Oh my goodness, look at this incredible vintage Case vanity.

It is on craigslist and was spotted by Scathing Jane who has posted it on the Forum. The listing says that this sink top is 24″ x 56″.

Somewhere I have the add for this sink – with its wrought iron base. INCREDIBLE.

My new favorite of all time, this post now goes in “10 best bathrooms.” The set, including the tub and toilet, is listed for $1,100.

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These mint-in-box pink flamingo wall tiles from the Mosaic Tile Company may well be the most wonderful thing I have ever seen. They are for sale now at BungalowBill.com. Worth every penny of the $2,300 price. Here is what Bill says on his site:

This HUGE panel by the Mosaic Tile Company of Zanesville Ohio dates from 1949 and comes straight from an estate in Florida. These tiles were never installed. They have been packed safely away for 60 years, looking as new as when they came out of the factory. Traditionally a panel such as this was used as the focal point on the back wall over the tub and shower. But, if you can’t commit to installing this prize and leaving it for the next owner, you can always mount and frame it for moveable enjoyment. Your bathroom doesn’t even need to be pink!

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Susan peeks at us from the other side of her vintage, pink Jack 'n Jill bathroom. I am so jealous.

IT’S A PINK BATHROOM BONANZA. Here we have not only pink , but also the blog’s first Jack ‘n Jill bathroom. And — the adorable Susan (above), a first-time homeowner, to tell us all about the bathroom, and her ‘new’ 1962 home. Surprise surprise, her note includes this:

When we first bought the house I was not a fan of the bathrooms. However, thanks to your site I have realized how great a pink bathroom can be!

Susan writes:

My fiancé and I just purchased a 1962 split level in Northcrest, a subdivision outside of Atlanta.  When we tell people where we live many say, “Isn’t that where all those weird houses are?” We proudly say yes!  (For some really interesting history and a peek at the neighborhood check out www.northcrestmodern.com). We are truly, madly, deeply in love with our mid-century wonder! Here is our story:

Though Eric (my fiancé) and I both grew up in the area we never knew of Northcrest’s existence. A mid century enthusiast friend encouraged us to check it out. We fell in love with the neighborhood and began driving through several times a week. We were in no position to buy a home but that didn’t stop us from checking out every new home listing and every open house. We became total Northcrest stalkers and I’m sure the neighbors probably became concerned.

While looking in the windows of a property for sale Eric was approached by a man who had been driving by. He said he had a house for rent around the corner and would Eric like to see it? Of course Eric agreed. The guy led him around the corner to his recently vacated rental and showed him around. He told Eric that no one seemed interested in renting so he would also be willing to sell it since he was living on the other side of town and paying two mortgages. Eric loved it and a few days later on our regular stalker drive Eric took me by to see the house.  The owner just happened to be there (coincidence or fate?) cleaning a few things up and let me come in to look. I was smitten too!

Soon after our visit the owner called to ask if we would like a chance to buy the home before he hired a realtor and put it on the market. Being in no position yet to buy we declined and in February the house went up for sale.  In May the house went under contract. We were heartbroken and even stopped driving through the neighborhood for a while. It was just too depressing.  Later that month we found a realtor and began our house hunt in earnest. We looked plenty of houses in plenty of neighborhoods. While many were lovely and we tried really hard to like them none had that “this is it!” feeling like our Northcrest home. Then one day I got an excited call from Eric. He had just driven through Northcrest and had great news. Our house was no longer under contract and it was still for sale! It was like it had been waiting for us. We immediately called our realtors (who told us the house had actually been under contract twice), put in an offer and after much negotiating, which is a whole other story, the house was ours!

We closed on July 21st. It hasn’t been totally smooth sailing. Part of our negotiations with the seller was trying to figure out what to do about the plumbing. When our home was built copper piping was cheap and galvanized steel was the fancier way to go. Unfortunately steel pipes rust. We had to have all the plumbing in the house replaced all the way out to the street. It took 3 days of no water but we got it done! The dishwasher is old and at one point was draining into the crawl space. The oven thermostat doesn’t work right. The carpet was totally disgusting and the basement floor is covered in asbestos tiles. The exterior of the house is actually 3 different colors of grey because no one bothered to match the paint for touch ups. The best paint is on the front so it looked good for realtor pictures. However, all those not so great things are what made the house affordable!

