggles. I just made a tiny roll of toilet paper — hehehehehe. At just that precise minute, Pam called me and asked why I was so giggly. When I told her she just paid me to make a 1:12 scale roll of toilet paper for a tiny vintage pink bathroom she started to whoop it up too, too. Did I mention I love my job?
The bathroom could still benefit from a window curtain and perhaps some tiny chalkware fish, but for the most part, it is a totally adorable miniature pink vintage bathroom — the smallest vintage pink bathroom we’ve ever featured on Retro Renovation: A mini mid-century modest!
Okay, readers, I’m all ears. Who has ideas on how to make a little chalkware fish set? What sort of fabric should I use to make window curtains? I’m also open to suggestions for other tiny finishing touches. Ready — go!
And just to keep the scale of this pipsqueak of a pink potty palace in mind, here’s a shot of the dollhouse bathroom next to a standard roll of toilet paper.
Robin, NV says
Kate I am just agog at your ingenuity! Everything about the bathroom is perfect!
Stacia says
These are all such great ideas. The cracker jack prizes are a goldmine and if you could find the right lot you could use them as decorative items all over the doll house. I have a set of wine charms made from them: mine are a flamingo, parrot, hula girl, & skull that all could be used in a mini tiki bar. I also have a tiny aqua telephone that would look adorable somewhere. Expensive but maybe you could stay under budget by buying a big lot and reselling the rest!
Also, I keep thinking you could use Shrinky Dinks in some way…
Jay says
That Pam! Leaves no tiles unturned. It’s the penultimate pink potty palace. I liked how you carried the cork flooring from the adjacent rooms across the front of the bath. Please make sure your prospective realtor screens the buyers. Don’t want any of the them stepping into the bath room and saying “it’s dated”.
Kate says
hahaha thanks Jay, Don’t worry, this house will have appreciative inhabitants. 🙂
Mary Elizabeth says
And because they are dolls, they will have absolutely no control over the decor. 🙂
Lynne says
I agree with Steve, I’ll bet you could find little fish earrings. Even if you had to give them a little coat of paint. Maybe buttons? Did anyone already say that?
If you find the fish, try the little round colored ball tops of sewing pins for the bubbles! (using the white of course) You could leave just enough of the straight pin to poke securely into the wall.
Annwesleyhardin says
I wonder if you could grout the tile with toothpaste?
Kate says
I’m sure I could, but I’m not sure I’d want to… 🙂
Mary Elizabeth says
And the ants came marching two by two,
Hoorah, hoorah!
The ants came marching two by two,
Hoorah, hoorah!
The ants came marching two by two
to eat your toothpaste grout and flour glue.
Bersy in Michigan says
We used to use toothpaste at the end of the school year to cover up nail holes in our dorm rooms….
Mary Elizabeth says
I remember the stress of getting rooms back to their “original condition” right in the middle of exams. Some of the girls filled in the holes in the dorm rooms with toothpaste as they exited them, but I used real Spackle and touch-up paint. Once my roommate and I repainted an entire room halfway through the year because the girl who lived in it was depressed and blamed it on the “bile green” walls. We smuggled in ladders owned by the families of some of the commuter students, my dad’s paint brushes and rollers (brought from home in a suitcase after winter break), and a gallon of cream-colored paint. Later the resident advisers came through in the spring on the annual inspection tour, and said to her, “We have this room down on the chart as green.” She said, “Nope, it was always off white.” They just shrugged and walked away. A good thing, too. We never would have found that color green in any paint store–it wasn’t any recognizable mid-century avocado or lime or neon green. It was indescribable and timeless in its institutional glory.
susie q. says
I’d look at (broken, or not broken) remnants of vintage jewelry. Maybe you could find a brooch or charm that looked like a fish and paint it. Or, find the perfect picture of a chalkware fish, reduce it, and print a color copy. Then glue it to a cardboard “plaque.”
Chris says
This is soooooooooo wonderful and fun! I am SQUEALING!
I like Mary Elizabeth’s idea — but I would use Sculpy clay. It works really well for something like this. I once did a miniature Christmas tree covered with tiny, detailed, sculpted masks (very late 80s!) and the Sculpy was a great medium.
I just love the dollhouse! It will absolutely be a treasure for future generations of your family.
Roundhouse Sarah says
Pretty perfect fishy, but expensive for what it is…
http://m.ebay.com/itm/271769329360?nav=SEARCH
Kate says
That is perfect Sarah — but yes, a little pricey! 🙂
Mary Elizabeth says
Yes, perfect. It reminds me that when I was furnishing my dollhouse it had a lot of miniatures that came from Cracker Jack or gumball machines. I remember musical instruments, etc. I think they made them stop putting little prizes in Cracker Jack sometime around the 1980s because some toddlers might swallow them. Really, you’re going to give Cracker Jack to a baby?
Steve H says
The house is looking awesome! I bet you could find some old fish earings or charms and spray paint them. Also, how about using part of a ball point pen (either the cap or the bottom end) to make a cone shaped sconce for over the sink.
Mary Elizabeth says
Ditto on the old jewelry. I love the pen cap sconce idea.
Forgot to tell you, Kate, that I need to send your free dentist mirror idea to my dental hygienist. She will get a kick out of it.
SpaceCadetNM says
Or how about lights on the side of the mirror? Fuses might work for that! I think this darling little bathroom really needs lights!
Kate says
Fuses! Great idea!
Mary Elizabeth says
A mini marvel! Good idea about painting the old dollhouse furniture. Why didn’t I think of that? Also, the wooden dowel for TP is a great idea. I always would cut a half-inch strip of TP off the roll and roll it myself around a paper straw.
As for making your fish wall decorations, I have a few ideas. You can make the fish out of play-dough and bake them in the oven. (Directions are on line.) Make them shiny with a coating of spray poly. You can also look in your local yarn/craft shop for buttons or flat beads that are shaped like fish. I have seen them on babies’ sweaters. Also, you could cut them out of corregated cardboard and paint them with glossy paint. Can’t wait to see what you do with the rest of the house.
Kate says
ohhh great idea about the buttons…I’ll have to look for some of those!