I think I have finally lost my marbles. Jumping up and down in my office, all excited to find a company that offers 94 different colors of toilet seats… and dying to share it — to stop the presses — to postpone the planned laminate story — get this NEWS on the blog!
Thanks to Sales Manager John at deabath.com, who provided a quick-as-a-flash answer to my question about where to find vintage-color toilet seats. I think John knows everything. Readers: Send me questions. Let’s test him! I’ll get a radio show. Like Click and Clack, only… about Vintage Plumbing.
So, the company that performs this wonderful service to all of mid mod America, is Bemis Inc. from Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin. Elongated, or round-bowl. Plastic – but it will do if I wanted…needed…the perfect pink toilet seat.
G. Beker says
If anyone has a source (or actually has) any toilet seats for our Crane #1100 toilets (need Saffron Yellow and Venetian Rose), we’d sure like to know!
G. Beker
http://www.bekers.org
astrosonical says
I found a plastic seat for my 1961 American Standard toilet in a local thrift shop. It cost me $3.50 and is a pleasant shade of green not too far off of the original. I had to use the plastic fittings off the white plastic one that preceded this. It’s a great fit, but sort of keeps the lid cover from fitting really well. It’s little trouble considering the alternatives.
Cheryl Ware says
I am looking for an American Standard pink, green, and yellow toilet with all the parts and matching toilet seat. We currently have since 1954 three original pink, green, and yellow toilets in our Palos Verdes house. Does anyone make new parts to replace the old original parts? Each bathroom has matching tile and decor that matches the colored toilet. A while toilet to replace each one of these would not look in the room. Any suggestions on what to do and where to go? We are in California.
Pam Kueber says
Hi Cheryl, I’d start you off at deabath.com – to see if they can help you. After that, I think you are going to have to watch you local Re-Store/Habitat for Humanity, craigslist and other salvage places around you. In addition – you should also look at the toilets available today from companies like American-Standard, Kohler, Crane, Eljer, Briggs, Toto – some of them make toilets in color and maybe you will find one or more that are “close enough.” I would love to see your bathrooms – send pics to retrorenovation at gmail dot com! Good luck and let us know how your hunt progresses.
momoderne@gmail.com says
Hi, I just came across your site through Jenn Ski and I can’t believe the resources you have. You will totally be a daily stop for me and my ranch redo. Just wanted to say thanks for all the info- especially the toilet seats!
Anna
nancyb says
Hey Everyone – I used this system a few months ago to match my peachy-pink 50’s toilet. If you Google the color direct system, you will find vendors who sell it for around $50. I bought my system package (color swatches) off of doitbest.com. You still order the color you want through Bemis, and get a Bemis seat.
The color swatch I picked was #043, which corresponds to American Standard’s “Corallin”. The seat I received blends very well with the toilet, although it’s a little light. The seat is all plastic, but is comfortable and looks good to me.
50sPam says
Hi PSS, you are so ingenious!
Palm Springs Stephan says
Thanks, Pam, for providing this great resource for replacement non-white toilet seats. Yes, they are pricey when you consider that they are just plastic, but as Pam notes, they are made in relatively small runs, driving up the unit cost. But my issue with them is not the price. It’s the authenticity.
Toilet seats in the 1950s were not plastic. They were wood, painted, with metal hinges rather than plastic ones. Purists like myself can get pretty picky about these kinds of details. So what’s an obsessive-compulsive restorationist to do? My solution was to buy an old-fashioned toilet seat from a warehouse home improvement store and alter it. I bought a seat in the authentic 1950s style: wood, painted white, with chromed metal hinges. Dirt cheap at about $10. Then I visited the local marine boating supply store for a quart of epoxy boat paint, taking along my color-matched paint chip from the warehouse store. Matched the color, repainted the seat with durable epoxy, and voila! A color-matching, fully authentic 1950s blue wooden toilet seat with chrome metal hinges for less than the price of a non-authentic all-plastic one!
Gina says
I just purchased a mid century modern built in 1960 that I am restoring.The bathrooms have all original Crane fixtures-including the very unusual heavy duty ORIGINAL plastic Crane elongated color matching toilet seat-complete with corroded zinc hinges. Other than the little bit of corrosion on the hinges (which also are very unusual looking ) the seat is in perfect condition.
KM says
Toilets seats in the 1950’s were made of materials other than wood! I have original hard plastic type material seats on one bathroom, and the other is original pearloid (mother-of-toilet-seat) material. Neither has metal hinges…
Tom B says
When you painted with Marine paint did you brush or spray?
nancy says
I was very surprised by the price of these toilet seats. But, I must say they are such an improvement from the very old ones that we had & the color matches perfectly to our yellow & blue American Standard toilets. I think anyone that orders will be very happy. I was so excited to find them & have them match so well!! It really doesn’t take much to get us excited! A great find!
Nancy
50sPam says
Hey Tikimama aka Elise, yes, $77 is a lot – but when an item is small-run specialty like this, it’s gonna cost.
I recently saw a vintage toilet seat go for over $100 on ebay. It had poodles on it, as I recall.
Tikimama says
Argh! Pam, you didn’t mention that the seats cost $77.00!! I’m very excited about this anyway, because my lovely new pink bathroom is marred by an oak toilet seat (horrible memories of my parents’ 80s brown bathroom)! Guess I’ll just have to save up to buy one of these. Funny, because in our desert house (the one we just moved from), we have peachy-pink toilets, and one of them had a Bemis seat. It had probably been there a very long time, and was still serviceable, until my two little ones started slamming it, then the little plastic feet on the lid broke.
My blue bathroom here (new house) had an oak seat also, but my two-year-old picked out a dolphin-motif seat at Target. On clearance for $24.00, which I thought was pricey – until now!