We have beautiful tongue and groove pine ceilings, an awesome brick fireplace and wet bar in the den and totally great neighbors! The living room has a wall of windows looking out onto our front yard. The path to the neighborhood pool goes right next to our house. Since the house was not upgraded in any way it leaves plenty of room for awesome renovations! We are in the process of stripping (yes taking all the necessary lead paint precautions) the old paint off the kitchen cabinets and making new cabinet doors. [Pam adds this note: Way to go with environmental and safety precautions. Gold star.] (We are thinking of getting some snap on stainless counter edging. Take a look at the pictures and see what you think!) A new counter top is in order for the wet bar and we are considering taking down drywall a previous owner put up over an exposed brick wall. The downstairs bathroom is going to get new drywall and a new floor.

The Jack and Jill was to be the bathroom of the future! Many of the homes in our neighborhood have them (or had them. People tend to redo them). The bigger, more narrow side of the bathroom is the guest bath which is accessible from the hallway. The smaller one is attached to the master bedroom. We are pretty sure the star burst light fixtures are original. The tile is in sad shape but we think a good professional cleaning and sealing will make it almost new again. The ceilings are stained tongue and groove pine. I also threw in the picture of the outside of the house.

When we first bought the house I was not a fan of the bathrooms. However, thanks to your site I have realized how great a pink bathroom can be!

It’s all so exciting. I really couldn’t imagine being anywhere else!

Thank you so much for sharing, Susan. It’s great to hear your story. And it sounds like you know to buckle up, as renovation is almost always a bumpy ride. Also, I hope you don’t mind my calling you ‘adorable.’ I am quite much older than you, it’s one of the perks. Keep us apprised of your home-making shenanigans and continue to renovate safely.

Susan and Eric’s blog: Our Modern Mess.

P.S. I also added you to our 10 BEST BATHROOMS list. Woo hoo!

Update: Susan, Tikimama says you need vintage Jack ‘n Jill wall decor like this, from etsy Modtiki:

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Yes — we are all dedicated to Save The Pink Bathrooms — but that quest is just emblematic, of course. We love midcentury bathrooms of all colors – blue, yellow, pinky-beige, grey, green, salt n pepper… I recently spotted some great images from Tiki Lisa’s blue bathroom (after the jump), and it got me to thinking… Let’s pull together all our blue bathrooms for a comprehensive look at this classic midcentury color. 22 bathroom inspirations in all.

Above is Tiki Lisa’s bathroom faucet. I have not seen one quite like it, until now. I love her tile-in sink. And notice the tile, it appears to be the gold granite salt and pepper style. You can still get this today, folks.

Here’s another angle on Lisa’s wonderful blue sink and faucet. I’m all for crystal faucets if they have a nice solid hand feel, as the old ones often do.

And here’s Lisa’s coordinating toilet, set against vintage blue wallpaper. See more of Tiki Lisa’s photos on flickr, and on her blog Atomic Tea Party. Thanks, Lisa!

Meanwhile, here’s another new-to-the-blog vintage blue bathroom, 1963, in this home for sale by Uncle Jack. Notice that cute daisy wallpaper. I love the look of the vanity. And darn, I want to see the floor and toilet better. You can still get mirror-cabinet combo’s like these from Nutone.  See the listing via the lefthand column of VeryVintageVegas.com.

In another news update, one of our readers just wrote to say that she is buying this wonderful 1959-era American Standard sink and vanity, one of our favorite styles ever ever, and featured in a recent Retro Radar. See the complete 1959 suite here, in green. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the deal works out! Now… for some previously featured posts…

 

Above: One of the coolest blue bathrooms ever in this 1964 time capsule, so well designed and featuring all the latest gizmos. Click on the first image to start the slide show.

Luminous blue tub, toilet and sink from deabath.com.

Vintage blue fixtures in a grey bathroom…includes a great vintage American Olean tile set of fishes.

We love Cinderella bathtubs.

50s and 60s bathrooms used to have laminate countertops in styles like this. Swoon.

We choose shower curtains for Amy’s blue…well, aqua…early 60s bathroom.

Light blue and medium blue paired in an affordable and easy-to-replicate vintage style tile design.

Feeling groovy in this mid mod bathroom from Chile. Red punches up blue so beautifully.

One of our favorite longtime readers, Palm Springs Stephan, gutted his condo bathroom and replaced it with this wonderful retro renovation.

Alice’s blue bathroom tile, after she’s cleaned the grout with Zep.

A Las Vegas time capsule bathroom. Be sure to see this post for the great Moe lighting in the dining room.

Michael’s very cool bathroom, Worthington, Ohio. Great tile and a wall-mount toilet — we haven’t seen many of these toilets yet, except in literature from the period. Very, very cool.

How much do we love Alice’s bathroom (and kitchen and whole house) in Richmond, Va. Let us count the ways, it’s nearly Perfect!

Anthropologie bath towels will fit right into a vintage blue bathroom, original or retro renovation.

Are blue bathrooms getting your attention yet? Scantily clad genies may help: 1956 Eljer ad.

