We moved into a 1950s home, with a 1950’s bathroom.
We were on a house hunt for a few months and it was a long few months. We’d moved back to Michigan from Arkansas and were staying with grandma, along with our 2 kids. Some of our family lived in Detroit, and others in the surrounding cities. We ended up moving within a 60 second walk to my husbands family in Detroit, which is what I wanted. If we were going to live in Detroit, I wanted it to be in the same neighborhood as family. My husbands family had been living here 30+ years and it’s a nice area of the city.
A lot of the houses in my neighborhood are built with the same layout, so I knew I wanted our bathroom just like theirs.
I loved the look of our bathroom, even with it being dated. Although I loved the look, I did not like the beating it had taken over the years from previous occupants NOT taking care of it properly. When we moved in it was absolutely disgusting. The tub was rusty, dirty, and chipped…the tub spout was leaking, the floor was nasty, the medicine cabinet was filthy. I don’t understand how people live in conditions like that.
After we moved in, there was a lot of work to be done. Derrick cleaned the bathroom, but it’s something about when I clean things myself (bae, that doesn’t mean I don’t want your help cleaning!). He wasn’t gonna get down on the floor and scrub with a brush and get all the nooks and crannies like I would, so, I went to work on cleaning the bathroom, again.
These pictures are AFTER we’d cleaned. I scrubbed in between each grout line, wiped it up, gotten the tub reglazed (the company that we went with did a subpar job). I’d gotten all the dirt that would come up, up, but it never really felt as clean as I wanted because there were still areas that didn’t look clean, and I don’t like that. I like cracks, corners, and spaces, big and small to be CLEAN.
One of my favorite things about our bathroom was the countertop. I like how much counter space we had. I liked the shape of it…since they curved it so that the door could open and close properly, but you still got the full sized sink.
My next favorite thing about our bathroom was the laundry shoot! I’d seen them before, but now we had one and I was excited. At first we weren’t using it… I’d had it taped up because I didn’t want my kids playing by it and to keep throwing things down it, but after a while, I opened it up and had explained to them it’s for clothes only, no toys. Once we started using it, I loved having it… no more carrying a heavy dirty clothes basket to the basement.
Our 1950’s Sink
I liked how spacious the sink bowl was, but over the years before we’d moved in, there had clearly been a leaky faucet.
I knew we were remodeling, eventually, so we drilled a little locker basket into the side of the vanity and that’s where I kept my panty liners. Under the sink was abysmal, so we only kept the plunger, toilet brush, toilet cleaner and grocery bags for the trashcan under there.
If you’re wondering about the little green frog hanging on the vanity door, that is a toddler urinal and it has been an amazing $10 investment over the years.
The cover for the faucet knob was missing and that was jank. There was also buildup around the base of the faucet that would NOT budge. I didn’t like that it “looked” dirty.
Blue / Grey Shower Tile in our 1950s Bathroom
When we moved in there was only one knob, just dangling, and to use the shower we’d just take the handle off and move it to the side we needed. To use, we lined up the handle with the grooves of the screw on the stem and turned on the water like normal. We DID buy a complete new set, but it just didn’t work, plus, the water leaked from the faucet AND the diverters. The shower handles were like this for a little over a year.
These pics were after I scrubbed, scraped, and brushed clean what I could. I just couldn’t get rid of the some of the dirt that lurked. Every cleaning, I still went over those areas, but it never came up. When I cleaned the shower, I’d take a toothbrush with Dawn dish soap and clean the grout lines.
A Closer Look at the Rest of Our 1950s Bathroom
I really like being able to look back at my own house before all the changes, and I know others may be looking at or for pictures of older bathrooms for whatever reason, so I wanted to share what our bathroom looks like.
Check out our basement stair remodel before you go!
Thank you so much for taking the time to read through my blog post showing our 1950s bathroom!
Until next time…
