The silver and brown wallpaper, the tan mottled tile, the funky grout, the funky caulk, the ancient shower head, the reglazed bathtub that is now peeling, the gold fixtures, the oversize vanity that the closet door hits every time I open it, the toilet paper roll attached to the wall with a spare unpainted wood scrap because there is a hole in the wallboard where the roll used to hang and the fact that all this happens to be in the only bathroom in my house where I have lived for almost seven years. I think you hit a nerve...

There is no door stopper, the lights are too dim and there is a very low water pressure in the sink & toilet

I had that same light fixture and HATED it! It had gotten super rusty and gross. Finally replaced it and turned it into a votive centerpiece! http://mallicious.blogspot.com/2011/04/leftover-light-turned-votive-holder.html

I live in a coop that started off as a rental, as a result it has horrible, ugly tiling that I haven't been able to replace yet. The worst is the floor which is grey, porous tile that is impossible to get to look clean.

Because I'm in a coop, I hesitate to retile myself (if I don't do it right and it leaks and damages downstairs apartments I'd be responsible.) Also, underneath the wall tile is cement covered mesh, not board, so I've been told that type of underwall is too complicated to deal with for a DIYer. Is that true?

I've thought of painting the tiles, but is there a kind of paint that looks good and is durable (& cleanable) for painting over ceramic tiles?

I think I have that same crummy tile in my bathrooms, and I cannot wait to replace it. Who ever thought that tile was a good idea?

tiling that's painted over with now peeling paint, ugly dark blue colors on the walls, ugly fixtures and vanity/sink, moldy tub with missing, yet leaky faucet (old owners used a wrench to operate it - no joke), the vintage bath plumbing on the wrong wall (the long one in the middle), the towel/robe hooks affixed assymmetrically on the back of the door. In short, Everything. It's going to be gutted in the next few weeks and it cannnot happen soon enough

Perfect question for me to answer now! We had a second home near our daughter which we are now putting on the market. I hate doing things for "the new owners" and tired to change as much as possible but there were still things in the baths that now need to brought into this century. Brass fixtures in the bathroom must go. I had PVC trim put around plain large mirrors. Other than that you can't beat white and clean. You can always add your own personality with "stuff".

Where do I begin... the Kermit green 50's tile bordered with black tile ALL OVER THE ENITRE BATHROOM for starters, the dilapidating pedestal sink with missing towel racks, the tiny spacing, the cold floors and drafty wall corners, the horribly stained grout and chaulk inside the shower/tub, the nasty 60's flower non-skid appliques on the tub floor which will never come off, the nasty rusted out medicine cabinet/mirror... I would LOVE To tear the whole place down to the studs & start all over fresh!!!! ...and radiant heated floors would be essential!!!

Windowlessness and the fact that there is never enough light filtering into the bathtub area. I'd like to be able to see my legs while I'm running the safety razor over them, thank you very much!

disgusting yellowed stained linoleum tiles from the 50s.

like the tiles that were in your middle school classrooms, with little flecks of random colors.
so i spray painted it white.

probably not the best choice for a rental, but it makes me feel better.

need to polish it off with a coat of garage concrete floor sealant and i'm good to go.

my landlord should thank me for covering that hot mess.

Bathroom vents that have no fans and don't exhaust outside...
...so the air is pushed into the bathroom more than moisture goes out, resulting in dust and gunk getting trapped in the fins and raining down onto my fixtures, etc - and steam condensing on my ceilings & walls, eventually causing unsightly drips.

Pink tile in my 1940s rental home. I could probably get away with painting over it (landlord wouldnt care) but since the tile extends into the shower it's a no go. boo.

The toilet, really, the toilet.

I like bathrooms that have separate rooms for the toilet. I like the idea that a bathroom is for grooming and not waste disposal. A Bathroom is a lot nicer when it has a Bathtub, A Sink, A Vanity, and a seating arrangement. Separate the toilet to a smaller, well ventilated room with a sink. Keep the odors out of the Bathroom.