More advertising inspiration: 1953 Kohler bathroom with two tones of blue tile.

Sinks I saw on ebay. Most excellent for a 60s “Romany Spartan” style bathroom retro renovation.

Here’s tile that would look great with the sinks. Again, very Romany Spartan-inspired.

Did I mention that when I renovated my three 1951 bathrooms I made one of them blue? It’s probably the favorite one in the family – very cheery, classic, too. My field tile came from Olympia – who have now discontinued this Maple Leaf tiles. But this color, essentially a ‘heron blue’ or ‘robin’s egg blue’, is available now by other large brands. Good news – there’s almost nothing more affordable than thsi 4×4″ field tile… and the look is spot-on for retro renovations. Update you interiors to be sympathetic to the original styling and period of your home — and the results will surely have a more timeless appeal.

Do you want to renovate or create a vintage-style blue bathroom of your very own? You can find most all the retro resources catalogued on my Bathroom Fast & Easy page here.

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THE 1964 SPLIT-LEVEL TIME CAPSULE first shown yesterday also had two great bathrooms. The full bath upstairs is a beautiful robin’s egg blue, all 4×4″ field tiles, with cheerful flowery liner tiles. There is a separate bathtub and the shower. The shower door is a true classic, and notice the terrazzo floor pan, the light, and the tile on the diagonal on the ceiling.

And there’s more: A laundry chute built into a storage cubby… and the fold-down Hall-Mack scale holder below. The laminate countertop on the dual vanity is surely GE Textolite, from the “Twilight” series . And, the owner’s daughter told me that the Nutone exhaust fan/light also had a built-humidistat that turned the fan on and off automatically when the room became too humid. Finally, there was a hidden door to the master suite, along with a door to the hall. This might have been the best bathroom ever in this history of the retro-universe. Again – not pretentious, but so well considered and well built. Click through for the slide show – 15 images in all.

 

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Palm Springs Stephan is a wealth of info, and provides this info on a Southern California company still producing the 50s pink tile so common during this era. Don’t use any other pinks – they are not right! I am so excited at this find – a big one for the retro renovation community.

The source: B&W Tile, with 3 locations and online, bwtile.com. See the warehouse photo to the left – they sure look like they’ve been in this Gardena location since the 50s. Reassuring!

Stephen adds: “B& W Tile makes this tile and keeps it in stock at all times in every size imaginable, from 1″ hex tile to 6×6 inch glazed and unglazed wall and floor tiles. I talked to their Riverside location just this afternoon, and the 4.25 by 4.25 glazed wall tile in 1950s pink (their inventory number 70W) is just $3.88 per square foot….I should be able to do the walls in my new bath just like the ones in that photo.”

Thank you thank you, Stephan! Original color – vast selection – great price. And, they produce the 1950s style wall-mounted & recessed china toilet paper, soap, and toothbrush holders (see toilet holder in top photo) also from original molds. Or you can use shiny stainless from Franklin Brass.

Spread the word and prepare the mastic.

This post — one of the most popular ever on Retro Renovation – was originally published on Dec. 14, 2007

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Wow. This company — Miscellanea Discontinued Bathroomware — claims to have more than 50,000 pieces of discontinued “sanitaryware” — toilets, sinks, bathtubs — making it the largest such salvage place in the world. “Over 100 Retro bathroom colours in stock including,” they say: “Coral Pink, Sky Blue, Champagne, Turquoise, Sunking, Primrose, Flamingo Pink, Pampas, Indian Ivory, Linden Green, Bali Brown, Misty Blue, Harvest Gold, Oyster, Whiskey, Wild Sage, Bone, 2-tone including Lilas Jaspe and of course Avocado, Avacado or if you prefer Avacardo…”

As you may be able to tell by the spellings of Avocado, sadly for us Americans, MDB is in Surrey, England, far far away. To be sure, a trip to London is now on my to-do list. But the heck with Big Ben — I’m going for the bogs! Oh, did I mention their website, brokenbog.com? I am taking it that bog = toilet?

Miscellanea says it has collected all these pieces by buying about-to-be discontinued stock direct from manufacturers. They add, “Whether you’ve got a smashed Sepia cistern or a broken Bermuda Blue bidet we can help, rather than going to the expense, disruption and downright mundanity of having a complete new White suite fitted.”

“The downright mundanity of white…” — These are my kind of people – and they now go into our Top Ten Bathroom posts.

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Reader bsmet sent me this great link from Dal-tile showing 88 different mosaic wall and floor tile patterns. To enlarge here, click on the thumbnail here… then at the next window, click one more time.

