apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

White sounds like an easy choice, but I think you might get bored with that pretty quickly. Eventually it will look just like a big empty space. Instead of going with solid white, why not try a nice green or blue tile? Neither colors are overly offensive and it wouldn't bore you to tears in 6 months.

I never knew "glazing" was an option. Do tell! Very exciting to someone who inherited pink wall tiles and brown/gold linoleum flooring in his bathroom....

white i guess if you want to completely bore everyone to tears.. LOL... like so many of these "what do I do with this awful space" posts, im going with... LEAVE IT. I'd paint the same soft yellow as the field tile, and go with a bright tomato red-orange shower curtain and call it day.

I'm with matchjames. Embrace it! Red towels too!

Stephanie,

I agree with you in changing the clown tiles to white. There's a reason that a white bathroom is timeless. It allows you to easily add colour in ways that are not permanent and to change as often as you feel.

As for recommendations for reglazing options, I'm unable to help, but it seems to me that a tub refinishing company might be a place to start. If they can create a finish that stands up to constant cleaning, tiles should be easy.

Good luck.

I think matchjames and aaron have the right idea. I like it and would leave it. I've seen much worse! Its fun, bright and cheery. With the right accessories I think it will look great.

i should state that when i lived in central NJ i did have my 50's pink and black bathroom wall tiles AND pink tub AND "stand up phone booth stall shower" reglazed white. It ran $1100, it was a LOT of tile. I was only in the house a year, but that and laying carrera marble tiles over the old floor and a fixture switchout completely changed that bathroom. I can't account for durability.

I had my bathroom (dingy greenish/greyish tiles and yellowed tub) reglazed white and am thrilled with the result. It looks like an entirely new bathroom, and only cost about $1,500. One caveat: it's tremendously toxic, so we had to spend the night outside of the apartment (small manhattan space) and let it dry properly.

A few other caveats: it does scratch if you use anything sharp, and you can't use typical abrasive cleaners.

As for sources, I went through my contractor. But there are plenty listed online.

I say go for it!

If that's the actual tile in your bathroom, i'll TRADE YOU. i have this HORRIFIC faux native american motif tile in my bathroom. in flesh color. i think your bathroom is really cute!

Find the same yellow tile (that shade is a classic) and just remove the other tiles and fill in with the yellow. That's a possibility.

Would it be worth simply demolishing the old tile and starting from scratch? I'm thinking that the black color might show through the white re-glaze.

Love the classic vintage pedestal sink - works nicely with the floor. Good luck!

Is the existing tile fairly new? As in, last 10 years, maybe 20?

If so, it's most likely just attached to greenboard and should demo pretty easily -- nothing like the old-style mud jobs that practically cemented the tiles to the house's structure.

there is no such thing as reglazing tile, unless you are going to rip it off the wall, apply glaze and fire it up to 2000 degrees or so in a kiln. they just apply some super toxic epoxy that looks good for about 7 minutes then it starts scratching off and revealing the red and yellow tile underneath.
save your money and do the job properly when you can. good quality white tile would look lovely, is not that expensive and not that difficult to install if you are handy.
add color on the walls, like you said, with the towels and the shower curtain.

Gotta say matchjames and aaron have a very good point. Even if you ultimately embark on a mjor renovation of the bathroom, their suggestion would buy you plenty of time to reflect on your ultimate design strategy.

You're going to have to redo all the walls. The least expensive way is to change the floor tiling, a glossy black would tone down the walls. The present flooring is too jarring with the wall tile.

I reglazed my bathroom in all white about 4 months ago and I love it. It's clean, it's simple and I've added in color through towels and wall color.

I got a recommendation from my co-op, a person that has done several bathrooms in my building. It was a two day process (day 1 prep, day 2 reglaze). I chose to do it on a Thursday/Friday, so I could go away for the weekend while it cured and the chemical odor faded. Being displaced a few days made more since for me, than a few weeks on having someone retile.

The work is warranted for 2 years and does take a little bit gentlier care, but I say go for it. It's like having a new bathroom without the headache & extra expense of retiling.

I think it's really kind of fun. If I had that bathroom I would definitely try working with it.

I had a very bad experience when my apartment management decided to redo our tubs/sinks, mostly due to the incompetence of the people who did the work, but I second that it is VERY TOXIC and smells extremely bad. AND it gets scratched/nicked easily - it's basically like latex paint that gets sprayed on.

My tub was reglazed sometime in the past, not sure when but before I moved in, while it is a passable finish, it is not a "factory" finish and is a little bit on the matte side... It has chipped in a few places and shows wear... I am not sure if this is something I would recommend unless the tiles and tub are dirty or stained and the "glazing" wouldnt just be a temporary fix... I would look for work done in a friends house to see if you can live with the "glazing" results...

With such an aggressive color scheme you have to embrace it or re-do it. I'd embrace it, myself, but since you dislike it, consider painting only the odd-colored tiles a paler version of the yellow, or white. The black tile border is quite nice, and those 50s bathrooms will become all the rage as soon as you have yours glazed over. I like them.

You could remove the 'wild' tiles, and put in plain white ones, as they seem to have added those, but it's a fair bit of work.

I inherited celadon green tile in my bathroom, which is a color I love, but I wouldn't put green in a bathroom; it gives your skin a funny color when primping. Even if you don't primp, you might have visitors who do. Warm beige works well, and would look good with white tiles.

Reglazing doesn't sound good, if after all that work it gets scratched easily and you have to be careful when cleaning it. Who delicately cleans their shower stall? Then it only last two years, if that? If you think the prior owners left you with a problem, what about when you leave the next owners with chipping and scratched "reglazed" tiles?

I suggest:
1) remove the "offensive" tiles and fill in with that or a paler yellow
2) remove the "offensive" tiles and fill in with the moss green you want on the walls
3) embrace the pattern (which I love!) and switch out the black diamonds in the floor tile (if it is tile) with red ones.
4) retile the walls completely

I'm glad that so many people here seem to embrace the vintage tiles. Our bathroom is quite similar to this in style (without the colourful mixture — ours is a slightly more muted golden yellow, trimmed in black). I actually love our bathroom and find it quirky and charming, but I sometimes wonder if people visiting our home are wondering when we're going to get going and rip that old tile out!

Until last April I had a cheap chelsea apartment ($1100 doorman elevator) but it came with the original 1973 avocado kitchen and a bathroom with the gold glitter and copper rivers on it! I went with the do-it-yourself Janovic Plaza "reglazing" paint and it looked much better for about 5 years. After that it started to get rather worn and it yellowed quite a bit. By year 8 it was shabby looking and started to peel. The paint is actually an epoxy so the smell is horrendous. If its only a temporary fix go for it, but if it is for long term forget it. The professional "reglazing" looks a bit better when its new as they get a more even finish but I doubt that it lasts any longer

I had a similar problem in my old apartment. Some of the yellow tiles had cracked and rather than replace them, management had filled in the cracks with the same horrible mud-brown grout that also surrounded the tiles. I carefully chipped out those tiles and replaced them with plain black ones; matching the yellow was impossible, but the black looked like a deliberate design choice and matched the black accents in the floor. (I also re-grouted with white grout!) It wasn't exactly what I would have chosen to do had I an unlimited budget but as I kept the shower curtain and towels to white it looked very fresh and unobtrusive. I researched the so-called reglazing option but decided against it on grounds of toxicity and relative expense.

If you do decide to reglaze i would leave the black tile at the top. it will complement the floor.