Honestly, I think the bathroom looks "old lady" and is not up to date. So, don't match your rooms to it. It isn't the look you want! I think you are ok with non-matching rooms.... it's better than matching to something you don't sound too in love with.

Is there tile behind the shower door? I wonder if you could cover the tile with beadboard or beadboard wallpaper with trim on top, but that wouldn't work in the shower area. :)

I would not match the rooms to this bathroom.

Conversely I would not do anything that clashed with it too much either, so you may want to keep your bedroom schemes pretty simple and acknowledge the bathroom a little bit in each room with an accent or something.

If you do a more masculine room on one side, you could work in some grays or like you said, a taupe shade that works with it, and the more feminine of the two rooms could have something with a little bit of pink accent.

Still take a look at retrorenovation.com or savethepinkbathrooms.com. There are several men on these sites that have used their pink bathrooms in a "not feminine" way. It's worth a look. Some of them are really nice and could work. I'm having problems with the lavender (mainly because I don't like purple). There are stick on tile stencils that might mask the lavender leaving you with pink. Pink with gray, brown, taupe. Again, worth a look.

Oh my, pink AND lavender. It's the lavender that pushes it away from retro into granny. You could still have fun with this though. I'd paint the walls a nice clean white. It will brighten up the space a lot. Second, I'd change out the medicine cabinet. It's dated and in bad shape. This doesn't have to be expensive. If it's just a guess bath, you could get by with a mirror even. Experiment with finishes on the mirror: white, black, dark brown, even a color. Black and pink is very 'save the pink bath' but brown and pink is a popular combo too. You need to see what works with the lavender. You could even bring in another shade of purple for towels, maybe a deep purple that also goes with the pink, like a dark lilac or plum. Or a dark cranberry. Kind of like what's in the pic below. Work with your colors, don't try to hide them, because it's impossible in this space!

Start with white walls and bring in different colors. See what works. Once you have the bathroom done, you can work on the guest room. Although the two rooms don't have to match, it is nice if there is some cohesion.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pink Bath

You can have the tile painted. I don't know what it costs, but it can be done. Your tile looks to be in good shape....but I also don't think it is all that bad. Have you lived in the house long, and are you going to stay there?

I'm going to give you a warning about kids who are off at school: they come home again! Repeatedly! And sometimes they stay for a couple years. Just sayin'.

Shermann, I hear you. I am going to forge ahead and of course they are welcome to "stay here", just not so much "live here".

We won't be moving for at least 25 years, but won't redo the bathrooms until something breaks. Given their age, that seems a certainty some time in the next 10 years or so.

Geokid. I had not considered changing out the med cabinet. I will see what comes up. That might be enough to re-focus it a bit.

I guess its a good thing that I had 2 daughters sharing this bathroom the last 15 years. It of course was darling when it actually WAS connected to an 11 year old girls' room!

If you plan on keeping it for now, I suggest playing it up and embracing it rather than trying to disguise it...possibly with an exciting framed piece of artwork in the same colors, etc., making it look deliberate. Towels in one color with trim added in the other....and pulling an accent color into each room, as previously stated

I might be out in left field but, why do you have to match this bathroom? Keep the doors closed on either side and just let it be....the bathroom! Decorate the bedrooms anyway that you like. If your guest feels they are stepping back in the past when they enter the bathroom, so be it. At least they will have a lovely room to sleep in.
I would also look into painting it. Ten years is a long time to hope something breaks. I love the wainscotting idea too. One of my bathrooms has it. Even if you still have tiles in the shower area, it will still cut down on the pink and purple. The shower door is looks frosted so that cuts down the pink and purple too. Some people put a shower curtain over the glass shower door for a decorative feature.
Looking forward to seeing what you decide.

I would not buy a single thing to coordinate with that tile. Use white towels and everything else in the bath, decorate the bedrooms as though the bathroom doesn't exist (someday it won't, right?) and keep the doors closed. You can put a thingie on your door hinges to automatically close the door......voila, no sight lines to worry about.

I agree with the others that say paint it white and use fresh fluffy white towels. I would not try to coordinate anything with the pink/lavendar.. not sure how ambitious you are, but painting the tiles might be worth looking into. I have seen this done on HGTV shows; not sure how involved it is, but it is possible. I also would not try to decorate the rooms to flow with this bathroom. I say do the rooms the way you really want to and close the bathroom doors!

I completely agree that you don't have to match the bathroom and just keep the doors closed. If it's a Jack and Jill bathroom for guests, they probably will be anyway. But I honestly think the bathroom can be made to look decent, good even (maybe its the retro lover in me!), and then there COULD be cohesion. For example, you mentioned painting the bed black or white. If you had black or white as an accent in the bathroom, you could choose that color for the bed.

Lots of opinions. This is very helpful.

I won't be doing anything now to the bath except maybe wall paint.

I don't know how many of you are familiar with 1930's construction, but the tile is thicker than tile used today. Plus it's set into concrete and chicken wire mesh in the walls. Since its all so old, not really worth doing cosmetic updates. There are no functional problems with it. I don't think painting it would update it enough to be worth the $. Walls are all plaster. Oh, and the floor is small pink and ivory yellow tile too!

Really my dilemma is not wat to do about the bathroom, it's about what to do with the 2 bedrooms.

Does anyone know of any bedding that would not clash visually with the bathroom,, is preppy instead of old lady, and not too child like? I think that's what it needs.

How about just a plain white or cream colored bedspread, and then add pillows to add more color.

I know I am the odd one, but I love the vintage uniqueness of your bathroom. The only thing I would think of changing is adding some plain white towels and possibly removing the shower doors for a plain white curtain. Removing the doors might leave holes in the tile however???

For the attached bedrooms, I would keep the walls a neutral cream and use some fun, colorful, bedding with a slight vintage feel.

I have used several rugs from Dash and Albert and love their color pallet. While I haven't ordered anything from them yet, their sister business, Pine Cone Hill, has some lovely bedding in fun colors, but still a traditional look. Attached is a link to their website.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pine Cone Hill

Westie, thanks.

I am fortunate enough to have a retailer of Dash and Albert in my neighborhood, and kind of had that in the back of my mind.