Julie wants our help: Which blue … or aqua … bathroom tile should she choose to go with the vintage Formica Nassau countertop laminate she’s salvaged? She’s building the bathroom from scratch, in the basement, so the sky’s — and sky blues’ — the limit.
Hi Pam,
I’m about to start the biggest retro renovation of my life–finishing nearly 1000 square feet of basement entertainment space in a style appropriate to my 1959 house. After months of searching, I found a mostly intact 1960 custom kitchen for sale on Craigslist two hours away, so I pounced. The handy husband on the sellers’ end somehow got them out in good shape despite the unitized construction, and they are now safely in my basement waiting for construction to begin. The plan is to use one 3ft section for a bathroom vanity and fashion a kitchenette from the rest. The counter top pattern appears to be Formica Nassau, which I believe you thought was the pattern inspiration for Wilsonart’s Betty & Endora. (Off topic: I recently put Endora in my pink bath and had actually purchased a sheet of Betty for use in the basement before it was discontinued [as stock laminate, note, you can still get it VDL-Pam] I scrapped that plan once I got the real deal vintage version, but there’s definitely a resemblance.)
My dilemma concerns the tile for the bathroom. I want to do 4×4 ceramic tile in the shower and about half way up the walls elsewhere in the room. B&W has two colors (blue and aqua) matching the two different tones in the Formica pattern. This seemed perfect at first, but now I’m not sure how it will all look together since from a distance the counters will appear to be something between the two colors.
I’m including shots both close up and from a bit further away of the tile samples on the counter. Can I do either/or? Is one better than the other? Would I be better off doing a white or salt & pepper tile with a few colored ones placed randomly instead? The cabinets are blonde and the bathroom will be on the small side (6×10 including the shower) if that makes a difference.
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Best,
Julie.
So I wrote back:
- So, are you saying you want to use TWO colors of B&W tile and mix them up? Or are you asking, which of the two to choose?
- Also, what are you planning for the floors?
- Finally, photo of the cabinetry possible?
Thank you! AND: If you want to send me a photo of yourself, too, that would be great! Best, Pam
Hi Pam,
Awesome; thanks, Pam! I was wondering which of the two colors to choose (or, as a third option, whether I should do a neutral tile and just randomly place a few blue or aqua ones).
As for floors, virtually anything is on the table at this point. For the other areas, I am considering stained concrete or epoxy, both because these seem like highly durable options for a basement and because they wouldn’t eat into precious headroom. Looking at photos of epoxy floors online, it seems like I might be able to mimic terrazzo or the glitter flooring in my pink bath, so perhaps that could be carried into the bathroom too. But I also haven’t ruled out tiling the bathroom floor. (I considered VCT too, but (a) I don’t want the maintenance hassle of stripping and polishing this much furnished square footage and (b) I have seen them ripped out after water damage. My basement is dry, but we’re all just a freak storm / failed sump pump away, right?) I’d love to know what others are doing for basement flooring; I’m out of my element having never done a basement before.
I am attaching a totally embarrassing photo of the current mess in my basement. Maybe it will serve as a warning to those considering buying and storing an entire kitchen. It’s . . . a lot. The photo doesn’t show it all. I have drawers and doors on the other side of the room, and one enormous L-shaped counter and cabinet are still in the garage waiting to be cut so they’ll fit down the stairs to join the rest of this mess. I included a close up of one section, but it was tough to get a good shot–as you can see from the first photo, there’s very little room to get in between, and these things are *heavy* and tough to move. As you can see, the original cabinet pulls are gone. I’m hunting for vintage chrome replacements, but the distance between the screws is 3.5″ rather than 3″, so it may take time. Back when I had given up hope of finding vintage cabinets, along with that sheet of Wilsonart Betty, I bought some beautiful 1950s dish knobs and back plates, thinking I’d have cabinets built. Unless I find some giant round back plates to hide the two holes, it looks like I can’t use the dish knobs here, but I kind of feel like I deserve that for giving up too soon.
Also attaching the same photo of me you ran a couple years back with my pink bathroom story. If the finished project turns out, I’ll have to get a better one taken in the basement. 🙂
Thanks again!
Julie
Pam responds: Which tile to use?
Like I said, fun question. My first reaction: I would want to also check for a wall tile that is the same value — intensity of color — as the strongest of the colors in your countertop. That would be: the Blue.
A worry bead with the B&Ws is that they are lighter than the strongest value on the countertop. I usually don’t want any single element in a room to “shout” — that is, be louder than its surrounding elements — unless that’s carefully planned.
I found this at Classic Tiles — it’s the Interceramic Blue:
Of course, you’d have to get some samples to see for sure. But here’s what it looks like cropped into your mood board and indeed, it seems to be about the same as your strongest blue:
If you don’t gravitate toward the strong-powder-wedgewood blue tile look, I’d then say, without hesitation: Go with the B&W 26W aqua. I prefer it over the 20W blue (1) because I think it will give the bathroom a more definitive two-tone look, that is: blue + aqua = two distinct colors playing together; for some reason I’m not feeling the same playfulness or overall harmony if you were to use the 20W light blue with the Nassau. Again, this is likely due to 20W’s value: It’s too in the middle of the three colors within the Nassau pattern. Again, ff you want blue tile to coordinate with the Nassau, go with a blue that’s close to the strongest blue in Nassau.
