I think the paper works with the tile combination. If you are doing a lot of other projects, I'd leave the bath well enough alone. Cheap fixes tend to make these bathrooms look worse, not better.

If it really needs a full remodel I would save the money for that at some future date.

I could have been worse, the bathroom walls could have been covered in the brown tile! I see this more as white bathroom. If you want to make it really white, just remove the wallpaper and paint it a white that matches the tile. But if everything is clean and usable, then I wouldn't do anything else until you live with it for a while.

That is perfect as is, I wouldn't change a thing! How awesome is that wallpaper???

I'm with the others. Leave the wallpaper because it totally adds to the charm of the place. It's impossible to tell what the flooring is.

I would play it up by using accessories that play off the whimsy and charm rather than fighting it.

Save the money for the inevitable other expenses that are going to come up and prioritize in terms of changing those items that are dilapidated or non-functional - this bathroom is neither.

Buy some good white towels and a sage green bath rug. I wouldn't change a thing, including the wall paper.

Lots of potential, wallpaper looks like its in solid shape and the design is solid. Changing out the small 4 x 4 tile with subway on the walls and large format 12 x 12's on the floor, painting the brown soap holder and trim to a turquoise would look fantastic.

That wallpaper is totally on trend right now. People pay lots of money for that look. If you remove the paper you will have a white space with bright brown highlights. I would keep the paper in order to minimize the brown bits. Really, this bathroom is great. It just looks different from your expectations. I would not choose it myself, but since it's there make the most of it- messing about the edges will give you a bigger headache in the end. If you decide to gut it, fine- that's a whole other kettle of fish.

PS If it were my bathroom, I would remove the glass shower thingy and see if I could find the brand of wallpaper to get a matching piece of cloth for a shower curtain. Otherwise just use a white shower curtain. Those glass doors are easy to get rid of.

Keep it (except for the wallpaper) - otherwise: tear it all out.

Definitely remove the sliding shower door (It's super easy. We removed two right away when we purchased our home.) and then see if the charm of the wallpaper and original tile is any more appealing to you. It seems to be in wonderful condition.

Gosh that wallpaper is... awesomely terrible. I agree with you on it's removal. And I agree with your mom about remove it and then wait a bit. I would suggest just flat white walls after removing the wallpaper to
give you a chance to sort of refresh your palette and think twice before
messing around with the rest. I'm not terribly fond of the brown tile either, but I love the white tile and the current sink/toilet/shower setup.

So far you have 8 votes for the wallpaper and 4 against (not including yours)!

Thank you for all the input. I cannot live with the wallpaper. It is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen. It’s coming down. I’ll paint the wall a flat white. I’m going to take the sliding glass door off too and live with it a while. The floor is 2x4 inch brown tiles. This bathroom will be at the bottom of our list of things to do.

I'm afraid you'll like the bathroom even less without it. The brown will jump out way more with plain white walls. I'd leave it for a month or two, then decide.

While I kind of like the wallpaper and I sort of think it's on trend / cool right now, I would probably want to take it down too. Would you consider putting up another wallpaper or do you hate wallpaper? One of the things I think is working well in the bathroom is that the bold wallpaper makes the eye focus there instead of on the brown.

Everything else in the bathroom (at least from the picture) looks like it is in great shape. Nice white sink, tub and toilet? Do consider taking off the shower doors. I think you'll like that change.

Maybe the brown will be worse without the wallpaper, but I can’t live with it.

Here's a quick photoshop to get rid of the wallpaper.

Wallpaper is usually what sort of ties bathrooms with these old tile combinations together. Not that wallpaper necessarily. But in general it tends to complement the sometimes odd combinations.

Here is the room with a "white" pulled from the tile. I dunno, I think you might have to pick an actual pastel color. This looks kinda dull, it's okay.

Actually one thing that I would change is the tile in the kitchen. I know that's a popular sort of tile because it's "neutral". To me that sort of tile looks like a dirty diaper that hasn't been bleached enough. I'd rather have the monkey wallpaper if I had to pick on or the other.

I'd try a pastel pink or blue.

It looks institutional without something above the tile.

You could ask a tiler if they can change only the brown tile with black (or pink, green or blue) tile of the same size and shape. I don't like the wallpaper either, nor do I like browns or beiges in decor (except for wood). Be careful not to chip the bathtub when you remove the glass.

