Tucked into an historic farmhouse in Tennessee — now home to the Sumner County Convention & Visitors Bureau — are a rainbow of seven vintage pastel bathrooms. The building is known today as ‘The Comer House’ after the Comer family, which demolished the original 1850 farmhouse down to the foundation and rebuilt it between 1949 and 1951. The house itself is impressive, but its most amazing feature is the variety of color and tile patterns found in the home’s seven bathrooms. I visited recently and during my visit, I was graciously allowed to photograph six of the seven vintage pastel bathrooms, each of which is sure to inspire.
Are these Crane fixtures? Could be. See our 24 page Crane Plumbinb catalog from 1949 here — material from Pam’s personal collection. If not Crane, they are surely American-Standard. Who’s an expert? What do you think?
#1 Persian Red and Gray — The first bathroom on the tour was a half bath in maroon and off white. The coordinating pinwheel style floor tiles really add that extra something to the space. I should note that all the bathrooms have newer toilets — most likely because of water use requirements.
#2 Ming and Yellow — The next bathroom was a lovely ming green, dark green, white and yellow full bathroom with a standard tub (not pictured). It looks to me like when the house was remodeled, the Comer family must have picked one style of fixtures — same footed wall sink, tubs and faucets — and ordered them in every color. We love this matchy-matchy trick: Even though each bathroom uses different tiles and colors — there is a continuity to the bathrooms as a whole because of the repetition in style of the fixtures, hardware and even the mirrored vanities — giving the house good design sense. It is the tile colors that really distinguish each bathroom’s personality.
The liner tile reminded me of the stash of NOS decorative “sizzle strips” for sale on Ebay that we featured here on the blog a few months back. It is nice to see some of these amazing decorative tiles in use out in the wild – they are gorgeous! And note in the photo above, how the decorative sizzle strip provides a terrific transition from the light blue field tile to the darker blue bullnose. Brilliant detail design work!
All of the full bathrooms had dual tiled-in ceramic soap dishes and a toothbrush holder set in right over the sink.
This vintage green and pale yellow octagon and dot floor had me wishing these color combinations were readily available. Wait. Does Chippy have some alternatives like this at World of Tile? Maybe. Ask! This floor would be perfect in my vintage mint green bathroom.
#3 Pink and Gray — Then there was the pink and grey full bathroom — so pretty. What a phenomenal color combination. Pam says it’s her favorite of all time, for a pink bathroom.
It even had a Cinderella tub. I mentioned my own pink bathroom at home to the woman who worked in the office with the pink bathroom. She was delighted to hear about my efforts and exclaimed that she absolutely loved her adorable pink office bathroom — though I’m sure she has never had the opportunity to use the Cinderella tub.
The bluish grey and white octagon and dot floor tile was another happy detail in the beautiful 1950 pink bathroom.
#4 Beautiful Blue — The next full bathroom was a blue and white combination with a standard tub.
It also had decorative liner tiles in a charming blue and white tulip pattern.
The floor in the blue bathroom was very understated — a simple white — but tile pattern made it look anything but mundane. This is a great floor — multidirectional — would be great to replicate in a bathroom today.
#5 Ming and Black — Another ming green bathroom was next — this time with a green and black tile combination and another Cinderella tub.
All of the bathrooms had the same style of fixtures for the faucets and other hardware. The shape of it is so interesting — and I was thrilled to see the original faucets still in use.
Do you suppose that the handle on the shower head adjusts the flow of water or turns on the shower head?
The green floor wasn’t an exact match for the tub, sink and wall tile — but was interesting nonetheless. The pattern reminds me of the flooring for my master bathroom remodel — University Pink from Merola tile.
#6 — Butterscotch and Butter — The last bathroom I toured was a full bath with buttery yellow and brick red tile.
It had a standard size buttery yellow tub and the same faucets as the other baths.
The real show stopper was the charming tile floor, which reminded me of some of the plaid tile patterns from the vintage 1929 Freidrichsen Floor & Wall Tile catalog. This was my favorite floor pattern of the bunch — it brought all the colors of the bathroom together so nicely and really gave a customized feel to the space.
Mega thanks goes out to Kelley Dickey, Administrative Assistant at the Sumner County Convention & Visitors Bureau for agreeing to give me a special access tour of all the wonderful vintage bathrooms at the Comer House — as well as the inhabitants of the offices who didn’t think it strange that I wanted to photograph their bathrooms. Thanks also to my Mom for alerting me to such an awesome collection of vintage bathrooms.
