Vintage Pink and Black Powder Room

There's a saying I read recently that fits our vintage (antique??) pink and black tiled bathroom perfectly: "love the house you're in." In my understanding, the idea is to make the best of what you have, without always needing to change or update things to fit with the latest trend.

I happen to like a lot of vintage or antique styles, so it wasn't too much of a stretch to apply this philosophy to our powder room. I can honestly say that I wouldn't have chosen pink and black tiles for the powder room if we were renovating it. But since the tiles are in really good shape, and I am pretty sure it would take a lot of sweat, dirt and time (or money) to remove them, we had no interest in changing things around drastically. We just made a few improvements and decided to embrace the retro look.

Powder Room Before:

                                         

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the old floor, but if you imagine old vinyl-like square tiles that are grimy and off-white/dirty white, then you'll be pretty close.

We had the wall regrouted and new floor tile installed. I scrubbed rust off the light fixtures with steel wool and took the mirror down and scraped paint off the sides of it. I originally thought we'd want to replace the black toilet and sink and put in white ones, but once we replaced the flooring, I didn't despise the black as much. I still don't like a black toilet because I can't really see when it gets dirty. And if I don't see dirt, I am much less likely to clean. Until I smell it. And at that point, I just get annoyed that I waited to so long to clean it. 

We replaced the faucet and handles as well as the towel rack with vintage looking ones. The ceiling, walls, trim and baseboard radiators all got fresh coats of paint. The walls are a light gray. I was unsure what to paint them initially, so I took my time deciding. The floor grout is gray, so I figured we'd tie that in with gray walls as well. And then it just so happened that I had a flower painting in similar colors. I love coincidences like that. So here it is now.

After:

It's not flashy and new, but it's freshened up, clean(ish) and fits with the 

age and character of the house.