I have been thinking a lot lately about whether it would be possible, today, to create a truly *timeless* kitchen and bathroom. That is: Focusing on the past 70 years, when our *modern* American way of life began after World War II: Make a list of all the pieces in a kitchen and then a bathroom that could put together so that, when you saw the finished room, you could not peg it, or any of the pieces in it, to a decade or window *when everybody did that.* Alas, I could not get very far in my little interior design parlor game. I wracked my brain and could think of only two products, so far, that met my rigorous criteria for remaining in pretty much continual use in residential homes… but without getting so *hot* that they ultimately crashed and burned into a sad pile of once-trendy *hideous* *dated* ashes.
My fascination with the timeless comes, I think, as the flip side of my conniption fit whenever someone spits out the word *dated* to describe a home feature that is perfectly functional but no longer popular. Oh, how I hate that word.
While dictionaries may recognize “dated” as meaning “unfashionable”, my issue with the word is that probably 99% of what’s in your home is *dated*. That is, show me a kitchen or a bathroom installed during any decade in the 20th or early 21st century, and I can give you a *date* for it. Continuing on: Tear out a *hideous* [sic / also hate] *dated* kitchen, and replace it with what’s fabulous today — and you will have a kitchen *dated* 2012… Which some homeowner about 20 or 25 years from now will think is *hideous* and spit on and call *dated* and rip out and replace with a fabulous 2022 kitchen… and the beat goes on.
I thought and thought and you know what I think: It’s virtually impossible to put together an entire kitchen or bathroom that cannot be *dated* — and therefore, won’t become “unfashionable”.
So, that leads back to the design ethic of this blog, which is kinda sorta: If you’re gonna have a *dated* kitchen, which is inevitable (I *think*), you might as well have it *dated* to the *date* of the house, which is usually extremely very difficult to hide, especially if there are other similarly *dated* houses all around it.
So what products are modern-era timeless, in my book?
The first two I identified were Elkay drainboard sinks and 4″ ceramic bathroom tiles. At certain points in time, both the Elkay sinks and 4″ ceramic bathroom tiles have been very fashionable… but I don’t think they were ever particularly un-fashionable — and never *hideous* (unless you are very rude).
Timeless kitchen sink:
The first product I’ll declare as timeless — and this one, even pre-WWII: Elkay stainless steel sink tops — which I believe have been in pretty continuous use since the 1920s… and 4″ ceramic bath tiles, also in continuous popular use since at least then.
Timeless bathroom tile colors:
Tile colors with relatively timeless appeal: “Spa” (Daltile) very light blue aka heron blue or robin’s egg blue… rose beige… bone… almond… light grey. White or self- trim. Decorative liner tile is less timeless; a solid liner tile, timeless.
Timeless bathroom vanity:
Update 2017: A modern-era timeless bathroom vanity looks approximately like this [story here]:
Elizabeth Mary says
Interesting question and discussion and I could not agree more that “dated” is a hateful word and I can’t wait until they start to apply it to granite and stainless steel.
When I think about this, it seems to me that a type of material that is dated to an era can be used over the course of many different eras in different ways and in combination with different materials and so become “timeless”. For me, one of these is the little six-sided floor tiles. They seem to date to 20’s era houses, maybe earlier, but I put them in my 1946 bathroom in 2003 and love them. One way they can be varied is with the grout — what color is used. I used a dark grey, and I used tiles with a matt finish so they would be less apt to be slippery than the highly polished one.
The tub surround area is 4X4 tiles white, so I got timeless there. The other walls are tongue in grove wainscotting, another look that I find pretty timeless because it is used all the time.
One other thing that I think can fit into many different eras are the subway tiles, which were so common back in the 20’s but I even see the HGTVers using them, maybe in new colors or in new materials, such as glass tiles of both smaller and larger sizes than the “traditional” tiles.
pam kueber says
Elizabeth Mary, I 100% agree to you regarding the 4″ hexagonal tiles for bathroom floors — yes, that goes on the Timeless list. However, regarding subway tiles, I disagree. These can be *dated* to a particular era. I am not an expert, but I believe they were used principally in SUBWAYS and sometimes on the walls in Victorian kitchens – inhabited by servants, not by residents of the house. They were not *fashionable* until, I’d say, the late 1990s. So far they have been a *fashion* item over time… not throughout the decades. That is my Tough Test for this list.