First, the bathroom is directly opposite the front door to the apartment (through the kitchen) so, if I leave the door open to let air through from the bathroom window, then it's one of the first things one sees upon entering the apartment. There's a steam pipe that is incredibly hot right next to the toilet - speaking of the toilet, when the apartment was renovated, they forgot to bolt the toilet to the floor (huh?). And, when I moved in, there wasn't a towel rack, toilet paper holder or shower curtain rod, although the last item is now "optional" these days, I guess. There's no place store extra anything that doesn't fit into the medicine cabinet (thinking of putting a shelf over the doorway). Given what other people have posted, I suppose I should feel lucky!

The 'marquee' light fixture, the large slab-o-mirror, the completely unecessary mirrored medicine cabinet BESIDE the slab-o-mirror, the builder-grade characterless vanity, and that the shower curtain rod is mounted too low. I'd also like a new toilet because mine is stained. Many easy fixes... if I could get my butt in gear.

Rented house (1)
Nasty unsealed grout (2)
Two different types of sort of white tile (3)
(due, no doubt, because the tub was replaced with a plastic shower pan)
Improperly installed shower pan has cracked, allowing moisture in the wall and black mold (4)
Fun times. Rental. Sigh.

The former home owner installed tile over the exisiting floor, which means there isn't enough clearance for a bathmat. He also painted the cabinet without removing the hardware. And replaced the sink with a cool granite surround, but left the fugly brass towel holders. If it was possible to do halfway, he found a way! (He also tried to do some of the electrical work which meant we had to call an electrician the first week our twins were home from the hospital--convenient!)

I've got another "what ISN'T wrong with it?" tale of woe!

To start, the whole bathroom is painted SHINY dark royal blue, including the wainscoting--which is made of plywood that looks like tiles. (Yes, you read that right--and it's warped and curving out in places, too!).

The ceiling is white(ish), but because there's no fan and it's rarely warm enough to open the window, the pain is flaking down all over the place. The floor is white linoleum tile--not too terrible, but impossible to keep clean. There's no lintel between the bathroom floor and the kitchen floor, so cat litter and other grit gets stuck in the cracks.

The bathtub is an old clawfoot tub with a ring for a curtain--but the ring stops halfway, so we can only use a tiny portion of the "shower". No light for leg shaving. Hot water only lasts for a maximum of five minutes (supposedly the landlord is replacing the water heater, but we've heard that before!). The tub also has a mysterious hole under the current faucet which just leads to nowhere, so you can't even fill it up far enough to take a bath or water would pour all over the floor. If water does get on the floor, it pours into the basement.

The sink is surrounded by a shabby DIY "cabinet" that is also painted shiny royal blue. It has a separate faucet for hot and cold water--cute and vintagey looking, but means you only get HOT or COLD water, never warm.

I'd LOVE to at least paint the damned room, but the house is up for sale and I couldn't bear to put in all that work and then not be able to renew our lease.

Sigh.

My bathroom has no electric outlets! None! How am I supposed to make my hair look good?!

lack of space...need to shelves or something to hold stuff...need to add some personality into it.

I have turquoise blue tiles with a black stripe chevron running through it. The floor is tiled mosaic style, Dark blue and turquoise- a different shade of turquoise.
The sink, tub and toilet are from the 1940's ( and not the good side of the 40's). The mirror/medicine cabinet is yellowed plastic from the 1970's. I would kill for cream.....nothing matches and it's hard to find towels/curtains other than white. There is NO storage.

It's probably a tie between the uneven floor causing my toilet to tilt back and the creepy "shower closet" my apartment has...Or that the light fixture in the bathroom plugs in leaving me with only one of the awkward outlets near the ceiling (that I must stand on said tilted toilet to reach).

Just about everything! We're doing our own mini makeover to our master bath, check it out:
Part 1: http://tinyurl.com/3glvqmr
Part 2: http://tinyurl.com/5wv9lxo

Almost there, stay tuned! :-)

my husband in the bathroom is what bugs me about the bathroom: his water splashes everywhere, toothpaste streaks, flinging soapy flecks of water on the mirror..... *sigh*

my boyfriend uses this insane hairspray and it gets all over place. Dust sticks to surfaces and it feels so gross. ughhh - that being said, I'm going to clean the bathroom, today. Better yet, I'm giving him the windex and the towels.

