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.
Alice says
I like the idea of a “marker” tile – maybe something that is just a clean pour of concrete with Eartha Kitcsch 2010 stamped in it.
We have had great luck with tile here in Richmond from Caravati’s – they salvage materials from demolitions. You may be able to call them and have them search their tile supplies – http://www.caravatis.com – the last time I was there they had boxes and boxes of small floor tiles (we were in need of small black and white to do a similar repair and they had it!)
Marc says
I like the mosaic idea, or an inset of some sort.
Gretchen S. says
Check out American Restoration Tile — they have various shapes, sizes and colors – the color section is sorted by era http://www.restorationtile.com Sadly, even new oldstock might have a different appearance after the existing tiles have had wear and tear.
Ditto what Shen said – another possibility would be to perfectly match the color and cut down contemporary tile to size.
Colin says
I concur on American Restoration tile. He has the sizes you’re needing and though it doesn’t show on his site, he’ll do color matching as well. The color matching is pricey, as is the tile, but if you’re wanting to do it right, cost may not be as much of a concern. http://www.restorationtile.com
Shen says
Hi there!
I have spare small pink mosaic tiles I can mail to you for free. They came out of a 1960s bathroom. They look like will match the other pink ones perfectly. What about finding gray tile whose color matches yours as close as poissible and then cut them up to size to reproduce the pattern??? It would have to be a matte finish tile.
Let me know if you want the Pink 1x1s I have. I think I have about 10 pieces and it would be perfect for someone needing replacements!
Cheers!
Kirsten says
I had a similar issue in my 1952 bathroom – when I removed a hideous gold late 60s giant medicine cabinet, there were tiles messed up or missing around the opening. I went to a local Seattle tile store, Art Tile (http://www.arttileco.net/), and there is a guy there who can take standard plain tile and color them to match! They came out perfect – so close a match that you can’t tell which ones are the originals and which ones are new. So I would recommend finding a local tile place that offers the same service, or calling up Art Tile in Seattle to see if they have any suggestions. Who knows – maybe they can do the work for you.
Barbara says
Has she tried Dal Tile for samples? You know, they have those shapes so they may have a matchy matchy…
Marcela says
I found this
http://www.historichouseparts.com/antiqueporcelainbathitems.htm
Marcela says
and BTW I’m IN LOVE with your bathroom, tile missing and all, It’s lovely!
Marcela says
Can you order a sample from Daltile? http://www.daltile.com/mosaic_design.cfm how about salvage yards in your area? I work for a construction company and sometimes you can even ask some tile companies to make a custom order tile for you. We get plenty of those!
Good luck!
Joe says
have you checked DalTile? they might have the matching tile available. If you can get a hold of the right person somewhere they might want a small sample mailed to them so they can do a limited run, that might be the way to go so you have spares too.