Elizabeth Mary says
Gee, about the subway tiles not being fashionable until recently, that is not in my experience. First, they were on the walls in the bathroom of my grandparents wonderful 1930’s stucco house — the bathroom was never updated. Then, while I lived in my 1926 stucco bungalow I dreamed of a new bathroom and for inspiration used several 1920’s kit house catalogs and several books on bungalows and saw a number of 1920’s still-original-bathrooms with what I call subway tile on the walls as well as the hexagonal tile floors. So, that was going to go in my new bathroom when I did it. Unfortunately it was a one bath house and I could never figure out how to do it over while living there. So, I didn’t get to do my “new” bath until I moved here into my 1946 Cape Cod ranch but I still used the plans I had for the bungalow. I gave up on the subway tile to save a few hundred dollars and am still sorry I made that decision.
Ally Cat says
Subway has been around different houses in different ways. I worked on a restoration of a 1920’s mansion in Texas and both the kitchen/butler’s pantries as well as the upstairs baths in both the master and guest baths had subway tile.
tenantproof says
Subway tile, the traditional flat kind without beveled edges has been in use since the late 1800’s in both kitchens and bathrooms and was later used in subways in 1901 The grout line was extremely narrow and called a string joint. The original designers of the subway wanted something that was very durable and would last with lots of scrubbing. The traditional subway tile can be purchased through Subway Ceramics http://www.subwaytile.com/ and American Restoration Tile.
pam kueber says
Subway tiles were not used in midcentury houses. They are not timeless. She declares.
Carol Belding says
Oak floors may be timeless.
I look at the very dark wood flooring that is style now and think, it must be a mess to live with. It’s going to show every piece of dust, scratch, and then be as dated as everything else.
CB
pam kueber says
Yes, Carol — oak flooring, natural finish, is on my list of Timeless … but for the rest of the house, not the kitchens or bathrooms. And agreed: The dark wood flooring that is *fashionable* now is a DISASTER in terms of showing scratches,dust, hair, etc.
Other items on my rest-of-house Timeless list include: Sheers pinch pleats on traverse rods and shoot, now I forget, I had a few more. Oh well, they will come back to me. My brain is no longer Timeless, alas…
UPDATE: I remember now: Good oriental rugs, Good round or oval braided rugs, also on the Timeless list for rest of house. Probably also: Human-scale, roll-arm, upholsterd back sofa and club chairs. Wing chairs, too.
CB says
I have always put oak floors in my kitchens. It needs occasional refinishing, but I find it easier on your feet and back than tile. And sorry, I ran surgery centers for a living, I don’t want to ever see another VCT tile…
Jay says
Pam! Amen sister!!! I’m with you all the way. I want to tear up the wall to wall in the dining room to see the the wood floors peeking out from a patterned area rug.
pam kueber says
ummmm, wall-to-wall carpet a very desirable midcentury home feature – back in the day. 🙂 that said, i pulled up burgundy plush wall-to-wall in our big living room, and put in oak. the room had always been carpeted… Tip: Burgundy carpet is like a dark wood floor – shows every goddamned spec. pardon my french.
JKaye says
I would think a kitchen using restaurant-type materials would look fairly timeless, with lots of stainless seel and white tiles, perhaps?
As for bathrooms, while house hunting, I’ve been in houses with an off-white 4-inch tile, or an off-white with little pepper flecks, and the houses have been of varying ages. It made me wonder just which tile was original and which had been added. I really liked this off-white shade and think it seems fairly timeless.
And what about flooring — anything that seems timeless?
pam kueber says
I hear you regarding the salt and pepper tile, JKaye. However, I think it fails my test because it got *horrid* for a while there.
Ally Cat says
FYI, I sold some stainless steel kitchen door fronts to a customer recently. I usually mention that they can show fingerprints, but using Orange Glo floor polish can keep them fingerprint free. He laughed, as he was a car enthusiast and planned to have the fronts sprayed with automotive clear coat, so problem solved forever! That’s probably not necessary on sinks but great idea for vertical surfaces!
ChrisH says
Off on a tangent here – if I could go back a little farther than 60 years. Dating kitchens to the house works great in the modern era. I understand why you are focusing on that – you are recognizing the difference between true technological/cultural change, and mere fashion. But I’d like to just briefly go into the changes of a much older house.
Our house was built in 1917, and neither my wife or I want a 1917 Kitchen. Nor a ’20s kitchen. A house as old as ours would have been updated over the decades, and the updates would not have been mere fashion trends.
When our house was first lived in, back in 1917, the kitchen likely consisted of a sink, a gas range (though electric is possible as well), a hoosier cabinet, and an ice box. That was probably it. And there was no washer/dryer combo in the basement, so the laundry was probably done in wash tubs in the kitchen -at least in cold weather.
Though built in cabinets existed at the time, they still weren’t the “norm” at least in working class housing. One side of our kitchen still has no cabinets, and no evidence there ever were cabinets.
