You could leave it alone but I would change out the sink, medicine cabinet (replace with mirror) and light. If you're handy you could do all those changes yourself.

Agree on wallpaper.

I'd find a way to keep the sink...maybe mount it on a cabinet? If that wouldn't look right, I could live with the sink in its current form, standing on those classic legs. I really like the looks of that sink.

I would replace the medicine chest and lights, bathroom faucet & fixtures (simply because my arthritis makes those kinds of faucets very hard to open and close), and the toilet (to conserve water). Everything else I'd keep. What a wonderful space!

I could live with that bathroom just as long as it is clean - which the way the couple sounds, they probably maintained the cleanliness.

It looks very functional. I might not could share it with DH......

Smiles:)

Yes, I could leave it alone & enjoy it! I would not remove the sink, above all. I like the sink. I like it a lot! It certainly is not dime a dozen (anymore). It's very charming. I'd think it a shame to dispose of it.

The medicine cabinet & light are in sync with it, so I wouldn't even necessarily take those away.They even have their charm, imo. Once you gave the room a good scrub down, removed the wallpaper, & painted or re-papered, you'd be good to go. (No pun intended!)

You're a man who is not afraid of pink, I take it? I think it's an attractive pink! Other baths of its vintage I've seen sported a pink that leaned toward, oh, I don't know, kind of a salmon hue? This is much nicer & softer.

Wow deja vu! I grew up in a 60s house with identical medicine cabinets and lights.
Love the sink and would leave it as is- not too fond of bathroom vanities.
Really the only thing that would have too go would be the medicine chest with that light- hate how the mirrors slide back and forth never ever liked the sound.
maybe change the sink faucet idk.
SO- I suppose the short answer to your question was no.

I think it it veering toward beige, but there is definitely pink in the room and it would seem compatible with Kohler's Innocent Blush, for a more water-efficient toilet.

I'd leave it all except the wallpaper and medicine cabinet which sticks out like a sore thumb! lol.

Other than that, great bathroom!

If what you're asking is, could I leave it as is and live with it indefinitely or until something mechanical made a reno necessary, then my answer would be yes. At the very least, I would/could live with it and determine if the space was functional for my needs. In general, I adapt to spaces pretty well - I don't get my knickers in a knot fretting over drawers vs doors, non-adjustable shelves or things like that. I tend to bend to the space rather than the other way'round. Clean is paramount and as long as a space can be cleaned to my satisfaction, I'm good to go, as stinky said!

I might want a new showerhead - that is one thing I AM picky about! Love a good firehose pressure shower!

I love that sink!

OH Pretty. Love the sink. Not so much the wallpaper. The cabinet I would work my crazy glass magic on but that look is really not for the faint hearted. LOL

The faucet does not look true to the era and would not be a big deal to change it. But then maybe it would what do I know??? Hubby does the faucets.

Chris

I would be yanking out the mirror/light combo within a week of moving in. So I guess the answer is no, I couldn't leave it alone. With that said it would a fun challenge to find a mirror and light that I liked and is period to the house.

I may post the kitchen at some point. It does not meet current standards in any way shape or form. That said, it *looks* really pleasant.

I am surprised that people are embracing the blush colored tiles and fixtures. I love it, myself, and its in good condition.---but not so long ago a lot of people would have freaked at the color...is the tide turning?

Keep sink. Replace faucet with silver/nickle period style one. Consider adding tailored skirt in black/white classic fabric.

Replace bath/linen closet with walk-in shower (steam shower?) in classic white tile with line of black glass/silver glass tile accents about half-way up the back wall.

Add period white hexagonal tiles for floor.

Add long sconces on each side of new "old" mirror.

Jan at rosemary Cottage

Here is a link that might be useful: Possible sconces -- mounted horizontally on each side of the mirror.

I take that as a "no".:)

In a strictly historic sense there is no such thing as a "period" bathroom for an early mid-nineteenth century house. There is a toilet in a closet like area in the stairwell and one in the basement either of which could be original toilet locations. But there is NO evidence of a bathroom in the front part of the house. How unlikely is it that the house made it to the 1960s with no bathroom? According to 1960 Census data--pretty likely in the location. So, the most "period" bathroom for this house is this one, and doing something in some style prior to this would be revisionist--if you redo it, it might as well be 2010 modern.

There IS a house with a very early bathroom right around my block probably sometime after the Civil War. What does it look like? It is covered with dark stained bead board. The tub is in a wooden "case" and is zinc. It looks like a weathered trash can. The sink top is marble with an undermount china bowl. The toilet is a high tank with a china undermount bowl in a square wooden bench. The supplies and drains are all surface mounted and the taps are brass and look like the spigot you connect your garden hose to. The white "sanitary" bath did not appear until decades later.

Tally--a couple of unequivocal yes's

One complete gut.

The rest in between focused mostly on that medicine cabinet.

Hmmmmm. I guess I forgot that an older home wouldn't have a bathroom. I assume a chamber pot or outhouse is out. I still would want to have a bathroom that doesn't look out of place in an old home. I think rooms in an old home should be a bit charming and seem to have a history. That room doesn't have much charm to me and the history just says that someone had bad taste in medicine cabinets.

No offense.

No offense heh heh at least you didn't say gut it kelly (I did lol).

In another house that was closer to the period I would tweak it, but given the period of the house I'd go a bit older in style. It's too much of a shock where as an 1890s bath would be more complimentary to e earlier period.

But I do have a lovely collection of chamber pots so if you go that direction let me share pics to help you along pal heh heh

I would take out sink, mirror and light fixture....

It looks to me if you redo those two or three things that you may land up having to redo the whole wall since it looks to be ceramic tile. The medicine cab., I have two of them and that was 1976 and I don't mind them at all. Everyone has diff. tastes so just do what you feel you need to do to make it appeal to your taste.

