No, Dear Readers, that is not a “before” picture you see above. This IS our guest bath…
Sorry for the weird pictures, but it was difficult for me to capture all that yellow. Yellow walls, yellow trim, yellow floors, yellow sink, yellow bath and yes, a yellow toilet.
The yellow toilet and the yellow bathtub do not bother me very much, but the sink and the vanity are the first things I want to change…that weird fake marble counter top grosses me out. It never looks clean. (P.S. That stack of boxes in the mirror reflection is left over from the mail call mess that needs to be cleaned up today.)
Don’t you love the fancy tile? (The shot above was taken the day we moved in and it actually gives a more accurate depiction of the yellow walls.) I hate the tile, too, but I’m not sure if we’ll ever change it since the shower curtain covers the bath area and the only people who will see it are our occasional guests. Maybe I’ll feel differently if we have kids and the bathroom gets used more. And both of our baths have towel bars in the shower…is this a 70s thing? At first I thought it was weird, but now I think it’s quite handy!
Our apartment had (or still has, in some cases) no shortage of gaudy seventies light fixtures. This gold one with crystal accents is the most ornate of them all (thankfully).
We would like to work on painting and changing out the light fixture and vanity after we do a complete overhaul of the master bath (soon…soon…) I’m thinking we will paint the walls a shade of warm grey (there are beige tones in the flooring to consider) and paint the trim white, like the rest of the apartment. Once we paint, I will also replace that old Martha Stewart (for Kmart!) shower curtain that I’ve had since I moved into my first apartment in 2000. (I still have the matching towels, too…does anyone else hang onto things for so long? I swear I am a reincarnated Depression Era grandma!)
Is it weird that I kind of love that giant gold mirror?
The only art in the room is this screen print from Animal Sleep. I bought it in 2009 and held onto it until we hung it up last year. (I really need to be better about hanging up my art, right?) One of my favorite commercials of all-time is the Rozerem commercial “Your Dreams Miss You” (with the beaver, Abe Lincoln and the diver). This print reminded me of that commercial and of dreaming…it makes me smile every time I wash my hands.
So, that’s the yellow bathroom…and I have to admit it is mild compared to the 1970s goodness of the master bath. What do you think?
kimberly ah 
Great pictures! Usually hard to get decent pictures in a smaller place. The first thing to go for me would be the vanity & sink.
Pastel colours, like your yellow, in bathrooms are not so common over here. Bathrooms generally come in white and when people start remodelling nowadays white in combination with grey and black seems to be favourite. At least that’s what magazines are telling me 🙂
Our bathroom is plain white, bath, sink, toilet, tiles, floortiles. Colour comes from the bathmat and towels. And I have different sets which I use in rotation varying from dark brown, dark blue, black, grey and white.
Wish I had your tile! I am trying to restore a 70’s yellow bathroom and trying to get ideas. No like most people I do not want to gut it and start with something else that will likely be outdated even quicker. Styles change. What is in today, will soon look dated as well. I am into working with what I have. Unfortunately I have a yellow tub with yellow tile and everything else is white. I’m trying to figure out how to complement the yellow tub! Your tile would work fine for me.
Hi Ken, The solution to the yellow tub and tile might be as simple as calling a professional tile painting company. You are right to hold on to your original fixtures, Nothing made today, matches the quality of those older fixtures. I have a yellow 1970 bathroom with Manchu yellow tub, sink, toilet and floor tile. I have matching yellow wall tile half way up on walls except behind the tub where it is 3/4th way up to the ceiling. I love it and have no plans to change it. A few weeks ago, we discovered our 50 year old toilet bowl had a crack in it. It is very hard to find a round, yellow American Standard toilet bowl. Thinking we would have to get a white toilet, I researched a professional tile painting company to come and paint the tub and the wall and floor tile. Thankfully, we found a very nice toilet bowl on Ebay and avoided a major remodel.
I do not recommend that you try painting the tile and tub yourself. I read an article where one man tried doing that and it turned out awful. He had paint runs and drips. It took 3 or 4 coats of paints. Some things are worth the cost to pay a professional to do.
[…] nice to have someone around the apartment day and night to keep an eye on things like our 1970s light fixtures!) Our family is waiting for us in Tokyo. Our hotel bed is also waiting…and we will be longing […]
I love my yellow bathroom. I really do. The entire room has yellow tile half way up the wall, except above the tub which is 3/4 to the ceiling. The 1970 toilet, tub and sink are American Standard Manchu yellow. The floor is yellow ceramic tile similar to the wall tile. Thankfully no shower doors, just a shower curtain. I wish I had your sink though.. My round yellow sink is set in a 50 year old piece of Formica. that has seen its better days and has a stainless steel band that goes around the edge. That stainless steel band really dates the sink. I recently had to buy another yellow toilet bowl. We aren’t sure what happened to ours but it got a crack in it. The new one cost a lot of money. Check out the prices for yellow toilets on Ebay..
I love the retro bathrooms. The only thing I HATE are glass shower doors, which we have in our rental. My next home will not have those. They make it impossible to clean the tub.
Ugh! I agree they make cleaning so challenging and are hard to keep clean!
I have a similar yellow bathroom and am trying to find our what the name of the yellow is for restoration? (American Standard)
If your bathroom is from 1970, then it is probably Manchu Yellow which was later changed to Saffron Yellow .There is a yellow color from this era called Gold or harvest Gold. It is a darker yellow more of a mustard color. If you need to replace one of he fixtures be prepared. A toilet set is running $700.00 to $900.00 on Ebay. I haven’ been able to find a drop in sink just pedestal sinks.