So, over the years, people opted for electric refrigeration instead of an icebox. That’s a pretty big change in technology, not just a stylistic update. At some point a wringer washer was purchased for the house, and laundry was no longer done in tubs in the kitchen. Later still an automatic washer would have replaced the wringer type – quite an improvement in convenience. Then came a dryer so laundry didn’t have to hang in the kitchen to dry (we live in MI, so hanging on the line outside is not a year ’round option) Refrigerators got bigger as women quit doing their marketing every day or every other day. The rise of supermarkets gave rise to the custom of buying a weeks worth of groceries – and having to store a weeks worth. Thus bigger ‘fidges and more cabinets.
True authenticity to the date of the home would be very difficult in our house. We couldn’t do much more than have a kitchen “isnpired” by say the ’20s. IMO that usually works out worse than just picking a later period to “date” the kitchen.
It’s one of the advantages of a house this old – it would have been updated at various times, for sound reasons, and the modern owner has the option of “dating” the kitchen for any time since the house was built.
So, for a planned kitchen remodel, we’ve decided on the ’40s as our style period. Probably pre-war ’40s, before steel cabinets became wildly popular. But we’d also have the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s as options. (Couldn’t bear the “style” of the ’80s or later)
But I do agree with you that if the house is less than 60 years old, the date the home was built is probably the best choice for dating your renovation project.
pam kueber says
I agree with your line of thinking very much. Yes: I focused on the last 60 years because that’s when we started living like we still live today. In regard to what’s in our kitchens and bathrooms – nothing has really changed much.
Jan says
“Authenticity” can be calculated is like what happened in my house, a 1870 non-descript frame house – as ChrisH says, a house would have been periodically updated. Just about the time that awful (but really quite easily painted) asbestos siding was put on the outside of the house (between 1950 and 1965), some of the interior was “updated” to the current styles. So out went the pedestal sink and clawfoot tub, and in came a sink vanity and regular tub. I’m sure people living in much older homes were thinking the same thing some people think today – that “dated” equaled “ugly.” And so, when I replaced the horrible tub surround last year, I automatically went with 4″ tiles because, although that does not fit the structure and year of the house, it does fit the fixtures that were replaced previously. By the way, you’ll never find anything but very mundane colors of 4″ tile at the big box stores, but look at places like Habitat ReStore – where I found more than a bathroom full of lovely yellow tiles – 4″ and bullnose! (On a related note, when I thought I didn’t have enough of the vintage tile, I bought some plain white 4″ from Home Depot to add a design and fill in a perceived gap. The new tiles were ever so slightly smaller and shallower than the vintage – so much for the quality of newer products!).
Sarah says
I think it’s not as much a case of maintaining ‘period appropriate’ as it is a case of remaining ‘sympathetic’ to the tone of the home.
pam kueber says
I agree, being *sympathetic* is maybe even better said about the design ethic of the blog. That said: This story isn’t really about *what to do*, it’s a parlor game to try and figure out, what specific pieces could be put together to create a *timeless* kitchen and bath.
priscilla says
I’m in the process of renovating a small bath with Daltile “spa” hex tiles in the floor (and white subway tile in the shower). I am keeping a very old pedestal sink.
I guess I’m going for timeless.
pam kueber says
Yes — sounds great. And yes: I think a classic pedestal sink would fit the bill. Which one, though? I think something like this one: https://retrorenovation.com/2007/10/18/luxury-waterworks-sink-wall-mount-with-chrome-legs-and-towel-bars/
priscilla says
Pam, I love that sink. I am, however keeping the 1940 pedestal sink that was put in my very old farmhouse.
This is a great thread.
Patty says
Using the word “dated” is better than calling it ugly. We all have different tastes and we are influenced by what we see in magazines and marketing. Colors come and go “in style.” Even spouses don’t always agree on home decor. Decorate how you like because the only guarantee you have is the next family will want to change it anyway — no matter how much you love it. In a few short years, we’re told this is out an this is in. Even your friends aren’t going to tell you what aspects of your decorating they find unattractive, “out-dated,” out of place, out of balance, etc. I’ve been in beautiful homes that I love the look of, but they are not me.
Allison says
I think a larger problem with things being “dated” is the quality. When my parents were building their house, they wanted it to be “timeless” so they would never have to update. My mother and I had many long discussions about fads and styles and we came to this conclusion; a great way to keep “dated” from equating with “horrid” is quality. It’s not the pink tile that’s terrible (not that I think that, but you catch my drift), it’s that pink tile is often associated with old, cracking, stained, mildewed grout. The upkeep and quality of items lead to the horror. I’m sure that in 50 years there will be a site dedicated to the oil-rubbed bronze hardware of 2012, but the items will only matter if they were top of the line and still usable.
pam kueber says
Agreed.
