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Home / Bathroom / Readers and their Bathrooms

Jenna comes to love her 1948 pink bathroom

Pam Kueber - August 23, 2017, Updated: June 22, 2021

beautiful pink mosaic tile flooringWe 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.

vintage pink bathroom
To my dismay, I saw how the tile, tub, toilet, light fixtures (all original to the house!) were in perfect condition. 
pink bathroom tile with decorative trim
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.
beautiful vintage pink bathroom
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!  
vintage bathroom decor
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.
 
retro modern bathroom vanitystylish 1960s bathroom vanity with pink sinkILX Lavanity bathroom vanitiessimple wood vanity that looks vintageAbove 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! 

CATEGORIES:
Bathroom Pink Bathrooms Readers and their Bathrooms

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49 comments

Comments

  1. Dawn says

    September 4, 2017 at 2:24 pm

    I’m so glad you did save it! Love the detail in the tub, toilet, and tile trim!! Sometimes you can snag these from residential contractors for free because then they don’t have to deal with disposal, etc. ( we are a design/build team). But in the meantime, the idea to at least switch out the handles is great!

  2. Evan says

    September 4, 2017 at 2:20 pm

    I’ve been searching Craigslist for years to find a bath vanity to no success. I went so far as to snip a few photos of what I want and do a post for the Wanted section. It’s so disappointing.

  3. Sally says

    September 4, 2017 at 2:18 pm

    I would switch out the white toilet for a pink one; you should be able to find one at Habitat ReStore stores or through Craigslist. They are very common in vintage trailers and someone rehabbing or gutting one just might have one. You never know!

  4. valerie says

    September 4, 2017 at 1:45 pm

    it is so sweet and pretty. love the colors the floor is great . just beautiful enjoy.

  5. Pam says

    September 4, 2017 at 12:22 pm

    Love, love, love this! Beautiful young woman with great taste!

  6. Love says

    September 4, 2017 at 12:06 pm

    The vanity would bother me too, but I love the suggested options! Just for reference, I’m 33 and I live in a 1917 Craftsman that we renovated and restored. Our home’s style ranges from the 20’s through the 50’s in interior because of how the previous owners did things and I have learned so much from this blog! You have *younger* followers too! Hugs and Love to all!

    • Pam Kueber says

      September 4, 2017 at 1:22 pm

      Hooray for the new generation!

  7. Neil says

    September 4, 2017 at 11:58 am

    You must…….Must……. reproduce that smallest mid-cent steel cabinet shown by Lavanity.
    Too, too divine!
    It would be a simple matter to keep your eyes peeled for a common, vintage kitchen version of that steel cabinet, get it painted in fresh porcelain white to match the loo, put on some fresh NOS chrome pulls to match the tasty chrome spigot/handles you’ll snag, and have a new formica/chrome-trim/Pink-Sink top made up.
    Fabu-to-the-Lous!
    Neil

  8. KWG says

    September 4, 2017 at 11:51 am

    So cute! And I’m so jealous.

    We have discovered that our bathroom WAS originally pink but the previous owner painted over the tiles with an egg nog colored paint. It is chipping off the tile ceramic soap dish, which is how we discovered it.

    Would love to take it back to the original
    Mamie pink glory. Any links or recs on how to safely and/or efficiently remove paint? I don’t think it is a true glaze. Just paint.

    It would be a gargantuan task. Sigh…

  9. Joe says

    September 4, 2017 at 11:45 am

    Not pink enough. Needs pink fixtures. And definitely a drop-in sink with hudee ring. Change the light fixture to one more appropriate to the period. And I think you got enough ideas regarding the vanity. You were so fortunate to have the biggest parts of the bathroom already in place–wall tiles and the floor.

  10. Christine W says

    September 4, 2017 at 11:22 am

    Maybe even just change the handles on the vanity for now. When I look at your lovely bathroom that’s the first thing that my eyes went to.

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