French bathrooms. When I married a French man I never expected to have french bathrooms on my list of things I hate. The tubs are too deep and narrow and everyone showers in them. For a short person, 5'1" like myself, it is a real tribulation to step into and out of the tub. So far, I have never been into a bathroom that has a window other than a skylight. They are small and inconvenient, uncomfortable and not anyplace I would ever think of relaxing in. The lighting is poor. The rooms uncomfortable. The only plus is that the toilet always seems to be tucked away in what they still call a 'Water Closet'. Good enought because the Water Closet is always small and uncomfortable. When we renovate our apartment in St. Etienne the third thing on my list is going to be the bathroom. First are going to be the floors and second is the kitchen.

The drain blocker thing in the sink is too low, somehow. I've busted out tools to try to disect it to make it higher. Otherwise, when we brush our teeth, there's a pool of water+our spit. Yucko.

The ugly black, too large tiles in a small room with grungy grey grout, the fading streaked pale blue walls, the yucky and boringly mismatched beige tile in the old bathtub that needs to be reglazed or replaced, the tarnished fixtures, wood paneled cabinet and no real storage, the toilet tissue holder - large, white and ceramic glued to the wall. The blue toilet seat/lid on a cream colored commode. In short, everything about my bathroom annoys me.

Many things, but the ominous crack in the ceiling that the management company refuses to fix is the major one.

We still have one bathroom to remodel and it is the one closest to our bedroom. I don't want to deal with it because of the mess, even though it will only be a couple of weeks. The original bathroom was put in by our next door neighbor about 25 years ago (long before we arrived); he did everything kind of half way (and they are great neighbors in every other way so we try to look past this). But what it means is that everything has to come out an d be redone, from the pipes that need to be better secured, to the new pocket door, to new tub and tile. Just thinking about it makes me tired.

The exhaust fan that doesn't work. The light fixture that eats light bulbs. The peeling veneer on the countertop. Oh, and the crappy long skinny medicine cabinet that nothing fits in.

Is there anything left? Might have been easier to ask what I do like...NOTHING!

Too many things to list! We just moved in to our new-to-us 1950s house a couple of weeks ago and I cannot wait to do a nearly complete gut renovation on our only bathroom (we'll leave the tub (it needs to be refinished, but it has a great vintage shape) and the vintage-ish toilet is beautiful.

Some of the worst things:

What I like to call 1990s mottled teal tiles on the floor paired with 1950s-style lemon yellow tiles and forest green trim tiles on the vanity countertop and the bottom half of the shower (the top half has been redone with much more modern large beige tiles that poorly mimic natural stone, plus a brown tile trim...), the horrible, chain-swagged light fixtures with exposed ground wires (sounds nice and safe, huh?), the door that opens the wrong direction, the sliding door that was on the shower/tub that had etched glass doors with a flower design (I actually removed this door today; track and all!), the tub that needs to be completely refinished (it will be beautiful once that is done though)... and the list goes on.

I have a big project ahead of me!

The pink tub which is a non-standard size, so replacing it would be almost custom, costly and require lots of demolition around it. We've elected to get it professionally painted in the future, which involves toxic chemicals and one night away from home. Also, the lack of natural light is a problem. I love bathrooms that are bright and have a natural light source from either a skylight or window.

Despite a decent-sized window, the shower stall molds at the slightest provocation. The entirely-tiled stall is too high and small for any air to circulate. The shower door doesn't help; it only opens to about a 50 degree angle because the toilet is in the way, so I can't leave the door open to help prevent mold.
As an earlier poster put it, "Yuck!"

The bad:
Busted, yellowing sheet vinyl floor
Fugly, doesn't-match-anything-else-in-there Builder Grade Sink (faux gray granite bowl, those awful plastic crystal-knob faucet handles, perma-clog that slows draining, generic oak cabinet)
Weirdly located medicine cabinet (different wall and 3' behind sink) with the room's only light - unflattering fluorescent tubes
Random, MacGyver-esque shower-hook-up involving rubber tubing and electrical tape

The good:
Pristine, 1890s clawfoot tub with original brass fittings
12' ceiling and entire wall of frosted glass around door & transom, so light gets in (it's an interior room)
It's HUGE - almost as big as my bedroom!