Laura's Last Ditch--Vintage Kitchenwares says
But unfortunately, very little made now is made to last. Our criminal former owners put in trendy drawer hardware and hinges (thankfully, they left the cupboards alone), and the hinges are falling apart after 10 years. Oh, how I wish I had the dated hardware! I just don’t see much of the today’s new stuff lasting beyond a decade or two. Ugh. I hate planned obsolescence.
Pat Wieneke says
I agree!
I have to put in here that my daughter and I have started to equate ‘pinkness’ not just with the color when talking about bathrooms, but to the feeling of the age that pink bathrooms were in vogue. When looking at houses together, we often will comment on some 50’s house with a big box modern parawood cabinet and bowl shaped sink teetering on top of it and talk about how it would have been better to have left it ‘pink’. Blue green, white or what….pink bathroom to us means 1945 to 1965. In other words, they should have left it alone!
pam kueber says
yup
Olivia says
I can’t think of anything else that would be truly timeless in the bathroom or kitchen, but I do hate the way the word “dated” is used in design. If a person says, “I think that is ugly” or “It’s not my style” I can respect that, but dated is always said as if everyone should agree that it’s ugly. And often, on home buying shows the potential buyers will call something “dated” even if it’s not really old, just something they don’t like.
Laura's Last Ditch--Vintage Kitchenwares says
I remember bringing a gorgeous, classic Geiger sweater jacket to a consignment shop and having the clerk refuse it because it was “dated.” The word made me cringe. I hate it used on houses, too.
Pat Wieneke says
“Dated” is one I don’t care for either. Or ‘ it just didn’t work” Like a kitchen people have been using fine and dandy for 50 years or more suddenly does not WORK? I lived in a 1927 house with the original kitchen. No one, till this last buyer ( Philistine) found anything wrong with that lovely kitchen. It was quirky, it was old and it was just as sturdy as the day it was built….and it was lovely. I baked and canned a lot of food in that ‘dated kitchen that doesn’t work”.
If you want to tear it out, admit it. You WANT to tear it out. Like you said, it’s not your style. Or it is u*** [edited].
I always hated to use the word u*** [edited] for someone else’s tastes….but when I saw the strange hodge podge of my bathroom, I had to admit it was u*** [edited]. But it DOES work. Darn it!
Jordanna says
White cabinets don’t date, but door styles do change so much they do. Tough call. I think wood tones date more than white does as cabinet colours though.
White open shelves don’t date.
I have a personal bias against almond, blue in almost every shade, and rose beige. I guess I am a crank. But I can’t think of colours that are more timeless aside from the grey and bone already mentioned and maybe white? Or am I a victim of time-myopia and white is just everywhere right now? (and mostly in subway tiles)
I don’t think a marble, real marble, baking surface on some stretch of counter or table or island ever dates. Unfortunately, it ain’t cheap either, and I don’t have a stretch of counter to spare.
Now if only I could stop hating blue.
pam kueber says
What colors do you like for bathrooms, Jordanna? Regarding white cabinets — I agree — but as you said, I could not think of a door style that was Timeless. Slab full overlay radius edge — like my Geneva steel kitchen cabinets — might make the cut. But those really fell out of fashion beginning in the … late 60s. And they’re still not really back. I have to think about this one. Maybe some sort of French Provincial door style – not too too — might make the cut. French Provincial endured from the 50s on, I think….
Jordanna says
For bathrooms I really like green but it’s difficult to find a green that isn’t a Green of a Decade whether its jadite or avocado or forest or sage.
But a fairly light green seems pretty timeless, as does pale grey. I know some people think green is “hideous” but it seems a pretty consistent number who can’t bear to face it in the bathroom in every decade and the opposite consistent people who in every decade think its fresh and spa-like, especially when cut with white.
Not sure about pale, pale yellow. It never seems to be fully loved OR to fully go away.
Other option seems to be mainly white field tile with a single line of black. Black in larger doses sometimes makes MY heart flutter but it can easily date or look like an ’80s drug den. (That’s not what makes my heart flutter)
I agree a white pedestal sink is timeless.
pam kueber says
I have some old tile brochures. I will try to dig them out at some point. I agree: pale pastels — yellow, green, blue — along with light grey and beige — were pretty much in continuous use. A small bathroom completely tiled in white always hurts my tender eyes; that’s just me; so I have a hard time promoting it. Cut with black – better. Or done just in the shower, with some kind of color or black trim maybe, with wallpaper or painted walls — that sounds good, too.
