Retro bathrooms
Coloured bathroom suites are tipped for a comeback this year. So if you are bored with your white bathroom suite, then it might be worth waiting a little while if you are thinking of updating your bathroom.
Retro style has been popular in most rooms of the house for a number of years, however, the retro bathroom has yet to appear. I have seen a few half-hearted attempts at a fifties or sixties style bathrooms, but they all lack the vital ingredient: the coloured bathroom suite.
For many the coloured suite is still an abomination. Have a look at this question on Yahoo answers Where can I get a coloured bathroom suite?. The poster is quick to state that he himself prefers white, but is posting on behalf of an elderly relative!
60s bathroom suites
In the sixties, coloured suites were all the rage. White was boring. Look at this beautiful Naiad suite from 1965. Blue was a popular colour in the 60s. Other favourite colours were pastel shades of turquoise, pink, green or yellow. Although most people think of sixties' colours as lots of psychedelic patterns, pastel shades were popular in the home for most of the decade. Understated modernity was the look.
Bathroom designers in the sixties concentrated on the shape and style of the fittings, as well as the colour. Elegant, slim pedestals for the basins were popular. In some cases the pedestals were precariously thin. Round basins were popular. The overall look was modern efficiency with a hint of style.
White bathrooms were still fitted in the sixties. It was often the cheaper option. Usually the builder would fit a white bathroom suite in a new house unless the buyer wanted to pay extra for something different.
There was a fashion to have modern style taps in sixties' bathrooms. Very few original taps have survived. If you do have a 60s bathroom, it might be worth getting the taps re-chromed and the washers replaced.
More on coloured bathroom suites
If you need to replace a cracked wash basin, then go to Bathroom Ceramics - Discontinued Colours for a full range of replacement ceramics. They re-glaze existing white suites in any of 70 different colours. They also offer some two-tone colour combinations which were popular in the 80s and 90s.