We pause from our regularly scheduled program — to bask in some glowy pink bathroom happiness to brighten our days! Jenna is fully on board the Pink Potty Procession, Pledging to Protect and Proclaim the Pretty Provenance of her own Puny Piece o’ Paradise.
Pam,I hope you enjoy these photos of my very tiny, very pink bathroom. I have always wanted an older home with character and charm, though I was not quite thrilled when I first saw the pink bathroom.
To my dismay, I saw how the tile, tub, toilet, light fixtures (all original to the house!) were in perfect condition.
Since I had no budget for renovations and an appreciation for the craftsmanship that obviously went into building this house, I turned to your website for inspiration.
All it took was looking at it from a different lens to see it for the gem that it really is. I would love to replace the vanity with something more correct to the time period (1948). If you or your readers have any suggestion, I’d love to hear!
Your site helped me to not only embrace my pink bathroom, but want to show it off! I hope that more people take the “pledge” to save the pink bathrooms.Enjoy!
Goodness, Jenna, what a lovely bathroom you have. That liner tile! It’s priceless! I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but I will, and say, that you look… on the young side. It’s so nice for ole lady blogger me to see members of younger generations taking up the preserve-and-restore ethos. Hooray for our priceless little dream houses! Way to go, Jenna!
Bathroom vanities for a midcentury house
Regarding that vanity: I will guess that originally, the bathroom had a wall-hung sink on chrome legs with attached towel holders. To be authentic, you can go back to that. That said, if the previous renovators pulled out pink wall tiles behind the new vanity, or any of the flooring underneath the new vanity, you will have a *project” on your hands. With lots of searching sure to drive you krazee, you are likely to be able to find wall tile to match. But that floor tile: That will be super difficult, I think.
Honestly, the vanity you have doesn’t bother me all that much. It’s pretty neutral. If you want to switch it up for aesthetics — and don’t want to go down the rabbit hole of looking for replacement tiles to go the wall-hung route — you can go with a spiffier vanity design made new for you by a custom cabinet-maker or you can start stalking craigslist and salvage places for a vintage vanity.
Above are just a sliver of the vanities we’ve shown over the years. - For all our vanity stories, see our Bathroom Help / Sinks & Vanities category here.
- Another good place to hunt: our stories about Readers and their Bathrooms here.
- And, the Search box works pretty darned well, too: Search bathroom vanity here.
Thanks for sharing, Jenna!
lisa in Seattle says
It looks great! If you want it more retro, maybe have some slab cabinet doors made to replace the ones with molding, add retro knobs/pulls, and replace the sink hardware and light fixtures with NOS or a reproduction.
Pam Kueber says
Great suggestion for an ez-fix!
Kristen says
I agree, I like this fix!
KStace says
I have that same generic 90s vanity in a rather gruesome honey oak! Smack in the middle of my otherwise lovely (white w/ pink & jadite) bathroom. Same sink, even the same knobs. Since we have a separate vanity counter (vintage Wilsonart unmolested!) it is crammed into a space about 4″ too small as well. Horrifically awkward, not to mention extremely difficult imagining somebody EVER thinking “this is a good idea!”. I salvaged a replacement green vintage American Standard sink and am working on the pedestal part now. (disappointing that I can’t find a 3/4 hudee ring for it anywhere!) But seeing it in white makes me think that since it may take months to get to, I might slap a coat of white over that orange-y brown to tide me over. It’s not half as bad!
Felicia Alexander says
What a lovely bathroom, Jenna, and in such perfect condition! I’m glad you’ve learned to love it.
If you don’t want the hassle of dealing with a vanity replacement project, why not try painting the vanity doors either to match your blue-gray bathroom walls (then you could replace the handles with pink ceramic ones) or to match one of the pink shades of your wonderful original floor tile?
Bev O says
just change the doors to a slab front and add some vintage knobs and you are done! Quick fix. And if you ever need to replace the counter top / sink add in the boomerang laminate 🙂
Christine W says
What a nice bathroom. I’m jealous !
Karin says
Everything is in pristine shape. The details here are incredible. The Art Deco tub and toilet are Streamline beauties, and the floor tile is gorgeous. She made great choices for the towels, mat, shower curtain and accessories. Personally, I’d keep a vanity because a small bathroom needs the storage. Perhaps accessorize with an Art Deco print that reflects the era.
Felicia Alexander says
The tub looks very much like American-Standard’s “Master Pembroke” model. I had a white one in my house in Cincinnati, and after six years I still miss it. Enamel over cast iron, so it retained heat beautifully for those long, hot soaks. You can see it in this 1950 American-Standard catalog that Pam posted a while back: https://archive.org/details/PlanningYourHomeForHealthAndComfortWithAmerican-standardHeating
Jenna’s toilet isn’t the same as the Master Pembroke model depicted, but it is very, very deco-cool!
Julie says
Adorable! Love the wall tile, floor tile, medicine cabinet, and vanity light. Since the vanity fades into the background, I’d consider living with it and decorating around it. (Especially given the difficulty of patching what’s below/behind it, as Pam notes–plus I wouldn’t want to lose the storage even though a sink on legs would look nice.) What a sweet little room!
Nikki says
Hi Jenna! I love the color scheme you chose! It combined the best of “old” (pink) and “new” (grey) color. It looks like you pulled out some of the grey from the floor tile? It’s a little hard to see true color on my monitor…
Anyway GREAT JOB and THANK YOU for embracing the best of both worlds!
Pam Kueber says
Yes, pink and gray together are one my favorite schemes in a bathroom!
Andrea Withrow says
Love her pink bathroom! Sadly my pink bathroom was tore out by the sellers right before they sold my house. They did leave some of the unused tile in the basement (which probably sat there for decades). So very excited for you Jenna!
Tracy says
How about the vanity Kate built?