Grab a poster size print with lots of color and make that your focal point then pull colors from the print into your accessories.
If you go bold with the print, go mile with the accessories and especially the shower curtain. Or you can go opposite and go bold with the shower curtain.
Find a fun bathroom rug and the yellow will be a background color rather than the dominate colore. It works..I had a pink and grey bathroom and decorated in celestial accessories in yellow and blue. Funny, the pink went away.

...or frame a really nice piece of colorful fabric.

I'm one of those "I don't give a crap what my landlord thinks" tenants, and the very first thing I do when I move into a new apartment is epoxy the crap out of the bathrooms. Fresh and white and perfect. I've never had a landlord complain, and in fact, I've had three of them thank and reimburse me. Good luck!!

Here's what I use:
http://compare.ebay.com/like/230680637470?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar&_lwgsi=y&cbt=y

I just did this to a bathroom recently, so it's fresh in my mind. This process can be done in one day.

Your tiles aren't horrible, just dirty. Go to the hardware store and pick up Sulfamic Acid cleaner, heavy duty gloves, a razor scraper with extra blades, some white Silicon Caulk for bathrooms, a caulk scraper, and some grout sealant.

1. clean all the tile following instructions on the Sulf. Acid container.
2. rinse and let dry.
3. get rid of all the dirty, gross caulk.
4. apply fresh caulk, using the tool to get a neat edge (this usually takes practice. apply and remove a couple times until you get the hang of it).
5. apply grout sealant.

Once that is done and everything is clean and sparkly, then get your towels, rug and some art in a bright color you love. Make sure the art has a little bit of the yellow tone as well as your new color. Luckily, yellow is in right now, so you shouldn't have much trouble. Peacock blue, gray, grass green and white all look great with yellow.

Oh, one other thing. If the grout is damaged or missing in some areas, you can repair it pretty easily by filling in the broken areas with matching grout and sealing. This is not a great long term solution, but it will hold up for a couple years, then you can simply redo it. That's a lot easier than redoing grout, which is a horrid, horrid job.

Clean the tub and tiles as best you can, then get a shower curtain with a fun or attractive print, and keep the curtain pulled closed even when you're not using the shower. This should help hide the fugly tub and tiles and will also add some color and personality to the room. The fixtures in the tub actually look kind of cool, and the rest of your bathroom looks clean and workable! Could you get some bath accessories to mask some of the most problematic spots--a funky soap dish for the corner of the tub? Maybe a non-slip mat for the interior of the tub, just to make things look a little cleaner? Good luck!! :)

Install a shower curtain in front of your ugly tile.

Don't forget to photograph before & after if you're doing the "better to ask forgiveneass than permission" thing with landlords - I've done this and it always helps. But so long as you make it look generically better, and don't make any "statements" with outrageous decor, I doubt they''ll whine too much.

Just paint the walls anyway. If you want another colour (grey walls can be nice with yellowish tiles) just repaint it in the same white shade it was before. No landlord will complain about having a freshly white painted wall instead of a dingy white one.

Sulfamic acid (per above post) can be dangerous for those who don't know how to handle acids. A safer alternative --something to try first -- is cleaning the tile with a professional quality vapor cleaner (rent one, or ask around and borrow). These can often restore tile to a surprising degree.

Beyond that, I'd put some money into a sharp looking shower curtain, white with a black graphic. I've seen some great ones with city skylines on them.

I agree with the idea of a really good cleaning and recaulking. I would also probably paint the vanity and any wood white but that's just me.

I worked as a maid at an inn one summer and learned using comet and pine-sol, DO NOT use ammonia under any circumstances it's comet with bleach and pine-sol, mix together, scrub, let sit and repeat and your tub will be white again. You might have to do a couple applications and letting it sit overnight after some good scrubbing also works wonders.

Definately recaulking will help too nothing grosser than dirty caulk.

Sounds like there are lots of good suggestions here. Cleaning is number one. Then I would say you can make a big statement with a shower curtain, rug, and putting a nice shade on that window. That window shade and the rug will be the first thing you see when you walk into the room, so really concentrate on those elements. I would also suggest not going too busy or bold with the shower curtain, it's a small bathroom and you will also get a reflection of the shower curtain in the mirror.

Stick with grays, black, white, and wood tones, they'll all go nicely with the yellow.
Good luck!

shower curtain.

I agree that a nice shower curtain, kept closed, will help a lot! But you have to live and shower there, too, so cleaning up the tile is probably a good idea anyway.

Clorox Bleach Foamer, a foamy spray cleaner, is available at grocery stores, and did a great job on my tub's problem spots/dirt-prone nooks and crannies. Spray, let it sit for a few minutes, scrub, and then rinse. Just make sure you open a window or turn on your vent fan, because the smell is strong. Sometimes you have to bring in the big guns for grubby bathrooms!

If the tub itself is soap-scummy, I can't recommend the use of a Magic Eraser enough.

Also, once you've done your big deep cleaning and bathroom beautification, consider keeping a squeegee in your tub, and squeegeeing the walls after you shower. This will minimize standing water, and keep your tile cleaner.

Cheap commercial hair bleach, like L'Oreal Pre-Lightener, will stick and cling to tiles and remove the kinds of gunk you'd think you need to get industrial for... source of experience, removing grey body-detritus from shared bathroom 9 years ago...

I agree with LyonStill. Bright accessories will make the yellow tile fade into the background.
And fixing the grout will work wonders on making the room look fresh.

Make a PASTE of clorax and baking soda; more baking soda than clorax. Let it sit and scrub. This works really well. I would too be carefully of any acid product.

