The lovely pink and gray bathroom in EarthaKitsch’s 1956 house has a gaping hole in the vintage mosaic ceramic floor tile, courtesy of a previous owner’s need to get to pipes underneath. Eartha K is a longtime reader… remember when I wrote about her delicious knotty pine kitchen? Now, she and DH putting finishing touches ont he bathroom but Drats! They need to fins some tile to match. I volunteered to marshall the Retro Renovation readership forces (and the retro decorating gods) on their behalf. Read on for Eartha K’s story…
Hey Pam,
Thanks SO much for offering to show our tile to see if anyone can help. We’ve scoured your blog and looked into all of the tile manufacturers listed and have also paid a fee for a service to search their warehouses for dead-stock portions of our tile. No luck. We’ve also been watching Craigslist and eBay like hawks to no avail. We just KNOW that somewhere out there, someone has some of our tile sitting in a dusty shed or is about to rip it out of a bathroom. We had a tile person come out to the house, and he said that there is a slight chance that he can harvest some tile out of our bathroom linen closet but that since our tile is laid straight onto concrete, there might be more loss than gain. We found some fragments of our tile in a trash pile in the brambles at the edge or our property but there is no maker or other info on the back of them. We recently saw our tile in an estate sale house so we know that it wasn’t something rare.
So, that’s the scoop on the great (or not so great) tile hunt. The colors are a peppy (and kind of Pepto) pink and a sort of blueish gray. The sizes are 1 x 1, 1 x 2 and 2 x 2. I’m attaching photos and will also attach a photo of the patch job that was done sometime in the past. Our house is on a concrete foundation and we’re guessing that someone had to get to the plumbing through that hole in the floor. Then they slapped some random tiles in haphazardly and called it a day. I never will forget the day that we first walked through this house. We went into that pink bathroom and angels started singing because everything was original…pink…pink…pink.
…glorious. Then the realtor said, “There is something under the rug that you need to see…” When we lifted up that rug, we gasped. Then we bought the house. We’ve worked hard getting the bathroom spiffed up and rejuvenated with repair work and by bringing back some period details … but that hole in the floor keeps us from being able to say that our job is done. It haunts us.On a comical note, when we finally found the perfect color of bath rug to match our bathroom, we drove all over the county from one JC Penney’s to the other, snatching up all of their stock because they were being discontinued. I have this fear of being in this house for 50 years and all of my bath mats getting too ratty to cover the hole in the floor anymore. Thus, I have become a bath rug hoarder. : )
Thanks again!
What do you think, readers? Can you be on the lookout at Re-Stores and craigslist and the like and if you see any New-Old-Stock, post an alert here? Meanwhile, I have a few more sources for new tile today that might do the trick. I will post them tomorrow and Saturday.
Fiona - Notorious Kitsch says
I can’t be of ANY help at all as I’m in the UK and we don’t have amazing bathrooms like this :o( However just wanted to say what a cool bathroom!
Mark says
The only things I can think of, and I’m sure you’ve checked is they might have tiles under the tub, which I doubt but you never know.
Other than that you might find a custom tile maker that can match your colors and make some tiles that you could cut to your sizes.
If you have a college near you that has an art dept check with them, they might be able to make them for you at a lower rate.
Good luck!
Amy Hill says
Nice to know I’m not the only decorating hoarder! I do the same thing when I find something perfect for my little house…I have a window over the bath tub and have to use those old fashioned looking matching shower curtain/window curtain sets. I also have to shorten the window curtain set when it’s time to install. I have an extra couple of sets sitting in the linen closet for periodic replacement in the bath. Crazy things we do for these old houses!
Lawrence Bill says
Yeah, it’s too bad about the damage, but if it were me I would keep it covered with a rug (plain white almost always looks good) until you find the original tile. Right now there is a box of it out there somewhere sitting forlornly on some shelf, gathering dust, and crying to be saved. You will eventually find it if you stay patient. If all else fails and you can’t stand it anymore, you could put in a new floor with tile that closely matches what you’ve already got. Good luck, it’s a really fine bathroom.
St. Louis shelly says
Probably your best solution would be to put in a vanity cabinet, (which would be easier to find than the tile) and then use tile from underneath. It would be a perfect match.
Millie says
Wow, can I relate or what (see my blog as we just are having our house re-plumbed as it had the original pipes from 1959) and in the process found our original vintage tiles under some commercial grade ugly 6 x 6 tiles. I was thrilled; that is until our repairman got to the last corner of the bathroom and discovered a huge hole like this where previous owners had apparently had to patch plumbing, I was heartbroken.
Thanks to RetroRenovation I’ve just purchased some tile from SJ Masters in Connecticut that will help us recreate the original look. I’ve done HOURS of research trying to patch ours and had no luck, ours was a 3/4″ by 3/4″ tile mosaic.
The closest thing that I saw that might help you out is the American Olean company who lets you design your own mosaic and that’s what I was about to do before I found the SJ Masters info on RR. Here’s a link to where you can design your own mosaic. http://americanolean.com/mosaic_design.cfm. It’s not cheap, about $14.95 per sq ft (or a little higher depending on your design) but since you don’t need much it might be worth it. Our damage was a lot worse and I even had to find tiles to match the walls where they had to cut out large portions of our original soft gray wall tile.
Good luck and I hope this might help you. We’re still trying to put ours all back together and I hope to never see a plumber, or a jackhammer, again for a long, long, time……
Milster
Janet Gore says
I was thinking along the lines of Nancy … IF you aren’t able to match the tile, you could possibly cut out a larger section (possibly a rectangular shape), and fill with tile to complement the rest … just a thought, if you get desperate.
Heidi Swank says
This is off topic and reveals what total geek I am, but Janet thank you for using “complement” correctly. I’m kinda attached to “complement” with an “e” but sadly it is being subsumed by “compliment” with an ‘i” because few are aware that there is a difference. Thank you.
Vintigchik says
English teachers everywhere are happy that someone other than a fellow teacher knows this:)
Nancy says
Sorry that I can’t help with sources – but can offer an alternative idea.
This looks like a perfect opportunity to intentionally highlight that spot with a specially designed mosaic of some sort. There are tile artists who could take your colors and create a retro pattern to insert in that spot. Or they could take a design cue from another pattern in the room and copy or accent that.
Just a thought.
Vintigchik says
I like that idea. I think it is especially in a great spot for it.
Amy says
Yes! An artist can create a “tile rug” in that spot! (I’ll check my local Re-Store to see if they have the tile, though.) Good luck! LOVE your bathroom! 🙂
Glamorlux Nancy says
Beautiful pink and gray bathroom!!! The curtains look charming, too. At least the damage is right where a bath rug should go! =)
weed30 says
Look at the ad for the Gracelynn sink/toilet in “Bathroom Stuff” on the forum. The tiles look similar, although they are all square. I don’t know if they have already ripped out the floor.