Kathryn S says
My 1929 bathrooms have white tile with green accents. The green was far bluer than the avocado or the green of the 80s. The green of the 90s was far too blue. They’re still beautiful though!
Chad says
Raised and recessed paneled doors have been around long enough that I think they can probably be called timeless. I’ve seen raised paneled doors in postwar kitchens, recessed panels were ubiquitous on prewar cabinets, and both have been common at least since the 1980’s. How they’re mounted to the cabinet frame has changed, but the difference between partial overlay doors on the outside of the cabinet and the older lipped ones that sit about a quarter inch beyond the cabinet frame isn’t glaringly obvious unless you’re looking for it deliberately.
Subway tile was used in residential bathrooms, but earlier than most people seem to think. My friend’s grandmother’s house was built in 1919 and has rectangular tile in laid in a running bond pattern in the bathrooms. It has a completely different look than new tile, though. The tiles are about 2×6, not 3×6, they don’t have curved edges, and the grout lines are really thin. The 1920’s houses I’ve been in have square tile. White tile with black trim is probably the closest you can get to timeless. My grandmother had it installed in 1954, so its time in the sun was WAY longer than subway tile.
pam kueber says
This makes me remember that in my 1912 house, the one bathroom that had not been significantly renovated had plaster walls that were etched to look like subway tiles. So, I tend to agree with you: Subway tiles may well have been used in residential bathrooms the ’10s. I am out of my element overall in this discussion, though, as my focus has been on immersing in postwar culture. I just do not know enough about how common subway tiles were in residential bathrooms early in the 20th century, vs. other solutions. Another tile I see promoted in publications covering the late 1930s and 1940s, by the way, are large glass tiles — 12″ square glass by Pittsburgh Plate glass, for example. You can see them in this 1948 streamline / deco time capsule bathroom: https://retrorenovation.com/2011/01/12/1948-streamline-moderne-time-capsule-house-portland-oregon/
Martha says
I love those 12″ glass tiles. In the city I live near, which saw its greatest growth in the early 20th century, there are a number of large older homes that (if they haven’t been grossly updated) have those old tiles. My favorites have light green glass tiles with black trim.
Another thing I noticed, that bathroom sink in the streamline moderne house in Portland that you posted was popular for a long time. I’ve seen it in houses with vintage bathrooms that were built from the ’20s through the early ’60s.
tenantproof says
For timeless door styles I would say the full inset door with an inset frame and simple wooden knob. Known as the shaker style door. If you change the knob it can fit into any decade.
Pat Wieneke says
I agree. The Shaker door style would be most timeless. You can chance the hardware on it to go from posh to country from 1880 to 2013. You could stain it or paint it, the strip it and stain it again.
I think the 4 inch wall tile in white or bone is pretty timeless. Put that with 1 inch tiles for the floor or 2 inch. But I do love the look of a nice subway tile wall and hex tile floor.
pam kueber says
I do not agree that Shaker door meeting my “timeless” criteria – especially since my timeless clock starts 60 years ago. Timeless starting circa 1945 (an in reality, earlier): Slab door, full overlay, radius edge, I think.
pam kueber says
Agreed regarding a slab of real marble — for rolling out pie doe and the like. Yes, makes my Timeless threshold. Thanks!
AmyEbbertHill says
Miss Pam, if things did not become “dated”, there would be no need to “update”, and the economy would sufffer. Additionally, things are built purposely not to last so that you have to go out & replace fairly frequently, thereby keeping the door open at the big box home improvement stores. I like the way the British do things, they just rotate things from the living room to the attic & back again as new generations move into the family home.
Gavin in the UK says
Sadly, I’m afraid people in Britain are just as bad if not worse at “updating” everything in sight. Though thanks to the dire economical woes we are suffering, courtesy of City Banksters, this has eased off a bit now. Previously, induced no doubt by endless TV makeover shows, people everywhere here in the UK were ripping out kitchens (and other rooms too) and replacing perfectly good stuff with the “latest thing” often of poorer quality. It would be funny if not so often sad and wasteful. Younger generations, having no respect or interest in their parents or grandparents stuff, just throw it away. Property shows on TV led to millions of homes being redecorated in shades of white and magnolia, people would install new kitchens to lure housebuyers, only for the new housholder to promptly rip the lot out and replace it again. Madness.
Marta says
Gavin, I feel the same way about furniture. I keep telling people, buy older pieces with frames in good shape, and find a good upholsterer. You’ll be better off financially, particularly over time, than buying the poor quality new offerings, and you’ll get exactly the fabric you want.