I love bathroom as OP showed. Would redo tub door with a frameless or a plain white shower curtain, and would remove the doodad shelving by tp holder. This bathroom rocks, esp. wallpaper, and this from a usually anti wall paper person. Brown tile is unique.

I agree with taking down the wallpaper, it's awful.

if you get a dremel with a grout bit, you can remove just the brown tile and replace it. or, you can try to carefully paint the tile -- but that's an almost equal pain in the butt if you do it correctly.

I'm kind of a weirdo, but I Iove those glass shower doors. they're vintage funky in a good way (IMO). note that you might run into issues when you remove the frame. it might damage the tile, or there may be holes and stuff to deal with. I would tackle that project last. after you deal with the walls and brown tile, you may not hate the door as much as you think.

I feel like some color is needed, really. I still think some sort of pattern is better than a plain color but a color would work better than just white I think

I think you are right about closing the door and waiting until I can do it right. The sliding doors have to come off. I have grandbabies that will need to bath there and it’s almost impossible to do that with those doors.

In my real estate searches I came across this bathroom in a $1.5M house

What about taking down the shower doors and trading out the wallpaper for one you DO like? That way, you can update for a reasonable amount of money until you are ready to tackle the whole thing. It might cost you a few hundred to buy the paper and have someone hang it (even better if you can do it yourself), but would buy you satisfaction that should last a few years.

palimpsest: oh, I love that. I hated the brown trim in the monkey/palm tree photo, but could totally live with it here. what a difference wallpaper can make! if I had that as my guest bath, I probably wouldn't change a thing!

Listen to your mother.

I have to agree about the wallpaper, although I could live with it awhile. I would try to work with the brown tile. If you like wallpaper and want to keep a midcentury vibe, you could do something like this if it isn't too busy.

OR..... go crazy and tile the upper walls like this:

My first reaction was to take out the wallpaper, but then I saw the photoshopped photos and changed my mind. Maybe use another pattern for wallpaper rather than a solid colour paint.

While I appreciate that many of you love monkeys and palm trees, I can't walk by and see them everyday. I started taking it down yesterday. Turned out there was another equally lovely pattern underneath it. Thankfully the walls were prepped before any was put up, and it's coming off pretty easily. We are taking down the tub door in the next day or so. I'm going to paint the walls (not sure what color yet), get better blinds, and add a recessed light above the tub. Maybe someday I'll do a complete over haul, but there are other projects where I would rather spend my $ right now.

I liked the monkeys better than the underlying paper!

Whatever you paint it, I think white will just highlight the brown.

Agree, get rid of the sliding glass door!

*shudder* Wallpaper can really date a room, can't it? Glad you are following your gut. Here's another idea for a cheap fix: After you paint the wall a solid color, could you freehand or stencil on a pattern you like? Still don't know if you want to keep the midcentury vibe. Do you? What's your taste in art?

Stencils:

I don't know if anyone's mentioned it, but if you take down the wallpaper (that's GOD, YES vote for taking it down), there's little enough of the brown tiles that you can paint them white. You can get epoxy paint made especially for painting bath/kitchen tiles at Sherwin-Williams - it was about $15/a can when I did it 3 years ago. NOTE that you'll need a serious face mask and LOTS of ventilation (fans, open windows, etc.), but it's an economical way to "get rid of the ugly" until you can completely remodel. I did it for a yellow-tiled bathroom (with wood accessories, including toilet seat: ew). Getting that stuff painted was the best $15 I ever spent.

Oh goodness Susan.. If I had to choose between the monkey paper and that stuff that was under it... I can understand why the folks papered monkeys over the old stuff. The old paper is a bit prettier, and I could see it maybe in a different bathroom or other... . but wow that must have been rather harsh with the brown tile edging the white tiles. Even when new.

I bet once you get the glass door out and those cleaned up walls primered in white again and can breathe for a minute.. you still might think twice about those brown tiles amongst the much fresher and open palette. Have some fun for a week or few with putting up a new window treatment and shower curtain, trying out some paint samples.

And out of curiosity.. on the right side of your OP it looks like a section of mirror extends from the medicine cabinet to the corner... have you started cleaning off the walls there yet? Does the wallpaper continue on behind the mirror or not? All of the color replacements folks have so kindly provided eliminate the mirror there.

Yes there are mirrors glued to the wall on both sides and under the medicine cabinet and both layers go behind it. We haven’t tackled taking those down yet, but we are.

I would remove and paint the walls a green, similar to the green in the wallpaper.