Save My Mamie Pink Bathroom

Raise your hand if you live in a 1950s ranch. We do! The style is not for everyone. Long, low, and open, the floor plans send chills up the spines of colonial fans. And then you have the colors. My God, the colors. When we moved in we had a turquoise kitchen, a pink bathroom, and two yellow bathrooms. Some people were horrified, others loved it. We were in the love it category, although we did get rid of the turquoise kitchen. This morning I felt a pang of guilt; someone on Flickr tagged it as a favorite.

Speaking of Flickr, my pink bathroom is on there as well. Not long after I uploaded the pictures (terrible pictures, as you intend all 'before' shots to be), 50s Pam from Retro Renovation commented something along the lines of, 'Keep it or you suck.' Or, at least that's what I understood her to mean when she said, "I love it and I hope you keep it!" Then she asked me to add it to her Flickr group "Save the Pink Bathrooms!" She is also the blogger behind the popular blog of the same name, Save The Pink Bathrooms. I've been reading the archives for the last few months in search of inspiration.

The Mister and I fell in love with the bathroom the minute we saw her in all her Mamie Pink glory. Well, maybe we didn't love the floor.

Or the shower enclosure.

Or the white toilet seat festooned with hummingbirds.

Or the grandma wallpaper and lights.

But the pink tub, toilet, and sinks outweighed all that other stuff, and God knows we've tried to think of some ways to spit-shine her and make her pretty.

That was three years ago. We got rid of the wallpaper and on the advice of many, embraced the pink and painted the walls a pale, pale shade of the fixtures (Cameo by Ralph Lauren).

That's as far as we have come. Meh.

Eventually we have to remodel the bath. There are problems with the fixtures, and their time is fast approaching. But, until then, I really want to make my little pink bathroom something special. Because, let's face it, when we remodel we aren't going to buy a pink toilet. I want to have fun with it while I can.

I've done my research and found plenty of pretty pink bathrooms, most of them remodeled on the cheap. My favorite to date is this one from Real Simple.

Mabel liked it, too, and it was part of the inspiration behind her own pink bathroom redo. Here is her bathroom. I think she did a great job. Her fixtures are white, as are the fixtures in the Real Simple picture. In reality, they have more pink in their bathroom than I do, which I think if part of the allure for me.



But as pretty as these bathrooms are, I don't think they will work for me. It's not just the lack of pink tile for me. I have another major problem. My pink bathroom? It's the boys bathroom. As much as I would love to paint it yellow and go wild with the flowers, the Mister wants their bathroom to have, "at least one filament of testosterone somewhere." Fair enough.

So how do you take a pink bathroom for two little boys and dude it up? My sister-in-law shared a pink bathroom with her brother growing up and her mom had it decorated in a frog theme. Pink for her, frogs for her brother. I looked at frog stuff but didn't find anything I liked. Besides, I still have fantasies of pink and yellow. It's just so damn chipper! I like the idea of the boys starting the day surrounded by happy colors (and maybe they won't fight me every time I try to brush their teeth).

And while I was always opposed to silly, little kid themes and accessories like frogs and puppies, that all changed when I had my own silly, little kids. I believe that is rule #4582 of "Things I will NEVER do when I have my own kids," in case you were wondering. They just get so flippin' excited to pump soap out of a lion's nose that you end up getting excited, too, which is the only reason I can explain my enchantment with this set from Target.


It's the giraffe. He kills me. He absolutely kills me with his little rubber mane.

So pink and yellow? With yellow, little-boy-friendly giraffes?

That still doesn't solve the problems I have with the floors, wall color, curtains, lights, etc. Maybe I should just call in John and Sherry and let them handle this mess.

EDITED TO ADD: I forgot to mention that I am going cute kid stuff because I've tried doing everything else 3 times without success. I even went against the Mister's suggestion and tried to recreate the Real Simple room with a 2+ hour shopping excursion to Anthropologie. No dice. I returned it all because it looked like ass. Appropriate for a bathroom, yes, but not the look I was going for. Boo-hiss-cry.

If you can tell me how to make it look cool without kid stuff, go for it. I am all ears.

Design Remix

Can someone explain to me the allure of appearing on a show like Design Remix? The premise of the show is to redesign a room in your house with furniture you already have in the room “plus surprises from other parts of the house.” I don’t get it. Was Candice Olsen busy? Why would you want to use your own furniture? You picked it! And you applied for a design show! I’m going to guess that what you picked most likely sucks, or at the very least doesn’t work well in the room because, I repeat, you applied to appear on a design show. I thought the whole point of essentially admitting on national television that you have no style was the promise of a newly furnished room. You give them permission to humiliate you, and they give you free stuff. Seems like a fair trade, no?

By the way, I should talk. I shouldn’t be too rough on HGTV. The show’s concept inspired The Mister and I to remix our own living room in hopes of reclaiming some adult space from the boys and their toys. Two years ago, we moved from a newly built tract home to a mid-century ranch. We had all sorts of renovation plans that we quickly put on hold after I decided to quit my job and stay at home with Mikey.

One of those plans included a new fireplace and furniture for the living room. Our old furniture looked lovely in our previous home, but in our older, more compartmentalized ranch house the furniture is the wrong scale, color, and style. The fireplace? Well, it’s a bit imposing. We put the mantel in right after we moved in so we would have somewhere to hang stockings for Santa, thinking it would be a temporary fix. We placed the furniture in the room and left it, hoping to replace everything soon. It never happened, and before we knew it the entire living room and entry way was overrun by toys.

Who's house is this, again?

A total redesign is currently out of the question so, right before Christmas, The Mister and I set about moving some furniture. We redid this room for $0. Like an episode of Design Remix, we used everything we already owned.

We started off by repositioning our ginormous sectional. We tried every conceivable configuration and finally settled on this one. It’s still too big for the room (it’s pretty much all you see when you come in the front door) but I think it turned out ok. I don’t love the heavy piece of carved wood above the television unit, but it serves a purpose. That’s a little “surprise” from the garage I dusted off to hide a 2.5 inch hole in the wall we couldn’t avoid if we wanted to watch TV in this room. Something lighter would look better (maybe even a plant) but it didn’t fit with my $0 budget.

Before the Remix.

After the Remix. Better, no?

Of course we also moved every single toy into the den. The den is now a mess, but you can't see it when you first walk in the house, and with everything in such a small room it is fairly easy to clean everything up on a moment’s notice.

No toys!

Better. Much better.

We have children. They require toys. I prefer laughter over a clean house. Usually.

The culprit.

We moved the large mirror to the dining room. I want to redo this room, too, only with money. For starters, I would love to find a round table, replace the light fixture, and put down a rug. I’ve also thought of papering the wall behind the mirror or painting it a different color. We’ll see. For now, I’m just happy I can walk into my house without being blinded by a sea of toys.

Hello, I'm beige. How may I bore you today?

Yawn.

Have any of you remixed a room? I’d love to see before and afters, so link away in the comments if you’re up to sharing!