Plastic Paint or Learn to Love Baby Blue Tile?
I have a bathroom full of baby blue tile that is intact but (to my eye, anyway) less than attractive, complete with blue tub and toilet. I’ll be replacing the cheap vanity and upgrading the lighting but I have no budget for retiling and I can’t DIY. I’m renoing my apartment on a shoestring and…
I have a bathroom full of baby blue tile that is intact but (to my eye, anyway) less than attractive, complete with blue tub and toilet. I’ll be replacing the cheap vanity and upgrading the lighting but I have no budget for retiling and I can’t DIY. I’m renoing my apartment on a shoestring and so will have to live with a lot of compromises but this one really grates. With a 5 year horizon, what would be best–learn to love the blue or reglaze the tile?
i agree with all above – do not touch the tiles unless you’re prepared to redo the entire bathroom. a friend of mine had the exact same color/tile bathroom and couldn’t stand it, so she retiled, for a very pretty penny. i also agree with brokelin that a regular vanity would look out of place. i know two people with same style bathrooms (though more pleasing colors) that went with KOHLER ARCHER pedestal and sink combo, which is also what I have. it looks really good and is about $250 at home depot.
If you reglazed the tub white, bought and installed a new toilet and re grouted the tile it would make a huge difference. and it would all cost like $700.
I had my horrible pink tub reglazed to white about a year ago and it looks fantastic.
I used this company
http://www.yellowpages.com/brooklyn-ny/mip/fancy-dom-inc-456058102
they did an amazingly professional job in one day and it cost me about $350
Toilets are so inexpensive to buy and install.
I got the gerber viper ” I know not a great name for a toilet”
http://www.amazon.com/Gerber-Elongated-Toilet-Rough-002151215/dp/B00405O5CK
I got mine form park slope plumbing in park slope. its on 5th ave and 15th st i believe.
Im pretty sure they come in 10 12 and 14 inch rough ins so you should definitely find the right size for you bathroom. they work great look good and cost around $160.
Mopar–Agreed about the mirror. I don’t mind it much, though I wish it were bigger. So long as I can find a vanity that doesn’t look terrible with it, I will leave it. Bungalow Bathrooms sounds exactly like what I need, so thanks for the recco.
Slopegirl–I like your wallpaper idea and I’m always on the lookout for a paper that might work in the space. I really love the Bradbury & Bradbury designs, though they are super-pricey and not everyone’s cup of absinthe.
Cyrka66 and Meezer, I love RetroRenovation and Save The Pink Bathrooms; very friendly places full of die-hards. I posted here because I think that period enthusiast sites are sometimes so hardcore (“Paint your toilet seat pink to match the commode, like they did in the old days!) that it can be hard for a reluctant joiner like me to deal.
don’t redo tiles. Change toilet if want. get some nice paint colors and accessories to change tone of bathroom.
we did upstate and looks great.
You should check out a site called “retrorenovation”, it is a blog full of ideas and resources for mid century modern and modest. One of her main pages is her Save the Pink Bathroom, so her point of view is to restore not remove.
Since the tiles look to be in good condition and the job looks professional, you may want to just decorate around them.
I gutted my two pink/black bathroom because the tile job was sloppy and things were uneven and cracked,but my white and gray bathrooms look bland.
You can find decorating advice for pink and other oddly colored vintage bathrooms at:
http://savethepinkbathrooms.com/
It’s all the eye of the beholder. I think this is a great vintage bathroom. If you happen not to care for the color blue, I agree you should introduce a third color via paint, and tie it all together with towels that use the colors — say, the wall color plus the black contrast tile.
The medicine cabinet is not “cheap” –it is period. I would leave it. A completely intact vintage bathroom in good condition looks far better than a half-changed half-vintage bathroom with non-matching new tub and medicine cabinet.
Check out “Bungalow Bathrooms” by Jane Powell for inspiration.
And thank the gods the bathroom is not pink.
Agree that changing the tub and toilet will make a world of difference. Then you could cover some of the tiles with tile tattoos: http://www.2jane.com/category/products/tile-tattoos
One idea might be a bold wallpaper that will distract, if you can find a fun one you like, that is mostly NOT blue but has a teensy speck of blue so it coordinates. Apartment Therapy is a great place to post this Q, put a better photo, you’ll get lots of great decorating advice from all types of taste.
We have a pink bathroom with salmon tiles and a pepto sink and bath. Two ugly colors that don’t match and I think pink is more aggressive than blue. Our toilet is pink too. We worked hard on wall paint color and towels and it makes a huge difference.
I might replace that medicine cabinet if I were you. A nice light fixture can work wonders too.