apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Great post. I think I've done all these things at one time or another--including making an entirely avocado green bathroom look "current." It can be done.

Without sounding preachy, I think we should be careful not to make too much of the idea of purging "outdated" elements in our homes--as if it is such a bad thing to live with fixtures and other relics from different eras. I think the days of gratuitous "gut rehabs" simply for aesthetic reasons are gone for most people. They cost too much, they're environmentally wasteful, and they perpetuate the cycle of conspicuous consumption. There are certainly times that we have to say "out with the old, in with the new" but until recently there has been a lot of pressure to do it when it wasn't really necessary.

I actually like the tiling in the first photo that is supposedly the problem.

My living room has an angled wall with a large, ugly register and thermostat. I've camouflaged the register (to the extent possible without blocking the vent) with a stretched-canvas print resting on a console table. The thermostat still shows, but somehow seems less obvious.

I'm learning to love my pink bathrooms in a non-ironic way. Just takes a little extra thought on how to decorate with them instead of against them. (I'm going with some black and dark grey pairings, and so far I'm pleased with the results.)

This is a great post, one of the reasons I read Apartment therapy.

My bathroom was painted (by a former roommate) a pale robin's egg blue. Which was fine, but then she went and reused leftover bright turquoise paint to do the radiator, vent, and a switchplate cover. This would be easy enough to repaint if I wasn't lazy, but anyway, what I did was put a number of blue-purple-green nautical accessories in the bathroom to draw attention away from the strong contrast...like a graphic, deep purple print of a map of shipwrecks, above the toilet. Now I don't mind the awful colour combo so much.

I agree with robinette. I think those vintage tile bathrooms are beautiful and not something to be kept hidden. Updating the color combinations, however, is a special skill.

Yep, I had a pink tiled bathroom in one of my old apts. I got out my stencil kit and stenciled some pink roses and vines on the wall. Made a world of difference.

Why didn't Mary just get a white switchplate cover?

This is an excellent post. And I totally agree with above posters who said that we need to start embracing the not-so-desirable elements we find in our homes and work around them. I am very inspired by the homeowners you have featured above.

This is a very timely and useful post...

...but I wonder: Why all the hate for vintage - particularly pink - MCM bathrooms? How can someone love Eames chairs and Noguchi tables but hate the bathrooms of the same era?

If the tiles were broken and falling off the walls and the fixtures were leaking, that would be one thing - but oftentimes these MCM bathrooms were created with quality materials and installed with great creativity and such care that has made them last 50-60 - even 70 years.

I wonder how the bathrooms that are installed today w/ fiberglass tubs and vessel sinks are going to look in 2060?

Sally305 - I agree 100%.

Even if you completely gut and refinish your bathroom to get rid of the 'outdated' and 'ugly' tile and fixtures, someone, somewhere will look at your renovation and think "wow, that's really outdated and ugly!"

Kudos to the folks above that had the imagination to work with what they had. They all look great!

I agree that pink (and mustard yellow/black or avocado or harvest gold) bathrooms should be celebrated and not hidden! If your house is old enough to have that kind of character, you should embrace it. If you update it with current fashions, it will just look dated in a few years and then will need to be 'updated' again... a huge waste of time, money, and environmental resources.

"faux marble vinyl tiles"....I almost threw up

Like this post - I have a seafoam green bathtub, seafoam green toilet (with a white lid), and seafoam green tiled shower surround, edged in a forest green. The sink area must have been remodeled in the 70s or 80s and it's a yellowy cream "engineered marble" sink/counter. The people we bought the house from installed ugly vinyl flooring (with seafoam green in it), painted the bathroom a lighter seafoam green, I guess to hide the green-ness, and I still haven't figured out how to work with it all. I would love to embrace the green but with the yellow/cream sink/counter and the white cupboards and white toilet lid, haven't figured out how. Someday.

i also like the tile in the first photo - its neutral enough to be a good background for your decor. Meanwhile i've seen pink and green, pink and yellow, blue and yellow, yellow and rust, yellow and green and a multitude of bad color combos while looking for a new apt recently. I would suggest to all landlords WHITE or BEIGE tile...neutral is best.

