The Blue Bathroom!!

When we moved to this house in 1982 to start the retreat house, my sister, parents, and I shared the corner of the house with the blue fixtures – “The Blue Bathroom.”  We did despise those blue fixtures.  My mom tried to minimize their impact by picking up on the brown in the linoleum floor and papering the walls with a brown and blue wall paper. I asked her recently what she thought of those blue fixtures when they first bought the place.  She said “ugh!” in a very emotive fashion. 

She would have gotten rid of them long ago had they the money to do so. Even when we decided to move up here again in 2004, I immediately thought “now I can get rid of the blue bathroom.”  I had an extensive plan for their removal last year.  Here’s the current plan:  keep all fixtures in their current location and select some one-inch square tiles in blue and complementary colors to play up the blue in the fixtures.  And so follows our basic guidelines for the rest of the bathrooms – work with the layout and play up any unusual fixtures.  Of course, this helps the budget a great deal since a lot of the work would be do-it-yourself.  With six bathrooms on the property, budget is key.

When we received the architectural plans almost two weeks ago now, one of the biggest surprises to us was that the blue bathroom is not original to the house.  The blue bathroom and a bathroom directly above it that was installed in a second floor attic space were both added, sometime-or-other.  We had always wondered why the beams in the blue bathroom ceiling were covered with dry wall:  they may be hiding plumbing for the upstairs bathroom.  We also wondered why the other bathrooms had cement floors when these did not.  The cement was original.  The blue bathroom floor is linoleum over yellow pine.  I had dreamed of restoring the pine floor in this bathroom until I realized that it probably has a major seam down the middle – the footprint of this bathroom took space from two original bedrooms.

This house was remodeled in the 1950s by home owner Harry Binns who we hear was a plumber by trade.  More than likely, he added the two bathrooms at that time.  We guess that he had access to old fixtures through clients’ remodels he was working on at the time, because this house has some real gems.  We have a great basis for working on these bathrooms.  Besides the old sinks, most of the fixtures are not period, but they are old, in good condition, and already installed.

Old Blue:

Old Sinks:

Comments

[Derek]

Hey, it's better than the pink fixtures. I've heard that the old coloured ones are starting to be collectable, I guess some of them are rare. I can picture it looking good, with right tile.

[Amanda Rose]

Yep, the devil's in the details. It's all about the tile. I saw a picture in one of the Bungalow books -- maybe Bungalow interiors -- with green (turquoise) fixtures. It worked. It was awfully green but worked in a funky way.

[Patricia W.]

I'm a big fan of the old colored porcelain bathroom fixtures. Especially pink, blue and jadeite green. I'm not partial to the golds and avocados of the 70's though. I think the blue has a great look and would really be one of a kind.

[Amanda Rose]

Patricia -- I think it is jadeite green I saw in that Bungalow book. That is a very nice color. I think my preference ordering would be jadeite green, blue, and then pink. So I did OK after all. I need to direct my sister here to see what she thinks about keeping these fixtures. We all felt the same way about them way-back-when. :)

[Dawn]

I love the blue fixtures and think the tile idea is perfect. I actually have the exact tub (pink) in my upstairs bath.

[Veronica]

Okay, Amanda. I will try and not shudder when I think of the blue fixtures. I've never forgotton that shade... Oh well, I thought your mom was nuts when she showed me the carpet, paper and paint for the great room and that turned out great. I look forward to being amazed.

[Amanda Rose]

Hey Veronica! I think my biggest problem with the blue fixtures is the association of FREEZING at 5 am getting ready for school back in my high school days.

But now it will be a guest bathroom. (listen closely for a sinister chuckle)