apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Oog. With that much going on I'd stick with a nice crisp white. I'd get some accents in in that burgundy though, towels and a floor mat for sure. Maybe you can run a little stripe of burgundy ribbon along the curtain? I can't see adding more colors in a small room like this, but maybe that's just me.

No, Anne, you're right. A crisp white is the only thing that will keep this bathroom from looking to crazy.

It looks like the floor has some offwhite going on. I would go with a warm offwhite or beigy color. White could look too rental-like and I hate what stark white does to the lighting especially when I have to look in a mirror.

As long as the tile doesn't get wet all the time, like a shower backsplash, apparently you can paint over it.

I found this article on painting ceramic tile...
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/paintceramictile

You could paint the wall, then paint the small burgundy tile band and at least neutralize the colors a little.

Behr has some really nice palettes...

http://www.behr.com/behrx/inspiration/practical_1.jsp


http://www.behr.com/images/inspiration/popup_honeydew.gif

My old bathroom had the same tile. I painted the walls the same color as the burgundy tile. It may seem bold, but it worked. I loved it but it may not be for everyone. Good luck

OMG ... I have the same bathroom! But with pink fixtures as well! When I originally purchased the house, the bathroom (above the burgundy line) was painted burgundy! Do not make that mistake. I've now painted the room bright white and am in the process of replacing the fixtures to modern white ones.

I thought about painting the tiles, but unless you leave the grout lines, it looks pretty bad. And leaving the grout lines is a lot of work. I'm also thinking about laying a new floor over the pink floor to help defuse the wall tiles a bit more.

Thanks for sharing ... its nice to know I'm not alone!

anne: You posted as I was writing! I guess I'm one who the burgundy just didn't work for. While I love dark walls, the real issue in our bathroom was the previous owner painted the ceiling the same color as well. It was like a very dark cave. Anyway, I'm glad it works for you.

I have never understood why everyone hates these bathrooms so much. For me, they are the selling point on all of my apartments. I'm also in a mid to late '30s apartment and it has a bathrooms that's burgundy, black, and ivory - I painted the walls a parchment color, and my kitchen has yellow field tiles with black trim and a little orange detail thing under the trim and I painted the walls a jadite green. The color gives the place character rather than a boring "renovated" generic room that will be even more dated than the bathroom you have.
My advice is to go to a paint website -- Behr, Sherwin Williams, Benjamin Moore, whatever -- and try to match up the color of your tile in one of their paint coordinating things. Then the program will give you a bunch of colors that you could paint your wall that would complement what you have rather than denying it or trying to disguise it, which never looks right.
Above all, please don't contributeto disposable architecture. These bathrooms were built to last and create a consistancy between the whole of the structure and the details in the rooms. Replacing just the bathroom always looks very disjointed.

I'm with you Sarah. A lot of people would kill to get a relatively untouched vintage bath like this, that appears to be in good shape.

I vote for white or something that is an off-white that picks up the hue of the field tiles. but with just a hint of color.

That is some bathroom - I love it - as is. I'd add one piece of art and a tightly woven hamper or waste basket.

I'm jealous!

I like the vintage tile too. Though I understand how you feel about flesh pink - ew.

I'm seconding someone above, but it looks like your floor tile is a lighter, soothing color - warm beige or parchment. I'd put that on the wall to tie it all together.

click me to see mine... turquoise, yellow and peach! I think white is the way to go for me!

How about a pale cocoa or chocolate color? Or would that clash? Hard to see your tile colors on my computer screen.

While I can appreciate that some people enjoy the vintage look, please note that the owner/renter clearly does not. Having been a nasty pink bathroom survivor myself, it is much more useful to receive decorating suggestions than to hear people scold you for wanting a change. Sorry if that sounded snippy, it's not intended to be.

I agree with white, or a warm off white might work too. I think staying in the neutral family is going to be good though.

i agree with sarah. i'd try matching the pink color. i think that if you painted the wall the same color as the field tiles, the color would recede and neutralize and the burgundy would pop, tying in the rest of your house. you think you will hate it and then you will look in the mirror and you will see how fabulous that color makes you look, your skin flawless and your eyes sparkle, and you will leave the bathroom each day feeling fabulous.

I rented a house last year where the bathroom had bubblegum pink tile everywhere, including the tub and toliet. there was a wallpaper border to boot. i stripped the wallpaper and painted the walls a deep burgundy since i couldn't remove the tile. i got a lot of compliments and it made the room a bit more modern, versus outdated. another thought would be a chocolate color with accents of cream/burgundy towels and wooden bath accents if you're into that (waste basket, kleenex holder, etc).

I was about to suggest the cocoa color too and someone beat me too it. You know the color of instant hot chocolate, with an almost purplish hue to it? I would try that.

I agree with Sarah - I'm in the real estate development industry and generally speaking, if any existing finish, trim, flooring, fixture, etc. is in good shape, you are better off keeping it than ripping it out and replacing it.

In your case, if you bathroom tile is in good shape, keep it. Anything you replace it with is likely to be of poorer quality over the long haul and its likely whoever installs it will do a worse job than the original.

