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.

Where the Magic Happens

Or rather, where we scramble around at the last minute hoping to come up with something adequate.

We moved into this house three years ago this month. Since then, the Mister and I, two confirmed work-a-holics, have been without an office. Correction: we have a studio in the backyard with a floor and four walls. Here is what it looked like when we first moved in. As you can see from the above picture, I have had a torrid love affair with books my whole life. All those white boxes? Books. Some of them.

About 6 months ago, the Mister put down laminate floor. We had someone else paint the room and do the electrical. We bought the desks right after the floor, paint and electrical thinking we would have the office by the following month. Not so much. We still haven't bought the bookshelves, and you already know I need the shelves.

It's a pile of receipts, supplies, and two empty desks. We have been so busy the last few years that we haven't been able to devote a large chuck of time or money in order to finish the project. The good thing about dealing with the various succubuses I met on Craigslist is that we now have the money to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Who am I kidding? We don't even have lights. Now we can afford to buy them. The time issue we're just going to have to force, because the Mister and I can't stand to walk through this mess one more day on our way to the office.

Now, don't judge us. It was, at one point, neatly organized. Unfortunately, two things happened during the last six months. We had bizarre wind storms during the month of January. Not much rain, but enough wind to make you search the sky for a witch and flying monkeys. The second thing to happen was, oh, I don't know, the BEAGLE SIZED HAWK that flew into the patio. Anyone remember my brush with the wild animal kingdom? Yeah. Well, Tweety bird decided to crash into every other box while he was visiting. After he left I just kind of pushed everything back up so it was barely falling and instead of almost falling.

So now we are off to IKEA to buy some long needed shelving. Wish us luck and please do share you any great organization tips. In the spirit of spring cleaning, I'm going to get rid of over half my books. Maybe. Just not on Craigslist. God, not on Craigslist.