I am not keen on the idea of salt-n-pepper tiles interspersed with the occasional blue or aqua solid tile. First and foremost, I don’t think that the salt n peps would do anything for your countertop — I’d go so far as to say they will ‘hurt’ the look, the patterns will not complement. MUCH better to go with solid tile.
I will also add: I’d likely torture the bullnose color too. White: I think that would be cheery, and it would pick up the white in your Formica Nassau. Solid: A more authentic 1960s choice.
Thanks, Julie — SO FUN!
Denise says
Classic Blue
Karin says
I vote for the darker blue tile! The value is spot on.
Carol Knox says
I like the darker blue tile. You could use white tile and use the blue as an accent. Or use the aqua with the blue as an accent. I saw an epoxy bathroom floor that had miracle gro powder mixed in with it and it was awesome. She may have mixed it in the concrete and then put epoxy on the floor. I believe I saw it on Pinterest. I know it sounds odd, but it was beautiful. It was a swirly sort of marbled effect and looked dreamy. She said she loved the color of the miracle gro so much that she had to use it. Might want to do some testing?
AnnF says
I was just going over the comments, and I was thinking that it would help if we new how “retro” Julie wanted it to look. Did she want it time capsule, or more authentically retro inspired. I say authentically, because on some of these shows, what they call retro is only in the designers’ minds. Also, full on retro could be anywhere between, say 1957 and 1971, which vary greatly in style, for example, you can tell a 1967 – 1971 bathroom by the 1/2″ ish to 1″ ish tiles they used, whereas, before that, they used the, what are they, 3″ or 4″ square tiles like in the pictures here. Retro inspired, I really stll like the 1″ x 2″ glass mixed with ceramic tiles. I know they are a little too in now, but they keep getting nicer and nicer.
(Now I can’t wait to see it finished.)
Pam Kueber says
Since she was already focused on 4″ tiles, I presumed she wanted that era.
I’ll also say: 4″ tiles have never really gone out of style.
Julie says
I aim for the time capsule effect throughout the house, but practicality can win out on occasion (hence the consideration of epoxy or stained concrete over VCT floors). For wall tile, Pam’s right: I want the classic 4×4.
AnnF says
I have been in a lot of houses from all different eras, and if you want time capsule, then you are right, 4×4 are it. On most floors right out of this era, if they don’t have linoleum — not too many with linoleum — about 90% have those smaller tiles that are a mixture of 1 x 1.5 and square 1.5 (guesstimating). The color generally matches the walls, not as glossy of course, with tiles here and there of whatever color they used on the top pieces. This was usually black, but it could be any color. People remodel over the years, and replace one set of tiles or the other, and they all look fine, but the combo I mentioned I have really seen in practically every original mid-century bathroom — about 25, give or take, not hundreds.
I was just thinking, you could get poster paper in hopefully the colors of the tiles, or color them in, and tape them all around with painters tape, then walk into the bathroom, pretend you are standing at the sink, and sitting on the toilet for awhile, in order to get a better feel. It seems like a pain, but it’s better than wishing you had chosen another color.
Pam Kueber says
That kind of floor is called a “random block mosaic.”
Maria says
None of the above. 100% what Pam said.
In my experience, California, they didn’t really mix a tile backsplash with Formica counters. Here they did a low backsplash in the same material or no backsplash. For the shower, I’d do white 4 x 4 tiles and use Pam’s colored tile as a highlight strip at showerhead height. Not only would that save you a ton of money, but it would put your Vintage laminate counter front and center as the star of the show. I’d also likely paint the cabinet white With starburst pulls if you can find them. Very mcm with a light almost beachy, Florida space coast, feel.
Nikki says
Awesome laminate Julie! I am useless in picking colors (I usually have to pay for a consult) but I don’t think you can go wrong whichever color you choose. I think I read that you’ll be using the laminate in the kitchenette as well you might want to consider how you’ll coordinate the whole “look” across rooms.
Please share picture with us, can’t wait to see the final product!
Julie says
Thanks so much!
Diana says
Pam’s choice is the best of the blues. The other blue and aqua are off just enough to not look quite right. White would be a great choice too and I might lean towards that. The Formica would really pop.
Lauren says
Aqua? I thought I liked Pam’s darker suggestion until I remembered that it is a tiny bathroom. Will the tiled sections be well lit or primarily in a dark shower? Perhaps lighter is brighter? We found that samples we liked in well-lit stores seemed a couple shades darker vertically in our shower area. I am really excited to see your progress on this bathroom as we are planning a bathroom that will likely have similar colors. I really wanted yellow such as Daltile “moonbeam” until I saw the price (group 4: retail $22.50 sq/ft near me). Why are yellows so hard to find and expensive? Now I am now considering blues such as Daltile “waterfall” (group 1: $3.05 sq/ft is affordable). I think it looks very similar to the aqua. These decisions are hard! Good Luck!
Julie says
Yes, thank you! I’m going to just get samples of everything and take the suggestion to look at the tile vertically rather than horizontally (not sure why I didn’t think of that before). The original plan was to go halfway up on the walls in addition to tiling the shower, so if I stick to that it will be a lot of color. The room doesn’t exist yet, so I suppose I can make it as well-lit as I want. FYI: the Daltile waterfall is quite different from the B&W aqua in person; waterfall pulls much more to the gray-blue side vs the blue-green.
Chris says
A Blue(light) vote. And the laminate is beautiful!
Sarah says
Another aqua vote… love that color!