Home of the San Francisco Chronicle

Subscribe to the weekend Chronicle

powered by
Discussions
Photos
Products
Ideabooks
Discussions
Professionals
Users
by emailbrittny
4 months ago in Design Dilemma
Vintage pink & green bathrooms...what to do?
We've just purchased a home with these 2 bathrooms. One retro pink with white tiled walls & shower, pink tile floor, white paint & a white sink coming out of the wall. I want to get a retro hot/cold handle faucet. The master bath is green/white tile, green tile flooring with white paint & the 80s era sink/vanity.The tile is in good shape in need of some touch up grout, caulk & cleaning. but other then that I have no idea how to decorate it or paint. Any advice or links appreciated.
Share:
 
decoenthusiaste I would clean it up and play it up!
4 months ago · ·
emailbrittny At first I wanted a complete demolition but after much research I've decided to "save" them. The green I think I can easily work with. I want to replace the vanity, lighting & mirror. I also want to dump those toilet shelves ;)
4 months ago · ·
Darzy How about black/white vinyl peek and stick tiles for both bathroom floors? And, both bathrooms a medium gray wall call. You could do the tile the diamond shape..or something more updated in a stripe?
4 months ago · ·
carbary I'm not crazy about the floor tile but I think the paint color on the walls doesn't help tie anything together. The curtains..... Curtains. I think a green tone about 3 shades lighter than the tile or a tan with under tones of green and some fun curtains would really jazz it up.
4 months ago ·
Darzy I think black/white/pink....then black/white/green. An almost charcoal gray wall color would look dramatic and pretty!
4 months ago · ·
carbary Great idea Darzy!!!
4 months ago · ·
14thstreet Do medium to light gray walls in the pink bath with a matching floor mat. White towels are always in style and easy to bleach. Add a light and clean shower curtain. It will look fresh!

http://www.childrensbeddingboutique.com/hotel-white-and-gray-shower-curtain.aspx
4 months ago · ·
emailbrittny What kind of vanity/sink for the green bathroom? I agree with the grey walls! That's what I pictured first, but didn't know how to accent that color.
4 months ago ·
eztia I agree that gray would look good for the walls in the green bathroom. What catches my eye is that the tub surround tile is more of a blue-green and the floor tile is more of a yellow-green, at least on my monitor.
For the vanity, a clean white color would "go" with the white border tile around the tub. You could choose to put in white towel bars etc., or choose chrome.
White towels and floor mats will bring a bit of "spa" to the room. If you use bar soap, choose a white one.
4 months ago · ·
Molly I think I have the same green tiles in my bath. I find the color to be gorgeous. My plan is to paint the walls an off white that has a similar green tint as the tiles. My bathroom is tiny so I want to keep it simple.
4 months ago · ·
eztia In the green bathroom, I would not accent either the green or the gray. Let them stand on their own, and add white. It looks as if there is one white towel bar and the others are chrome? If it was my space I would have all the towel bars match. This style is still available - saw some at Home Depot last week.
4 months ago · ·
eztia Oops. I see the white towel bar is inside the tub enclosure. Leave it be. (Wishing I had one in that location, too.).
4 months ago · ·
iknownot Enjoy them fully. Go to the website retrorenovation.com and join a community that embraces them. Search the site for the "save pink bathrooms" . You'll love it. Great resources and replacement parts on there. You'll be inspired to replace the 80's sink with a vintage one.
4 months ago · ·
4 months ago · ·
14thstreet I like the idea of gray walls for the pink bathroom, but for the green bathroom I think you should stick to a lighter white tone that has a green/gray undertone. SW 6168 Moderne White might be awesome for the walls...softer than white and fresh. I love that swatch from Sherwin...I've used the darker tones on it several times.