I rent, so there's not a lot I can do about most of it.

Unlike a lot of folks, I love a good midcentury pink bathroom - esp. the 1930s-Deco-style pink/black and white combos with penny or hex tile floors. Instead, I have a weird, mutant Victorian/'70s Softer Side of Sears hybrid.

Not an issue with my bathroom, but why do so many people have uncovered wastebaskets in theirs? Pretty gross, considering what goes in there - used pads and tampons, used first-aid supplies, medical stuff, tissues, baby wipes, q-tips, and so forth. It's as bad as the kitchen garbage.

grout mould at the rental places that has probably been there for the last 10 years.. impossible to remove =(

We have a rental, not much we can do. But my boyfriend says the walls and ceiling were moldy when he moved in and it keeps coming back.

The tile is all this weird pale pink-grey-white and they're all the exact same pattern. Drives me nuts.

Ugly wallpaper with a border...almond colored toilet, sink and tub..outdated light fixture over the sink. The floor isn't too bad. It's been like that for 8 years. It's all pretty neutral so I can live with it, but, how I wish I could get major $$ to really redo it.

an ancient chandelier that is completely off center, the turquoise painted cabinets, and the door that opens in the wrong direction so you can't get in and out very easily!

where do i begin? the previous homeowners were big DIY-ers....but very BAD ones. they definitely got a bargain on some very banal tile as it is on our kitchen floor, kitchen counter, bathroom counter and shower wall! i'm surprised it's not on the bathroom floor as well. instead we have an equally ugly mini-tile that was poorly grouted and always looks dirty (okay, sometimes it really IS dirty).
the sink cabinet and the tub are all along one wall and the lovely previous owners opted to attach the sink cabinet to the short end of the tub (with what else? a wall of tile) and did a very poor job leaving an unreachable 1" gap between the tub and sink that can never be cleaned...yuck. they also installed the sink cabinet slightly angled so we have a glorious puddling of water every time one of us uses the sink.
oh, and the grout...ugh, the grout! it's a coarse textured unsightly thing that feels like fingernails across a chalkboard to touch.
it's all so wrong, so wrong! a pedestal sink definitely is in our future as well as a different medicine cabinet.
so while our bathroom doesn't have the mood of a 70s wood paneling or the charm of an 80s pastel pink palace, imagine the cheapest, most basic things at any big box hardware store and that's our bathroom...

The noisy, not-very-effective exhaust fan with a dim lightbulb...off to one side of the ceiling. It drives me completely crazy. Thank goodness I've picked out a new one, much quieter, more efficient at moving air, and NO light!

5 different colours (grey, brown, blue and dirt) of rustic tile surround the tub and one wall, while the other surrounding walls and ceiling are in plain white squares... and the floor is mostly yet another colour of pinky beige tile, except for a kind of 'rosette' of hideous dark green and beige tile. Door trim used as baseboard trim. Window trimmed in hideous ye olde oak in a dirty colour. Walls and ceiling painted three different colours of off-white. One wall, inexplicably, painted kelly green. Bathtub and sink installed on a slant, so water pools and stains. The taps were installed on the outside, so you have to climb over them to get in and out (especially scary for male residents). Oh yeah, mouldy grout, broken grout, stained grout. No storage. None. One broken towel rod. Fan which was vented to nowhere. Hideously ugly halogen interrogation light on the ceiling. Door decorated with stickers and plastic hooks. Not a rental. Don't ask, I don't know why either. I resort to the defence of dissociation when I enter this room. It should be bombed. Any reasonable demolition offer accepted.

