A knotty pine pink bathroom — channeling Marilyn Monroe

For the first time ever, I see two of my favorite, ubiquitous (generally unappreciated) features of mid century homes come together as one: Pink Bathrooms and Knotty Pine. Woot! Reader Lynne recently moved into a house with a knotty pine pink bathroom upstairs — and rather than diss them both, she embraced them. Turns out that Lynne also has a thing for Marilyn Monroe, so she’s in the mix too. I love it — including that gorgeous vintage Homart sink and toilet! Read on for Lynne’s story and a slide show of 16 photos from her charming space:

Lynne writes:

Pam, you are my new hero! Luckily I moved into this house with the pink sink and toilet half bath upstairs (and didn’t have to search every where like some do) in a finished attic of knotty pine.

This house was built in 1942. It’s a bungalow style with a finished “attic/2nd floor” with a total of 4 bedrooms and 1 and 1/2 bath in a suburb of Cleveland. From what I hear from the neighbor, the couple that we bought this place from lived here for years and years, but I’m not sure if they were the original owners. It was on the market for a year and in our price range when we looked at it. It was kept in perfect shape with hardly any repairs to be done, and it still had a vintage feel to the entire house.

The upstairs, finished in knotty pine with 2 bedrooms and a half bath, sold me on the place, not to mention the bath had a pink sink and toilet and two vintage white dressers that came with the place! I painted the one wall pink. Honestly I wasn’t sure that the pink fictures were actually vintage until I did research on them and found out that they aren’t made any more, and that’s when I stumbled upon Retro Renovation! I’ve always had a love for retro decor, but now I know I actually have original appliances, so I am totally obsessed. I also have a bit of an obsession with Marilyn too…

Thank you so much for making your website. It gave me the courage to give myself an aqua-ish kitchen which I’ve been painting this weekend. You really should have a reality show!!! I’ll send pics of my kitchen when done.

Tips to use slide show: Click on a thumbnail… it will enlarge… use the arrows below the image to move forward, or back…. you can stop or start at any images:

Thank you for sharing, Lynne — and for appreciating the little jewel box bathroom that the Retro Decorating Gods delivered unto you. By the way, we have seen that sink before: It is a vintage Homart design. Homart was a brand sold by Sears, likely very common across America. You pink toilet is surely from the same suite. That sink is one of my favorites. I also received your kitchen photos and will check them out for posting soon. Great job — keep spreading the retro love — you go, girl!