Modern home construction materials are, pound for pound, (or rather, linear feet for linear feet), crap compared to what we installed into our buildings 100 years ago. Our wood framing lumber, flooring and finish trim is younger and therefore softer. We hang disposable drywall instead of plaster of paris. Our carpeting is artificial crap made out of petroleum. Our fixtures are cheap chromed steel you could probably snap off if you wanted to instead of solid brass. And forget about decorative elements - we used to have leaded glass windows, molded plaster and terra cotta medallions, beaded hardwood trim.

At least linoleum is making a comeback.

Even our labor is of reduced quality. Each era saw its cheap, hardworking immigrant labor in the construction trade. However, while today its predominantly semi-skilled/limited skill labor from down south, 100 years prior it was skilled artisans from Italy and Germany.

i also have a 1929 bathroom with similar tile (different colors). i've painted the walls every color in the universe and found white, with a touch of the tile color to be the best/least offensive. i put in a nice light fixture and some luxurious accessories and now, it's a 1929 bathroom! it's cool and retro and i like it, pretty much.

An alternative not mentioned is a more straw colored tone (yellow with undertones of green and gray). Although is sounds a bit odd, you'd be surprised how well it can complement.

I like the bathroom and would really like it painted in a glossy white paint. I guess my decorating skills must be asleep because I would not spend the money changing a thing. I would focus on accessories.

Behr is offering a coupon for Premium Plus Interior Paint. $5 off gallons and $20 off until 1/21/07 rebate. I got mine from Home De pot. LOL

preach it Dave! right on.

D in DC - if someone prefers modern crap to vintage charm, they should go live in a modern crap house and leave the quality stuff to the people who do appreciate it.

Sorry if that sounds snippy.

You're lucky, I have similarly colored peach tiles in my 40's vintage bathroom, but the accent color is somewhere in between lime and seafoam green. Its a bit nauseating. Frankly, I'm a little jealous at how nice your bathroom is! :)

I would agree with everyone else and get a nice crisp white on the walls and maybe if you are up to it, retile the floor in a nice white or something.

I would really go for it and do something funky. Its a bathroom after all and it is a great place to do something out of the ordinary and fun. I would suggest purple of some sort, leaning toward cool and not too deep. Good luck!

Also, you could bring in some more textures by adding a natural bamboo shade over the window and maybe a skirt (no frills) around the sink. You could have a lot of fun with the choices of fabric available to you.

Hmm...click chick... I'm amazed how such a neutral topic can get people so fired up!

It's good to get a range of ideas at the beginning of any design project. The more the better.

In the beginning there are no bad ideas! That's where unique inspiration comes from, and personal style, etc.

Paint it black.

I'm an interior designer and home stager, and I still make frequent use of a piece of advice that a well-known San Francisco interior designer, from whom I took a class 20 years ago, gave: When you want to make a color go away, use more of it. Although this seems to defy logic, I have done this dozens of times with killer results. I would unquestionably paint the walls a pale version of the field color. Color match the field tile (Ben Moore has the best selection), then go north on the paint strip in the fan deck and choose a version with more white in it. Just make sure you get an absolute match of the field tile color or it won't be pretty. Literally.

First off, Amen Dave, AMEN! Secondly, don't paint the tile! Ack! Thirdly, I think bright white is a mistake. I'd opt for a *very* pale version of the peachy color of the field tile -- just enough color to soften what would otherwise be stark white. Another option would be to try a deep rich brown with a purple undertone. (I tried this on the Benjamin Moore Personal Color Viewer, approximating your colors as much as I could, and it looked really good) Good luck!

I kind of like this bathroom! it's not ideal but it has a certain charm. I could totally live with it

I have a much, much more hideous bathroom from the seventies (except for some ultra groovy 70s floor tile) and I'm going to reglaze my tile based on stuff I've read online from people on DIY boards.

I'm using this:

http://www.rustoleum.com/product.asp?frm_product_id=46&SBL=1

I would never use that on this bathroom. My bathroom is a nightmare and there is no way this horror is ever coming back into style.

I second the warm beige, parchment votes. Or white with a touch of the tile color. You could go radical and do something like mustardy beige but that could also be hideous.

If you ask me, the tile in this bathroom is not a problem. You can't buy tile work like that today. Do not remove it. Do not attempt to paint the tile.

If you ask me, the problem with this bathroom is not the tile color, it's the window coverings and bare walls. I'm with Mary Anne and Monica: for wall paint, choose a very pale version of the field color. Then get some curtains in a bold (tropical?) fabric (probably repeating the trim tile color in one of the fabric's minor hues), a similarly colored rug, and add one or two pieces of wall art to complement your new curtains.

Voila: you will hardly notice the tile color.

My 2 cents worth.

Misery loves company. I have wracked my brains trying to come up with a solution for this same color combo in my bathroom. I finally plastered the walls with maps- mostly vintage. The colors work and my daughter now knows her geography. Bed, Bath and Beyond has a pink/peach/beige rug that works better than any other.

Just because something is vintage does not make it pretty. I hate my bathroom...and yours. Sorry.

Hey everyone,

Thanks so much for your comments and ideas -- we will definitely test out a few of the paint and accessory suggestions!