This is one of the best and most useful posts I've read here on AT. Thank you and keep 'em coming!

I love the way people are starting to use ornate frames to conceal and/or augment problem areas. Brilliant idea.

Great post! I'd like to see more like this one.

I rented a number of places (including places that were once large houses oddly converted into smaller apartments) and I have had to cope with all kinds of strange issues with outdated kitchens and bathrooms that I was not permitted to update. I think these situations are where the rote ability of a designer (amateaur or pro) are evident.

This is the kind of posts that I love to see in AT!

Second (or third?) the call for more posts like this one. Just love it. Thanks!

I agree with glightly and others -- this is the type of post that makes AT unique. (One wish: I'd love to see more photos of those who have mastered The Power of Distraction and similar success stories.)

GREAT POST!!

My 10th grade history teacher would give this an A

I agree with others, this really is an awesome post. Sometimes over the last few months I've felt that AT is veering too much towards house porn and "these are cool, here's a list of similar things you should buy" posts. While I love looking at beautiful houses, they tend towards pictures of beautiful, wildly expensive houses owned by people who, as you say, have "access to a slew of carpenters, contractors, and design experts who can transform their homes in seconds flat." And as a non-US resident, links to potential purchases, even if they're lovely, generally wind up being from US sites which either won't ship to NZ or are prohibitively expensive due to the exchange rate. I'm not complaining, because I still love looking at AT and getting ideas for similar things at home, but I must admit that this is a much more awesome and truly inspirational type of post. Thanks!

Wanted to join the chorus of people praising this type of entry on AT. I love the plaid couch and the pink and black tiles especially.

Agree with the above posts but those cheap exposed bulb vanity lights have never been attractive. I'd love to see a post about modifying those eye sores.

Unfortunately when you move into an older apartment, often those built before the 80's and the advent of beige/white, colored tubs etc were more the norm I think in many buildings, including mine.

I have that light blue tub and sink in mine that is original to the build when it was built in 1960, but white everything else except for the suspended ceiling and the chrome towel racks and the original mirror. Unfortnately, the tiolet got replaced in recent years and it has attractive flooring that has navy blue diamonds that coordinate w/ the blue that's in the place. some other units have yellow and it's a nice shade.

and both are very livable and I have a blue shower curtain w/ fun blue squares to help play up the blue a bit more.

However some of the original stoves and/or fridges were green or turquoise for one unit still had its original up until I think a couple of years ago before it was finally replaced and I think it was green and it's controls were mounted on the back wall, which was a popular thing back then.

BTW, this is one of the most informative posts I've seen recently so would incourage more of this kind of thing.

I'm with the others that too much emphasis is placed on rehabing "outdated" spaces, rather than working with what you have. Growing up, the upstairs bathroom had pink tiles but white sink, toilet and tub and Mom finally wised and put in pink and green wallpaper w/ roses in a trellis design in it and it helped offset the not so pretty shade of pink that was put up. The downstairs bath was all white but had the occasional blue tile. House was built in the early to mid 60's.

Thanks for the great response to this post!

We'd love to see pictures of YOUR creative solutions to share with our wonderful community here on Apartment Therapy. Feel free to email photos and ideas to me at leah@apartmenttherapy.com, and I'll do my best to work them into a future post.

peace,
Leah

Totally awesome post! It was perfect timing since my family and I are moving into a home built in 1956. Love it! The bathroom has Sky Blue tile, tub, and toilet. It is in excellent condition and I really like it. The problem is previous owners nailed up cedar above the tile and onto the ceiling. They did a good job but it is a very small bathroom and it makes it feel even smaller. I thought about painting it but that would ruin the whole purpose of the cedar. Anyone have a suggestion?

I'm with sally305. I was watching a renovation show the other day, and while I know that they don't relate to reality, I was horrified! Beautiful heritage rooms were gutted and replaced with shoddy, trendy furniture that I am convinced will look dated in about a month.

Whenever I had to do something I didn't like as a kid, my dad would remind me that it 'builds character'. He did it to be annoying - and it worked! - but he was right. Some of my favourite nooks of my home have come from work arounds. Of course, I'm renting, so I have to. But when something doesn't come simply it makes us stop and look at it properly.