Susie O. says
I’m from Gallatin, TN! So, this post makes me pretty happy! I am usually partial to pink or blue, but I’m in love with the green Cinderella tub. I want it!
Maureen Bajeyt says
The pink tile is similar to the tile our bathroom had before the remodel – had to gut the entire bathroom because of mold and wood rot…and some questionable electrical work. Too bad though – I liked the starburst pattern.
Scott Nimmo says
I work in Gallatin and drive by this house all of the time!! Never knew about these bathrooms. My grandfather used to tell me about seeing them tearing down the old house and building this one. He was driving back and forth to Gallatin a lot from a nearby town at the time because he was dating my grandmother who lived in Gallatin. It is a beautiful house on the outside but I would call it a sort of colonial style. It was supposedly built back very close to what the old house looked like. I heard it was rebuilt because Mr. Comer’s son had severe allergies/asthma and they thought the old house was part of the problem. Not sure if this is true.
Mary Elizabeth says
What a great story with so many facets–your grandparents’ courtship, the owner’s son with asthma. Wonderful!
Cynthia says
Great Job, Kate! I liked all of the bathrooms very much, and am glad to hear the office workers enjoy them. wonder what they did with the old toilets? Maybe they are sitting in some government basement storage area? My conclusions: 1. Cinderella tubs are very cool and I want one, 2. baths done in colors are our friends, 3. the blues and greens are my favorites because they look the freshest and cleanest.
One question remains: what about the 7th bathroom? Why was permission given only as to 6 of them? Kate, please solve this mystery!
JKM says
My sister’s spacious 1951 North Dallas ranch house has two pink bathrooms – one huge one with the exact same sink with towel bars on each side, Cinderella tub, and a long built-in tiled vanity along one wall. The other is pink as well but has the sink built into a tiled countertop and a stand-up shower. Both bathrooms have built-in chrome toothbrush holders that pivot into the wall. She loves her pink bathrooms and they get lots of compliments. Sadly, her area is ripe with teardowns so she knows her house will be razed if she ever sells it.
Mary Elizabeth says
Tell her that if she keeps the house until she’s carried out in a pine box (as I plan to do), she will not care at all what people do with her house when she is gone. That’s because all the bathrooms in Heaven are pink. And they never wear out because, well, you know. 🙂 We will just sit and gaze at them whenever we want.
pam kueber says
Yes, I too will be carried out — in a knotty pine box!
Mary Elizabeth says
But, of course, knotty pine! With wrought iron hinges. 🙂
JKM says
Once a neighborhood of sprawling, comfortable one-story homes on 3/4 to 1 acre lots, she’s seen her area transformed into a fantasy land of faux English castles, French chateaus, Tara knock-offs, and other swollen houses of dubious origin. The homes were custom built and expensive when new in 1951 but, as their elderly owners pass away, their heirs sell the old houses. Builders throwing $750K to $1M cash at them for teardowns is hard to pass up. They bought their home from the elderly original owner around 15 years ago and has already said she’ll be carried out one day!
tammyCA says
We used the same sizzle tiles in our bathroom – they were from B&W Tile..they are so pretty & the outline reminds me of little fish. We used one color (green) but they did custom with different colors ‘tho more expensive.
I do love those little tulip sizzles!
Liz says
Just bought a 1948 house and the one area that has not been messed with is the pink bathroom. The tub fixtures are EXACTLY like the ones pictured here – with the fluted spout. I haven’t seen anything like it online anywhere until now! When we got the house inspected the lovely man (who is genuinely awesome) said we’ll probably want to swap out the faucets and handles for more modern fixtures and I shouted out, “NO!!!! NEVER!!” The bathroom is easily my favorite room in the house. Some people think that is weird but I know nobody here will!
Steve says
I like how in bath #4 the door trim sits on what appears to be a marble plinth and threre’s a matching threshold. That’s really a classy little detail.
lynda davis says
Amazing how nice these tubs and sinks still look. I think an alcove Cinderella tub looks very nice. You can see how easy it would be to have a shower curtain for a tub/shower combo. I certainly think the tub looks nicer than the big whirlpool tubs in the McMansion homes. Too bad Kohler or American Standard do not still make one to fit either a 4′ or a 5′ alcove. Fun to look at these bathroom colors. I wouldn’t want one, but I love looking at them!
Ranger Smith says
These are amazing! Each of them a work of art; I could study these all day. The liner tile or “sizzle strip” in the #2 Ming and Yellow is the same as I had in the kitchen of my previous home, except mine was cobalt and white. It was built in 1940. Nice to see that it had longevity pre and post war when so many things changed.