This “Very ’80s” Bathroom Got a Green Makeover with “Gatsby” Vibes
The inspiration for Grace Pushkin’s bathroom makeover? The 1920s and 30s. Think: The Great Gatsby, the Chrysler building, and other Art Deco designs.
Grace says she wanted to fill it “with color, nostalgia and early 20th-century glamour.” However, when she moved in, it had “very 1980s” vibes, she says.
Although her home was built in the 1930s, the bathroom was added somewhere around the ’80s. It had a singular fluorescent light with a pull chain, linoleum flooring, and toilet paper and towel holders affixed to the window frame.
The bathroom got a makeover — from floor to ceiling.
Graced used MPops peel-and-stick floor tiles to give the linoleum floors a makeover, and she also used a peel-and-stick option on the ceiling. “I knew I wanted to install a tin ceiling, but it was not in my budget,” she explains.
Instead, she used tiles from The Dollar Store that had a similar pattern, spray-painted them using seven colors including gold, black, gray, and green. She used gold Rub-n-Buff to make them look tin-like and glued them on with ultra-strength glue.
And that’s not the only standout DIY on the ceiling. Grace made her new chandelier out of a birdcage.
The vanity area got a makeover.
One of the hardest parts of this makeover was taking off the tiny brownish beige tile behind the pedestal sink. “It was installed with forever in mind and proved to be time-consuming,” Grace says.
For the “after,” she added a tropical print wallpaper, painted the base of the pedestal sink black using appliance paint, and found a glass shelf and a thrifted 1930s mirror for above the sink.
The back “wallpaper” is actually gift wrap (really!)
For the side walls, Grace picked a bright green (Behr’s Exquisite Emerald) — in part “because the name was so enchanting,” she says.
For the back wall, she added a Pottery Barn cabinet and a wallpaper treatment that’s actually made from newsprint-patterned tissue paper and decoupage.
All of Grace’s DIY savvy — plus professional electrical and plumbing help along the way — came together to create a result she’s thrilled with. “I love the transformation and the transformative feeling (for me) of stepping into it!” she says.
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