I feel your pain; our current rental has missing grout, cracked tiles, missing tiles, etc. While there's nothing to be done about the missing tiles, and I won't re-grout for a landlord (I did that in my own house, and it's a massive amount of work) I used a toothbrush and cleanser to clean thoroughly in the largest cracks and filled them with silicone caulk (white in the missing grout, clear around the fixtures). In addition to making things look cleaner, it does something that hasn't been mentioned yet in this thread -- it also prevents leakage from the shower into the walls, reducing the odds that you'll have to deal with maintenance crises. Since we live in a prewar multistory apartment building, there are constant plumbing issues, and one weekend after hours (naturally) our neighbor two floors down came up complaining that our shower was leaking through his ceiling. When the super opened our bathroom wall, he found everything in a state of desperately-needs-to-be-renovated rust and decay, but no moisture at all, thanks to my caulking. Voila, super lets us off the hook and other people get to deal with plumbers/drywall replacement (the super told me to go crazy with the silicone).

I don't know if you have neighboring tenants or any reason to suspect leakage in the bathroom, but if so, I recommend preventative measures to keep the bathroom leak-free so you never have to stay home for/deal with plumbers, electricians, etc. (I lived through all the windows in my last rental being replaced, and it was a fiasco. I'd prefer to break a lease rather than deal with the damage and costs; supervising contractors on your own property is challenging enough, but when you're not the owner, and you can't control the quality of the materials or personnel brought into your home, it's ghastly).

Bleach can damage tile and grout, so while it cleans up short term, it creates more dirt and problems long term.

Also, I don't think it is right to disrespect your landlord by doing something you agreed in writing not to do, like paint. A lot of DIY work looks awful and causes damage that is expensive to repair.

A word of caution on one of the comments: please do not mix cleanser and bleach. This will create a toxic deadly gas, and we don't want anyone to die for the sake of rented bathroom tiles.

I'd ask my landlord to fix it. It needs to be re-grouted and caulked. It's not your job to fix up a rental. Maybe I've just had good landlords, but they would never ignore something like that if I brought it to their attention.

Since you are renting I would just clean it a best you can and keep it clean. Get a shower curtain you like with a liner, nothing to wild keep it simple and just close it when it is really dry or have company or you will be battling the mold. Maybe invest in a dehumidifier, it would help control any mold or mildew.

I agree with the other comments that a good clean and re-caulk is in order.

Spotting the dark tiles, toilet roll and soap holder - I'd use this as an accent throughout. Keep things clean with white towels, a white roller-blind and a white shower curtain - but dress them all up with a simple black/brown trim to match the dark elements already in the bathroom. Bring in some simple accessories and art that are primarily white with a simple black/brown motif or detail and this yellow bathroom will look great.

It's amazing what re-caulking can do for a grungy bathroom. Cheap, easy and not permanent.

Clean, clean and clean. Whatever product you use, combine it with good old fashioned elbow grease. I inherited ugly black & white floor tile and pale bluish gray wall tile halfway up. I cleaned the heck out of it. Purchased white rugs, white shower curtain with patches of lilac. Painted the surrounding walls in lilac. The tile really does fade into the background.

I'm in a similar situation, but my pink tile is also on the walls of the bathroom just not the shower area. I came across a DYI shower curtain using regular window curtains (which are longer) and help conceal the ugliness of the tile. I choose a black/white print curtains from target and I don't even notice the pink walls in my small bathroom anymore.

@lemondrop: GREAT suggestion, we are cut from the same cloth! I've had landlords thank and reimburse as well, so cheers for having great taste!

Here is an even better product though, with a more pure Ultra White than the Homax brand (I find that to be more of an almond color than true white)

http://www.amazon.com/Rust-Oleum-7860519-Refinishing-2-Part-White/dp/B000PTSBKW/ref=pd_cp_hi_0

Goodall, http://x-marks-the-stock.com/

@lemondrop:

Cheers for great taste! This product is even better than Homax' brand though, Rustoleum has much more of a true Ultra Pure White:

http://www.amazon.com/Rust-Oleum-7860519-Refinishing-2-Part-White/dp/B000PTSBKW/ref=pd_cp_hi_0

Ack, that rusted chain is freaking me out!!! Seriously, the landlord should recaulk and regrout to prevent (further) water damage. The drain cover doohickeys on the bottom and front wall of the tub should be replaced. If the landlord won't buy new ones, buy them yourself at a plumbing supply or hardware store and ask the landlord to provide the labor. If you are handy, you can replace them yourself but it is a gross job involving soap scum and other drain yuk. Last, discard that chain (eek!!) and buy a new rubber stopper. Even if you don't take baths, you should have a means of plugging the tub. Good luck!!

Hey AT. Can you do a post on how to recaulk a bathroom?

A clean bathroom supercedes how it looks, but that wasn't your question. As an owner of a couple of rental properties, if my tenants "improved" anything they would surely lose their deposit (which for me is 3x monthly rental). If I were a renter, I would never rent anything that wasn't good enough "as is."

Shower curtain is your best bet.

Lemondrop,
How do you deal with the 5 day wait for it to cure? I'd love to do this but I only have one bathroom. Does anyone know of something that cures in less than 3 days? Thanks.

Can you elaborate on the hair bleach idea? My rental has ugly grey bathroom floor tiles (the kind that just look dirty because that's their natural color) and some pieces are cracked. I am going to recaulk but there is this annoying gunk stuck on them since we moved in and scraping it off doesn't help.

What would hair bleach do?