Word to the wise: all you people with mold, especially JennZenn with the "black mold", I don't think there's a city or county anywhere that permits mold in rental housing. Be aware that the toxins that are emitted from some molds ( especially if you have more than one kind, they use the toxins to try and kill each other, and YOU as a by-product ) are very hazardous to your health. Never use pure bleach to kill the mold, as it will respond with stronger toxic emissions. 1 part bleach to 4 parts water is ok. If the mold persists, and especially if is is red, yellow, or SLIMEY black a.k.a. NOT mildew, it is dangerous, especially if you notice you have a rash or are coughing a lot, and you should call the health department for an inspection. I speak from experience, and my immune and respiratory systems will never be the same. 7 years away from the mold and I am still sick all the time.

The immovable objects (bathtub/tile/toilet) are an unmatchable color of putty grayish tan. I hate it. But I can't change it on a severance package budget. What color should I paint the walls to go with putty gray tan? There's not a single color in my benjamin Moore fan deck that looks flattering. Maddening. Once the color is worked out, everything else should fall into place.

I don't have a single outlet in my bathroom. It's got a lot of problems but that's my #1

My one bedroom apartment is in an 1875 Victorian. The bathroom is off the main living area. It's really awkward when visitors have to use it. There is only an overhead light and no outlet for a hair dryer or my rechargeable toothbrush. The clawfoot tub is wonderful, but I would dearly love a shower option. The bathroom is too small for both.

My bathroom is fine now but once I lived in an apartment where the upstairs bathroom flooded and my ceiling collapsed. The landlord was very slow on any repairs and refused to fix it. one morning while I was brushing my teeth I noticed a slight movement from the exposed floor joists. There was a rat above me watching my morning routine! I moved out pretty fast!

Hm... the fact that our giant bathroom mirror crashed to the floor and shattered a few weeks ago... the one light fixture above the sink which means the shower stall is quite dark... the fact that I cannot get the grout on the shower tiles really clean... the tub drain that moves between "just a little clogged" and "zero drainage"... the 35-year-old brown particleboard vanity held together with brown duct tape... the overmount sink that attracts pools of water... the tiny sink faucet that gives you barely enough room to wash your hands... the rusted outside of the bathtub... the shiny white paint on the cinderblock walls... the noisy, rattling bathroom fan... the vanity light which is exactly like the one in this post's photo... the blue vinyl institutional floor tiles... the bathtub that is too small to relax in... no natural light.

I think that covers it.

On the plus side, once we completely gut the bathroom, there may actually be enough space to do something nice.

The cheap shower we installed years ago. And it was the worst installation ever. Can't clean it properly, can't properly insulate it no matter how much silicone I put, I could do go on for years. The only advice I have is, avoid cheap if it is going to be in your bathroom for years.

My ex changed the door so that it opens from the right into the bathroom, instead of opening from the left out into the hall.

It seems logical but now I can see the toilet while lying in bed if I leave the bathroom door open.

I want to change it back.

I had a light fixture in the bathroom just like the one in the picture. I hated it. I've just replaced it and savored the moment that I dropped the old on in the trash.

Two-tone shiny brass and chrome fixtures. Tiny shower and huge, never-used, jetted tub. Jetted tub surrounded by bad DIY tile with faux rope from previous owner.

Ugh. Pink and blue tile EVERYWHERE. A really cute vanity that makes no sense in there. A dark closet shower that sort of creeps us all out. But, we have other priorities first since a bathroom remodel is so expensive. Before we even moved in I had the re-enameling peeps out to see how much it would cost - and 2500 bucks was out of our price range for a temporary solution to a horrible problem.

The pink trifecta: toilet, tub & tile. Vintage 1965. Blech.

My house was a cheap flip and the bathroom has a one-piece fiberglass tub and surround. It's easy to clean but it feels like a cheap motel room fixture. And the floor is a cheap wood laminate (same as the rest of the house) that's slightly warped (overflowing sink). I'm planning to rip it all out and replace with a real tub, real tile surround, and tile floor. One day. Maybe next year.

Well, the pink and blue vintage tiles are the best thing about my bathrooms, and I wouldn't change them for anything! Other than that - I really truly hate our guest bathroom layout. It has this long narrow layout where the toilet is closest to the door, the sink in the middle and the tub/shower at the end. I really wish the toilet and sink were swapped so that the door didn't open into the toilet. Stupidest setup I have ever seen! Although I am unwilling at this point to spend $$$$ to change the plumbing. Aghhhh!

