I’ve been in Kentucky all weekend — my Dad’s 80th birthday is today — and while here, I’ve been staying with my brother and his family. About two years ago, they bought a 1962 midcentury modern house that needed a ton of work. They have now lovingly restored it — and it’s an absolute treasure. One of the things they left virtually untouched — for me — was the pink bathroom in their guest room. This pint-sized pink potty space is so darn cute I could bust! And the sink and toilet, in particular: These are spectacular designs!
Above: The sink, toilet and tub are all American Standard. It’s difficult getting the color right with my iphone camera. The fixtures are decisively pink!
The sink is quite tiny — a petite lavatory on beautiful, hefty chrome-plated steel legs with an integral towel bar. All the fixtures are in near-perfect shape. I don’t think the bathroom was used much over the years.
Above: I edited this photo to be black and white to spotlight the lines of the toilet. Gracious, I think I will declare this the most beautiful toilet design in American history. I am too lazy right now to go looking for historical info, but I am pretty sure this design was available for decades.
The wall tiles are salt-and-pepper. They are mud-set, I think. I tend to believe that salt ‘n pepper tiles came more into fashion around this time, the early 1960s. They are a nice way to do “white” but knocked down a bit so’s you don’t get a big slab ‘o white. Over the years, I’ve seen salt ‘n pepper tiles with a variety of ‘dots’ combinations: Golden combos, black combos, blue combos.
Note, when I retiled the bathrooms in my house, circa 2002, I had not started the blog yet… I did not know where to get Mamie pink bathroom tiles. If I had, for sure I’d have a B&W Tile pink powder room paradise in my own little palace!
I did go retro, though. One of my bathrooms has heron blue field tile, trimmed in white; another, rose beige trimmed in white; and the third, peach trimmed in black. And they all have wallpaper!
Above: There’s a recessed medicine cabinet, sliding doors.
Above: The floor is a random mosaic. I think you could replicate this one, more or less, using Dal-Tile’s Mosaic Design Tool. World of Tile used to have lots of 12″ x 12″ sheets like this, in colors like this, and older. Alas, the company is gone now.
More stories about designs using Daltile’s Mosaic Designer:
- Lookie the floor that Lauren created for her bathroom.
- Natalie and Graham use the Designer to create a floor for their doggie shower.
- Pam designs a pink-gray-cream mosaic tile floor using the Mosaic Designer, when we first discovered it.
And:
- Nicole pieced together a mosaic floor DIY — “the meaning of insanity or dedication,” she asked!
It’s the honorary Aunt Pam’s Vintage Pink Bathroom! #sohappy
Ack! I need to make some art for the bathroom to thank my brother and his family! xoxo family!
Linda says
So thankful thete are people like me who love the mid century homes & treasure them
Sadly they’re disappearing fast here in Arcadia, CA. Makes me want to cry
Torn down for big, ugly wanna be fake mansions. Our beautiful city is ruined.
Keep treasuring the past. Those homes were beautiful & so well built.
Peggy S says
Hi Pam,
I have a home built in 1952 with original bathrooms, mudset 4×4 tile. The trim color is called Root Beer and I located a supplier for it at Claysquared.com. However, I cannot find the main tile color which is a salmon type color. I’ve searched at all the online sites mentioned here. Can anyone help?
Pam Kueber says
See Bathroom Help / Tile Ideas for all our tile resources, it’s right at the top.
Peggy S says
Thank you Pam. I really have looked at all the sites. I was hoping readers might have run into this salmon color before. I guess my next step is calling. I only have a few chips so I hesitate to mail them off. Thanks again.
Pam Kueber says
Try ebay? http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xvintage+tile+salmon.TRS0&_nkw=vintage+tile+salmon&_sacat=0
Peggy says
Thanks Pam, this might be it. Will also call American Olean. Luckily my smaller bath was easy to match at claysquared.com – peach and maroon 4x4s!!
Peggy
linoleummy says
Sweet! Please thank your brother for us too! And that floor I just might try to copy. Are the 2×2 tiles & the 1×2 ‘s the same color?
Pam Kueber says
On a desktop computer, click on the photos and they will enlarge on screen. You can see the colors better.
Laurie says
My pink 1958 bathroom has seen a bit of remodeling by previous owners (hideous cabbage rose wallpaper border, big shiny row of globe lights for the vanity), but the toilet, sink, and tub are original American Standard. While I hope to remove the lights and wallpaper border, I love my bathroom. The tiles are pink with black and mint accents; the appliances are white. The day I dropped the toilet lid was devastating. Trying to find the right sized replacement was traumatic. Although the style (like your family’s tiny powder room fixtures) stayed the basically the same, I found out that sizes changed slightly over time. I finally found a pink lid that matched the tile and love the contrast to the white toilet. Where there’s a will there’s a way. I had to send to Florida to find one that matched my serial number, but not only was it worth it, but it was cheaper than the seller in the KC area. SO glad your family kept theirs!
Dennis Faulkner says
I love it! I really hate much of the new appliances, with only the boring colors – pink bathrooms and other retro colors are cool –
Phil says
That’s a nice bathroom! my bathroom is also of similar colors, the fixtures are by Crane I think (at least the toilet is!).
https://www.flickr.com/photos/33723086@N02/31718222463/in/album-72157678548208043/
Some things like the sink faucets have been replaced but it mostly remained as it was in the mid-1960s. The bath faucets are still original: https://www.flickr.com/photos/33723086@N02/33665476365/in/album-72157678548208043/
The floor tile isn’t as nice but it’s also original.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/33723086@N02/33624631186/in/album-72157678548208043/
Pam Kueber says
What a beautiful bathroom — and so much space!!
Jeannie says
It would be great to see an entire series on HGTV on retro renovation, but the current shows benefit large retail advertisers who sell all new everything. A retro renovation show would mainly benefit small businesses who still sell parts for old stuff, but who don’t have huge advertising budgets, so it won’t ever happen.
Rehab Addict used to kind of do this, but eventually their focus drifted.
Joe Felice says
Looks like the bathroom is good to go! I’ve always thought gray and pink go well together. That toilet is a hold-over from the art-deco days, as much ’50s stuff was. I remember it was very common, but also remember that it used a LOT of water, and didn’t work that well. I note that someone replaced the seat. Newer round seats don’t fit the older bowl profile exactly, and it’s always hard to match the shade. Wooden toilet seats can be refinished with enamel paint, but few people would ever go to that trouble.
That floor was also super popular back in the day. I think they actually laid each little tile separately back then, but today, of course, patterns like that come in 1-foot squares.
William S says
I have the same toilet and I want to replace all the inner tanks workings. Is there any special part/parts particular to this tank or will any home improvemnet center parts work?
Pam Kueber says
William, I do not know. I’d recommend that you talk to the folks at deabath.com and see if they can give you advice.
Cheryl Hessler says
Pam- I too have a pink bathroom. The toilet we removed because it wasn’t very efficient the sink was set in formica counter and had rust around the drain so those two things we replaced. We did keep them. If you notice the tub really doesn’t match and is more of a tan than pink in your pictures and mine is the same way. My floor tiles are pink and shades of grey and white in a woven pattern that I love. I also have two shades of pink tile that go half way up the wall and pink in darker shade tops them.