I consider a tiled wall and tub/shower to be pretty essential in midcentury bathrooms. For the floor, you could also use VCT or linoleum. But be careful, any standing water will rot through the floor and sub-floor over time… so tile is better if the bathroom gets heavy use. And, the beauty part about retro-styled bathrooms is that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to get a great effect with tile. Use basic 1×1, 2×2 and especially 4×4 (or 4-1/4 x 4×1/4) tiles, add a little pattern zing – as suggested in these 88 options – and you a retro renovation bathroom that’s timeless, functional and appealing. Thanks, bsmet – this is a great resource!

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How to spice up inexpensive 4×4 wall tiles in your retro renovation bathroom? Liner tiles add expense – but they are well worth considering because of their amazing decorative punch. They are so very typical of the postwar era. Snoop in the bathrooms at estate sales and you are sure to see their perky little appearance.

Another great example:

Flickr friend Humblelabor provides these images – see more on her photostream. I am particularly in love with the first image — the salt & pepper tile with the black & gold liner tile. Isn’t that snazzy!

The color photos in this post are vintage. But the liner tile samples are from B&W Tile’s website. In addition to offering many authentic vintage colors – including the iconic Mamie pink – B&W also can custom color – hand-paint – liner tiles to match your specifications. Regarding multi-color liners or liners matched with field tile in general: Think complementary color in equal hues and values… be careful about contrast, don’t make this too jarring…this is the kind of decorative decision you want to be not too hot, not too cold, just right.

I have to say, if I had my bathrooms to do over again – I’d put these in, in a heartbeat. I particularly like “Deco” and “Pearl” handpainted in multiple pastel shades. So sweet!

If you just want plain liner tiles, I also see them available from Dal-tile. For authenticity’s sake, I recommend staying with the narrow 1/2″ style x 6″ long. Top with 2×6 or 4×4 bullnose tiles in the same color filed as your wall tile. Amy’s 1964 salt ‘n pepper bathroom actually shows a liner topped by a 4″ field tile then a 2×6 bullnose – looks good this way, too.

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From Cindy’s mid century pink bathroom, Lexington, Kentucky

When my sister Jenni (above) and I recently visited Lexington, Sumac Sue aka Judi arranged for the first stop on our neighborhood tour to be Cindy’s mid-century ranch house.

From Cindy’s mid century pink bathroom, Lexington, Kentucky

Pink and green trim on a 50s ranch? I was pretty sure I’d like what was inside – and was not disappointed.

From Cindy’s mid century pink bathroom, Lexington, Kentucky

Cindy has a vintage pink bathroom appointed in a style that transcends all eras yet stays true to its retro roots.

From Cindy’s mid century pink bathroom, Lexington, Kentucky

The only things that Cindy replaced in her pink bathroom were the vanity countertop, sink and faucet. She chose a neutral marble/stone laminate with pink and brown undertones for the countertop. She custom-ordered the sink from a potter she knew in Maine.

From Cindy’s mid century pink bathroom, Lexington, Kentucky

Her other key decorating move: A softly shaded wallpaper in a flowery design along the long wall – mated with a soft-stripe version from the same paper collection, along the shorter wall and above the shower. I can’t emphasize enough what a great choice these papers were – the colors, the intensity, the mix – all harmonize beautifully with the tile. Everything complements…and the overall effect is quite soothing and serene. If I had one suggestion for this space, it would be to add a soft valence to the window. A little, final finishing touch?

From Cindy’s mid century pink bathroom, Lexington, Kentucky

I also love how Cindy has integrated little images… vignettes…into the bathroom. However, this requires a true dedication to tidiness, readers!

From Cindy’s mid century pink bathroom, Lexington, Kentucky

The original bathroom elements also are just wonderful. Look! Pink hexagon floor tiles!

From Cindy’s mid century pink bathroom, Lexington, Kentucky

And see how the mirror is tiled in. I would have done this in my blue bathroom if I’d seen this example!

From Cindy’s mid century pink bathroom, Lexington, Kentucky

And, I’m swooning over that interesting old toilet seat. It kind of clamps down like a clam shell. Never seen one like it. Tip readers: Keep your toilet seats down! Bad feng shui to have open drains; your energy/money rushes right down them! (E.g, I think everyone flushed on Wall Street exactly at the same moment.) Bad bad bad. Also, close your bathroom doors. Especially where you have attached master baths. No mal-odors, please, into living spaces!

From Cindy’s mid century pink bathroom, Lexington, Kentucky

I know that there are many folks with 30s 40s 50s and 60s pink bathrooms who could be “okay” with the pink tiles – but don’t really want to “go retro”. Cindy’s bathroom is a great example of how to find a timeless middle ground that most importantly, reflects your personality and love.

Related post:

• 10 tips to decorate your pink bathroom

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