Also, I just wanted to clarify my original post: I don't hate the bathroom or want to demo it just because it's vintage. In fact, I LOVE vintage, and think the deco-style high-contrast tile that typifies bathrooms of this era is really cool. I totally believe in preserving the architecture and style of vintage homes, and in fact we have made other changes in this house to strip away ill-conceived "updates" and bring it BACK to its original state. It's just the sort of awful fleshy pink color of the field tile that I'm not loving (especially on the floor, which is not the original tile -- it's not quite the same color or texture and not the same quality as the wall tile). If the tile was burgundy with black trim, or lavender with green trim, or some other combination that didn't include that sickly pink color, I would totally leave it alone and be thrilled to have it.

Anyway, thanks again to everyone!

Leah

Leah- I could not have said it better myself. It is just the color flesh pink I hate too. Keep us posted.

What about a strong yellow? Then the ugly pink wouldnt look so pink and would look more beige?? I just really like yellow walls they make me happy. Is there already black in the bathroom? Maybe black accents or strong burgandy accents (if those colors are already there?)
Kim

Hey, it's just paint . . . go for the burgundy in the trim tile, just a bare shade lighter in order to avoid going any darker (dead-on matches are hard to achieve and the tile is glossy, the paint will be more matte). Ceiling a paler apricot - call if flesh if you must. I would find a wonderful fabric with the same colors and make a simple, maybe reverse box pleat, skirt to velcro under the sink (also adds storage) and do the roman shade in the same fabric. And yes, some well-framed art prints on the walls will actually look very, very good against the rich wall color. This is an OPPORTUNITY!

For what it's worth, I second the black.

What an awesome bathroom! Love the vintage look of it. For paint, I agree with a neutral (I like the flesh color) or a variant of the burgundy. Or, now don't blanch everyone, have you thought of vintage wallpaper? A cool deco option has got to be out there somewhere. If that's a possibility, check out SecondHand Rose. Good luck!

Kitty

I have the have the same color scheme in my 1950's ranch house. I found that a light shade of gray looks best with the tiles. I got the idea of grey from the toddler's section of ikea. They sell a grey rat stuffed animal with peach features. I actually bought him and put him in the bathroom. I bought some solid grey towels and they look real well. I like the look of chrome to bring out the vintage feel.
I would change your towel bars to a nice retro chrome (why did they mount a towel bar over your toilet?), put some nice black & white framed photographs on the walls, paint the walls a light grey flat paint (to offset and tone down the shiny tiles), purchase a nice solid bath rug, and change your sink to a pedestal.
Whatever you decide to do, please do not destroy this bathroom. It is rare to find these bathrooms of this era. You will regret it someday. I've seen it during my house hunting, ruined "home depot" updated houses. Granite counters, new oak cabinets, blah,blah,blah. Good luck

I'm terrible with color -grey or white is all I can imagine. Lovely thick toxic oil based high gloss would work well with the cozy- if difficult- vintage tile colors

Looking at the picture again, I think maybe a creamy buttery -but not yellow would be lovely too -and still super high gloss-silly, but It drives me mad that they can't make it low VOC

I just bought a 2 family that has this EXACT color combo in tile in the bathrooms--down to the diagonally placed tile on the floor. It is in pristine condition, as is the peach colored tub and sink. After racking my brains crazy over a color combo, I decided to paint the walls a greyish plum, and do plum, rust and pale peach towels and accessories. The color I chose is Martha Stewart Thyme Flower, available at Sears.

I know that you are wanting to change the color of the walls to complement the tiles, but have you looked into having your tiles painted. I recently saw a bathroom similar to yours on a redecorating show and instead of spending a ton of money on completely re-tiling their walls, they had a professional come in and paint them white. While it may be more costly than painting the walls yourself, it would certainly be less of an eyesore for the time being and also make the renovation of your bathroom less urgent

I know I'm a full 2 months behind, but I wanted to share:

I have a bathroom with old baby blue tile in it. I found that the best thing I did was paint the walls bright white (it brings out the whiteness of the grout) and then at the top of wall, I painted two stripes of color - one of the baby blue and one of tan - kind of like a border. So maybe if you had the bright white walls and painted a stripe of burgandy and one of peach (maybe a third of another color you want to introduce!) to create a pretty and simple paint border to tie the room together. Otherwise I was finding that the big expanse of white wall was just boring.

My husband & I just bought a house with the same pink tile and black trim. I'm going to try to go with an art deco theme. I'm going to try to tinted blush pink walls and ceiling, and a black art deco stencil above the tile, with a simpler stencil bordor at the ceiling. Chrome or silver accessories with an art deco motif. Black and white pictures, white mats, black frames. Black or greyish/silver towels for us, fluffy thick white towels for guests. Thanks for the many ideas.

Leah, when I purchased my house 5 yrs ago it came with the pink walls w/burg border and also pink floor. I painted the wall chocolate brown and kept all the wood trim & door white. The sink, tub and sink are white. As soon as I painted it I knew I made the right choise and it's a big hit, everyone loves it! It tones down the allover pink/salman.