When we first saw the bathroom in the place that is now our home, we were stunned…and not in a good way. After viewing the pictures below, you’ll probably wonder why we went forward with the purchase.
(That’s just dirt in there.)
Because we hated the color of the bathroom fixures so much we immediately determined that we would be performing a gut renovation on the room, so the hole in the wall and the dirty toilet were a non-issue.
Since the building was completed in 1915 and still had its original pipes, it was recommended that we replace those as part of the renovation. Our plumber told us he could do this, retile the room and install new fixtures for a mere $18,000. After reassessing the kitchen and discovering that the gas range didn’t work, the refrigerator was on its last leg, and there was way too little cabinet or countertop space, we determined that the kitchen would take priority given our limited renovation funds. (See Cooking Up A New Kitchen and Now We’re Cooking With Gas)
But we still had to do something about the bathroom. Luckily, during the final walkthrough the day we closed, we discovered that the previous owners had come in the night before and thoroughly cleaned the bathroom. And boy did those bathroom fixtures glisten! Suddenly, that unusual green wasn’t as unsightly as we once thought. And after doing some research on bathroom design we learned that sink style and the use of vibrant color were all the rage at some point (most likely the 1950s) as illustrated in the Kohler ad below.
So here’s what we did to try to make the room welcoming and complementary to the rich colors of the rest of our apartment.
- Repaired the gaping hole in the wall and installed a mirrored medicine cabinet
- Painted the yellow walls white
- Replaced the wooden toilet seat with a darker brown one (because, honestly, where would we find a toilet seat cover the exact green of the toilet bowl.)
- Stripped the white window and door moldings and repainted them a dark brown
- Installed new towel bars
- Removed rust from existing shower curtain rod and painted it silver
- Purchased towels and bathroom accessories to build on the green and dark brown color scheme
- Made a window shade to pick up the green in the bathroom, and also bring in some of the rich colors (reds and golds) from the rest of the house. I also made a matching hand towel. (The hand towel project finally gave me a chance to prove to my husband that I can sew. He’d been in doubt because I never completed the skirt I started nearly five years ago after receiving a sewing machine for Christmas.)
So here are the results:
We’d eventually like to repaint the walls to warm up the room even more. If anyone has any color suggestions, please share them by clicking the comments link below.
