When Hunter and I moved into our 1960’s ranch, many aspects of the home had been updated throughout the years. The one exception was our retro guest and master bathrooms, fitted with original tile and bath accessories. Our master bathroom features off white wall and floor tiles accented by light dusty blue tiles. The more neutral color palette in the master makes the vintage vibe a little less in-your-face. The guest bathroom, on the other hand, screams retro! Our retro pink bathroom features tile in a pink color reminiscent of Pepto-Bismol. The guest bath is full pink-on-pink: pink floors, pink walls, pink accents!

Hunter and I first painted the bathroom walls a warm white color to match the white tiles. Honestly, we had no clue what to do with these retro bathrooms. We considered adding complete bathroom renovations to our list of home projects to modernize them. The longer we lived with them though, the bathrooms started to grow on us. The previous owners had already replaced the countertops and faucets, so the bathrooms had good bones. The tiles were in great shape. Why spend the money on a renovation when we could play up the retro vibes instead?

Before

After: Our Retro Pink Bathroom

Once we made the decision to update instead of renovate, the pink guest bathroom was the obvious place to start. After gathering inspiration and planning, I was more confident that we could make this bathroom modern, fun, and stylish. In total, we spent just over $300 updating this bathroom (we received a couple of our bath accessories as registry gifts, which always helps!). Scroll to the bottom of this post for a complete round-up of everything we used to update the bathroom.

Get the Look: Retro Pink Bathroom

Paint

The first order of business was deciding on a paint color. Hunter and I decided to go monochrome on the walls and pick a color that closely matched the tiles. We ordered a few pink samples from Sherwin Williams that ended up being totally off. Once we realized the tile was more of a dusty rose and had some brown in it, we found the perfect match in Sherwin Williams Resounding Rose. We couldn’t believe how closely it matched!

Fixtures

Next, Hunter and I went to town updating all of the fixtures to matte black. Instead of buying everything, we decided to spray paint anything we could matte black. We used this spray paint to paint the chrome shower curtain rod, toilet handle, and cabinet knobs black. While we were at it, we also spray painted the same items in our master bathroom. We used two full cans of spray paint, but if you’re only doing one bathroom, you’re probably fine with just one.

We also purchased a new matte black faucet on Amazon for only $50. It looks and feels very high-quality. Our biggest splurge (but still very affordable) purchase of this bathroom was our new light fixture, found here on Etsy. It was exactly what we were looking for and we were happy to support a small handmade business.

Accessories & Art

The thing I’m most excited about in our pink bathroom is this shower curtain from Anthropologie that matches perfectly. It’s also adds the pop of fun that this bathroom needed. The monochrome tiles and walls were already over-the-top, but the shower curtain makes it feel more intentional.

Finally, we completed the bathroom with a few modern accessories and art prints. Our trash can and soap dispenser come from this West Elm set. We thought white would be a good choice since there is so much color everywhere else. The small touch of brass adds another layer of modernity as well. I also snagged this small brass tray so guests have a place to store jewelry or other small items.

Ever since I had my first apartment, I had my eye on Rifle Paper Co.’s vanity-themed art prints. Their Comb print matched the vintage vibes of this bathroom perfectly, and I was glad to finally have an excuse to buy one! Hunter also loved this cute Dog Days of Summer print. These prints added such a fun, quirky pop to the walls. We finished them with 8×10 black frames from West Elm. We might keep adding art to this wall, but that’s a project for another day!

I hope our updates to our retro pink bathroom inspired you! If you have any questions about our project, leave a comment below or email me at abbymurphyphoto@gmail.com!

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