Can you replace that sink and vanity with something more stream line and light, not so bottom-heavy? Is the floor underneath in good enough shape? I like the idea of keeping everything in that bath white and crisp, and use your metallic elements to add zing...pick up great chrome towel bars, perhaps a mirror like this... stick with a white shower curtain also. Doing one of those floor-to-ceiling curtains hung on a solid chrome bar would be great. Younghouselove.com is a good site for info on floor-to-ceiling curtains.
4 months ago · ·
mamachers This is hilarius. We have the same pink bathroom. I am so excited to hear what everyone thinks and to see what you do with yours. We moved here a year ago and as you said ours is in great condition too. So What do I do?
4 months ago · ·
patty526 Both baths need some black, not only to settle them down, but to make them more elegant. Replacing tile is a huge pain..I'd love to see how a cream console, black marble counter and 50 style..or earlier, fixtures would do. There are some nice porcelain mix faucets with about any metal finish you could want, and the levers and big shower heads help with some retro appeal. But black, somewhere on that sink, either top or bottom..I vote counter!
4 months ago · ·
ikwewe You can play with some pretty patterns for the curtain and shower curtain in the green bathroom. Do you like tropical prints?
4 months ago ·
emailbrittny Thanks for all the ideas & input! I'm already on save the pink & retro renovations on FB. Here are a couple ideas I really like.
4 months ago · ·
aclark674 Wow emailbrittany! Those images you just posted are really nice. Although I am laughing to myself at your post because I have the exact same small bathroom in blue. Same tile floor as well. Its in good condition, so I changed the toilet and the sink to a european glass bowl with black marble top to pick up the black trim around the tile. I painted the wall a very lite sky-ocean blue. I use only clear shower curtains to keep the bathroom large as well as to see when in the shower. Next I would like to change the lighting over the sink.
4 months ago · ·
patty526 Love them, keep us posted!
4 months ago · ·
apple_pie_order Try a professional tile cleaning service for the floor mosaic tile. They can sometimes make the grayed old grout look clean, light and new again. They can also clean and seal wall tile for easier maintenance.
4 months ago · ·
mamachers I am going to paint both my walls and cabinets a pink color that will go with the tiles. It may be a little much but I will try.
4 months ago · ·
njmomma I had that mustard yellow bathroom. Mustard yellow tile half way up the wall, shower and tub, toilet, sinks, mustard yellow everywhere. I pulled the bull nose tile off the tile wall half way up and placed a mosaic glass tile as a border all around the bathroom. Then placed the bull nose back on again.

I painted the walls one of the colors from the border, I replace the toilet with a white one and replaced the sinks with white ones also.

Everyone who came to see the makeover, thought I redid the whole bath.

I really love the way it came out. Who would have thought a little mosiac glass tile could give a bathroom such a lift.
4 months ago · ·
patty526 I thought about an update like that, did't know anyone who's done it though! Great advice.
4 months ago · ·
emailbrittny Thank you everyone I will update with any new ideas or pics ;) I'm not a big fan of flower prints but maybe I can do something with the yellow walls $ a more modern accent rug & curtain.
4 months ago ·
emailbrittny Njmomma can you post a pic? I'm interested to see what your yellow bathroom looks like.
4 months ago ·
eztia Hi all. Sounds like several of you posting on this thread are on a roll with vintage bathroom restoration! Here is a tiny detail regarding photographing bathrooms for display. Please remember to put the toilet lid down! :)

This is a fun thread. So MANY ideas.
4 months ago · ·
Interiors International, Inc. I would definitely run with that. I love those old colorful bathrooms. Pink is so over the top. I would just push it even further.
4 months ago · ·
njmomma Work gets in the way, but I'll see what I can do about those pics. May be the weekend by the time I get to it.
4 months ago · ·
debwalwer My pink bathroom is so much like yours and it took me 3 years to figure out how to work with it . We gutted one 1962 blue tiled bathroom and couldn't afford to do the pink one.
We painted the vanity a crisp white, took down the plate glass mirror and added the oval mirror with matching sconces on each side, added much needed light to the vanity area, painted the walls a deep taupe color pulled from the shower curtain and valence fabric and added wood blinds, taupe and pink towels (my 17 year old daughter uses this bathroom). We need to change out the original shower fixtures and have the tub resurfaced. Adding the taupe bath rugs toned down the pink floor tiles. We also filled in the ugly vent lines below on the sink vanity (in front of the sink) with wood putty and added the decorative wood piece onto the vanity and added new nickel knobs! See my pics :) I love it now.
4 months ago · ·
debwalwer More pics of my pink bathroom renovation, I did look at Save the Pink Bathrooms website before renovating!
4 months ago · ·
debwalwer Emailbtittny: How about replacing the sink in the pink bathroom with a pedestal sink and hang an oval tilted mirror above it. In our small bathroom we removed the hanging sink and replaced it with a small vanity see my pic.
4 months ago · ·
Genevieve On the contrary I must say that the tiles that you have are no longer dated by the look of things in store shelves . So just get some nice towels and shower curtain and you have an up to date room.
4 months ago · ·
A. Peltier Interiors another route is to have them glazed in white... i however chose to just go with my pink!!
4 months ago ·
Shannon Ggem ASID- Ggem Design Co LLC Keep the pink! I agree with other that adding black is the answer, or for a more Ralph Lauren kind of look, pink and dark brown and taupe. I would try to live without the toilet/shelf unit, and in the green bath address the sink vanity in some way. Good luck with those cuties!
4 months ago · ·
debwalwer You could take the toilet shelf unit and cut off the "legs side pieces" then mount it above the toilet as a cabinet mounted to the wall. Doing this will allow you to hang the cabinet higher above the toilet.This will make it look much neater. We took ours apart and even cut it down so it had a more shallow depth and added new brushed nickel pulls on the cabinet doors.
4 months ago · ·
abigail822 This is what I did with those green tiles. A double roll of wallpaper and a new light fixture. My floors were ready retiled white. You could use washable bath carpet.
4 months ago · ·
Sign Up to comment
The content on this page is provided by Houzz and is subject to the Houzz terms of use, copyright and privacy policy.
Copyright claims: contact the Houzz designated agent.