I hate everything about my bathroom, but especially the amateur tile job, the track lighting and the brown bathtub.

The bathtub! Urgh--the thing is disgusting! The finish (which I have a sneaking suspicion is *paint*) is peeling in the bottom, revealing all sorts of nastiness! For now, I have it covered with a plastic mat, but i may eventually spring for a professional tub refinishing myself, even though I'm in a rental!

My old boss got me some wonderful bubble-bath as part of my going-away gift, but I can never use it, because there's no way I'm ever going to take a bath in that tub! Eeeew!

iam_kayak, we once lived in a rental with no outlet in the bathroom, which was really inconvenient (I need a hairdryer in my climate). We were told by the guy at the hardware store we could replace the light switch with a combo light switch and socket box. It didn't require any fancy new wiring, just connecting the existing wiring to the new outlet/switch box, so my husband was able to install it, but I think it would be relatively inexpensive to hire an electrician or handyman with electrical knowledge to wire it. Though the location of the outlet at the doorway was a little inconvenient, it was totally worthwhile since it added so much functionality.

I've always kind of hated the 50's tile in my bathroom, but after reading all of the posted horror stories above, i've just fallen head over heels in love with my bathroom.

MalloryAnn -- I just checked out your light fixture redo, and I LOVE it. Actually, I may be the one woman on earth who doesn't mind that original light fixture (have one in my dressing area in my condo), but if and when I ever change it out, I will be seriously tempted to borrow your technique for restyling that fixture! Am bookmarking that now:

http://mallicious.blogspot.com/2011/04/leftover-light-turned-votive-holder.html

T_Violet -- I share your pain when you say this: My house was a cheap flip and the bathroom has a one-piece fiberglass tub and surround. ...

Exactly my situation, though my place is a condo. When I bought it, I saw the flaws like that but figured I was paying about 25K less than the comps, so that'd cover upgrades. Well, that was the end of 2006, so of course, my place is now worth tens of thousands less than when I bought it. (Yikes!) I've thought of BathFitter and other such businesses, but read too many scare stories about their quality and need for re-do's, so now I'm starting to get bids about a remodel that includes tiling the entire bath/tub surround. I had newbie dreams of the work costing around $10K. Instead, I just got a bid for almost twice that (gulp). (SF Bay Area rates) ...so, now I'm looking for areas to cut back. (Canned lights? No. Do a W/D hookup in the closet that's on the other side of the bathroom wall? Probably not. Etc.)

It's ugly.

EC, you and I have the same bathroom! I've been making many small changes: 1. polished the water-aged marble tile; 2. swapped out the "marquee" light fixture; 3. replaced the slab of mirror and side medicine cabinet with one large cabinet (for 50% less mirror and twice the storage space); and 4. swapped out the dated brass fixtures for brushed nickel. EC, what I hadn't noticed until I read your comment, was that the shower curtain looks infinitely better when extra-long. Thankfully, the curtain rod is a tension variety so that was an easy fix. The net result is that the bathroom is more functional and looks more classic and less 1980s.

Heh, I didn't mean for my first-ever comment on AT to be a complaint about something but this post caught my eye. I love my house, but the bathroom bugs the !@#* out of me. It's functional in the sense that everything drains and flushes, and I kind of like that it's tiny (seriously tiny...floor space is about 4' x 6') because that means less to clean.

BUT...the floor is completely blah early-90s(?) sheet vinyl patterned with pale old-lady-looking flower motifs, and not in a good way. The vanity is this hulking pinkwashed (like whitewashed, only pinkish) veneered thing that is way too large for the space. And the sink is a pale peached seashell-shaped monstrosity. With a boring faucet. I can't afford a total bathroom re-do right now and thus I don't lose a lot of sleep over this, but that doesn't stop me from daydreaming about someday having a tiled floor and a cool sink (the chrome-legged kind like my great grandmother had). Someday!