***That room doesn't have much charm to me and the history just says that someone had bad taste in medicine cabinets.***

Funny how we all have are own personal filters when we look at things - that medicine cabinet might not be the most convenient thing (because you can only see 1/2 the contents at a time) but the look of it doesn't bother me at all. Now..... cleaning the tracks that the mirrors slide in if something should spill in there - OY!

No offense taken, its not even my house (yet). I was born, but not old enough to have taste in medicine cabinets when this was installed.

That said, if the number of these I have seen and/or taken out (my two places had the cheap knockoff of this combo)--this was the ne plus ultra in medicine cabinets during the period.

My parents indulged in the next phase: wall to wall and counter to ceiling mirror.

Hey, Palimpsest...

I'd change the faucet, and I'd replace the medicine chest with a large flat mirror starting right above the soap dishes and framed in with ceramic trim tiles, and a pair of vertical florescent fixtures on either side - mainly because the way the medicine chest invades the air space above the sink bothers me, and I can imagine myself whanging my forehead on it regularly, and having to stand on tip-toe to see myself properly. And at my age, lighting above the face which creates the greatest possible number of shadows under anything that is trying to wrinkle or sag is not a condition to be wished!

I like the little closet, myself. I can see wallpaper in a slender French stripe or crazy floral in charcoal or black and white with the face-powder tiles, a white shower curtain with grosgrain trim in gray or black. And I'd paint the closet door the same gray or black.

I could most definitely leave it alone. The only things I don't like are the wallpaper and the harsh lighting (maybe that's just the photo - I don't like bright lights). I wouldn't have the heart to tear out something that has looked so good for so long. The design of this room IS part of the house's history.

I remember having that kind of medicine cabinet in apartments back in my rental days. I hated them because the mirrors were always falling off the tracks. Plus since they were so old, the mirrors were always scratched and getting funny on the edges.

So who knows, maybe if I saw a really cool retro one in pristine condition in person I would change my mind. But it would have to be bigger. That one looks way too high to me.

Possibly. Considering the people who did it lived in the house for so long, I would feel compelled to leave it. I have no problem with the aesthetics, but the head-spin that I would feel walking out of that room into an 1840s hall might be too much.

This is one reason I like early 20th century houses: kitchens and baths were modern enough to still be functional today and period (or period-inspired) at the same time. Less dilemma!

if your question is just about the wallpaper, I would take off the wallpaper and paint.

I could definitely leave it alone...though I, too, would probably take off the paper and paint. Of course...I regularly go to "Save the Pink Bathrooms" just to look at the cool "time capsule" bathrooms...

I'll link it below.

And I'm also the woman who is living with the original baths in my home...all I did was swap out the "updated" door hardware for something I thought was more sympathetic.Oh...and I painted.
Original:

Redone (It's amazing what a little paint and wood-filler will do!):

I swear--same lighting conditions. It's all about that salmon pink paint that I replaced with a blue-based gray.

Here is a link that might be useful: Save the Pink Bathrooms!

Everything in this house appears to have been once and done--and then very well maintained. There is a 1960s console television in the living room.

When this house was rescued from its probable slum-like, unplumbed conditions, there was no real resource to do any kind of a bath except whatever was current at the time--people were still removing 1910s "sanitary" bathrooms in 1960. Remember that to them, it would have been analogous to us embracing this very bathroom or a 1970 bathroom--we aren't quite ready to do it yet.

That is the cleanest old grout I've ever seen. Wonder what they used to keep it looking like that all of these years? Except for the wallpaper (which looks pretty benign from here) I'd leave it. I think it looks great, and there's lots of color options for towels, accessories, etc., without it looking too girly. LOVE the sink! Does the tub and toilet match? I'd love to see the kitchen...

Mjsee, GREAT save on that bathroom! WOW!

I just remembered my Mom and Dad had a house with the same sink only it was in a blue green. Tub blue green too and salmon with green tile on the walls. They bought the house in 65. Was an older house at the time I do not remember when it was built. Had blue glass in the old crank out windows in the front room and dinning room. Other bedrooms had double hung windows. Wondering if they had already been replaced.

I would just do this whole bathroom over. It's just so "old".

franksmom---the scary thing is that the vanity is white in that original picture. That salmon was...overpowering. We lived with it for SIX YEARS because I knew how much work it was going to be to paint it. PO's had used high gloss oil enamel...I had to sand every inch of the walls and ceiling...then prime...and even then it took THREE COATS of Aura eggshell to cover. Took me a solid week to paint that little bitty bathroom.

Previous Owners. Whatchagonnado?

Unless something leaks, it's an adequate bathroom.

I do not have the compulsion to mark every room like my mutt marks trees. :)

There are probably many things that are a better use of your money than ripping out a functional bathroom.

Lazygardens - I completely agree. I find it very easy to leave things as they are. It may have something to do with being cheap, lazy, AND picky.

Amen to that, Lazygardens and maureeninmd!! I actually like the whole vintage/retro vibe of the room, and would totally embrace it, rather than ripping it all out.

Mjsee, wow again! What kind of crack were they smoking that they used high gloss oil...on the walls?! Good grief! And that salmon-on-steroids color just hurts my eyes. I wonder what that made your skin look like in the mirror? The tile and the vanity has sort of an orange/pink glow in the "before" pic. Yikes! The tile, the sink, and the vanity are just amazing!

franksmom...actually...that bathroom was very flattering to skin tones. Go figure. I'm happier with my soothing gray.

The sink would be a hotly contested item at a ReStore, I can tell you. I wouldn't get rid of that thing. The faucet? Perhaps. I personally hated those big-one-handle faucets (have had them before). But not the sink, if it's still clean. It's gorgeous, and would sell today as a contemporary design, IMO.