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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Rerunning this post — because in the meantime I discovered these are called “Cinderella bathtubs.” Here’s Alice’s, too. There were “Cinderella windows”, too. Stay tuned on that one.

We are getting a clean start hehehe to 2009 with this post showcasing some simply wonderful bathtubs from the postwar period. Oh my gosh, look at this 1947 “neo angle” from American Standard … My dream bathtub, no question. But if I had one of these, there probably wouldn’t be a blog, because I’d never leave it. Read on for more vintage tubs … and 6 photos in all…

Above: A 1959 Kohler Mayflower, recessed. Kohler still makes the Mayflower model – it’s petite, but very nice! If I had the space, I’d use it – in pink, of course!

Doesn’t this 1959 Kohler Cosmopolitan just glisten! Notice the little rings holding back the shower curtain in all these images. I’ve never seen this before. Do you think people really did this in their homes? Or is it just for advertising, to show off the tubs while still featuring a shower curtain? Readers – any real-life examples found in your time capsule homes?

The copy is fun to read. I think that Amy’s little tub/shower may be the Kohler Standish “showering bath” mentioned here.

This post was originally published on Jan. 2, 2008.

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Remember Alice and her yellow Geneva kitchen in Richmond, Virginia? We’ve stayed in touch, and she sent some additional photos of her time capsule house.

Here’s her update:

You see I got busy with the camera. Attached are a couple of photos of the wallpaper in the dining room of our new, old house..I love the paper and am keeping it! In case the colors aren’t clear, it’s pink and blue pheasants on pink, blue, green and cream flower stems – all on a metallic silver background! The colored areas of the paper have a feel and look as though it’s hand painted…just lovely!

And because you asked, and knowing your crowd will enjoy, this I have included a few photos of our den with what appears to be a hand-made tray ceiling; a cute little bar/liquor closet that was definitely a handy-mans delight (fyi – I would love some photos/info regarding tiki bars – or whatever bars were typical of the ’50’s); a couple of ceiling fixtures that we have inherited; and did I mention they are the most fabulous closets? I’ve included a particular closet – a top-to-bottom cedar lined closet that is approximately 12′ x 12′.

And, Alice sent photos of her aqua (mint green?) bathroom with great yellow sink and original wallpaper. Thanks again, Alice, I’m mint green with envy!

Click photos below SEVERAL times to get to largest possible version:

This post was originally published early May, 2008.

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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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She and a helper repainted the cabinets that came with the house themselves. She chose a cheery aquamarine for the base cabinets, white for the wall cabinets and notice that the island is painted a dark gray-green.  Her post contains all the product details – plus check out her cheap and cheerful lighting solution for the wall cabinets – brilliant! Thanks, Edie, for letting me feature the photo — your kitchen is a triumph!

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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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