The 1940s bathroom got a serious glow-up — colorful, coordinated fixtures & bold style that set the stage for the midcentury home design craze.
bathrooms
Explore 140+ vintage mid-century wallpaper designs and see how bold patterns, color, and texture helped define midcentury American home decor.
See 28 vintage pink bathrooms from the 1950s and 1960s that show how this bold color became a mid-century design favorite.
See how 1920s home decor brought color, pattern and purpose into American homes, from sun porches to stair landings and every room in between.
Vintage Formula 409 household cleaner hit supermarket shelves in the ’60s, and was one of the most popular household cleaning products during the 1970s and 1980s. See why people loved the stuff here!
Explore real 1970s bathroom decor with wild colors, bold patterns and sunken tubs that made home bathrooms totally unforgettable.
In both 1975 and 1978, singer Helen Reddy took national magazine photographers on tours of her California home, which was full of music, plants and country charm. Here’s a look inside!
Explore the Scholz home story with a look at the Mark 58 design, prefab innovation, and how this model changed mid-century homebuilding.
60s bathrooms were bold, colorful and fashion-forward. From sunken tubs to pink sinks, see how these retro spaces made bathrooms a true style statement.
Mr Whipple: Please don’t squeeze the Charmin! 20 years of legendary TV commercial toilet paper drama
Discover the story of Mr Whipple and his famous “Please don’t squeeze the Charmin” commercials, one of the most memorable ad campaigns of the 20th century.
This charming upper-middle-class home – a vintage 1970s designer dream house in Denver – was compact and neatly designed, the surfaces were hardy, the wallpapers were bold… and the style was so very seventies.
With space-age design elements like starbursts and swooshes, and the large backplates, some of the most popular mid-century modern door knobs were absolutely iconic, and easy to recognize.
Liquid soaps like these were still somewhat of a novelty in the 1980s and 1990s, and people were happy to get a break from using bar soaps when they washed their hands. See some of the old brands here!
Vintage oilcloth, a durable material traditionally made by coating canvas or linen with linseed oil to create a waterproof surface, has a storied history for household use, and was especially popular back in the 1940s and 1950s.
Take a trip back in time and see the bright and pastel colors, patterned and plain styles of retro toilet paper – kinds you rarely see today.
Look back at these great examples of more than fifty 1980s bathroom decor ideas – plus retro color schemes – that cover the gamut from elegant to eccentric to extra-dated.
A shag carpet toilet seat cover with matching tank cover sound good? Our counterparts in the ’70s loved their fuzzy toilet covers, and weren’t ashamed to admit it.
Back in the 1950s and 60s, the American Dream could be had – affordably and in style – if people wanted to buy mobile homes (trailers). Here’s a look at dozens of homes and parks!
1970s house plans weren’t just a collection of designs. They reflected a decade of radical change & innovation. Let’s take a look at these fascinating floor plans!
It might feel like people in the 50s lived in black & white. But as you can see in this collection of colorful 1950s home decor photos, they lived with bright & bold hues, too.
If you’re buying a 1950s house, already live in one, or want to see how new suburban homes were designed back in the ‘Leave it to Beaver’ era, see some fantastic ’50s house plans here!
Let’s consider for a moment the soap on a rope phenomenon — a peculiar fusion of the useful and the whimsical that once occupied a
Here’s a look back in time to see some of the popular old bar soap brands from decades past – many long forgotten, and some that still are available to this day!
Looking at these 1950s bathroom color schemes, you’ll see that the look of white, stark home decor was quickly disappearing. In its wake was a trend toward colorful designs. Take a look!
Do you remember these flower-shaped bathtub stickers? It seems like all the parents in the late 60s & early 70s had some of these popular colorful non-slip Rubbermaid appliques on their tub.
Apparently stuck for a way to make toilet paper – particularly rolls of colored toilet tissue – more attractive to ’50s housewives, advertising executives turned to the world of glamour and fashion for an assist.
By treating a master bedroom and its adjoining dressing room and bath as a suite, using simple red lattice doors, this 1950s home achieved a feeling of spaciousness in a somewhat small area.
This Early American-themed powder room, seen here as it was back in 1966, showed how wallpaper could be used in truly creative ways that went far beyond the usual.
Elegant in every way, this graceful soft grey & white mid century bathroom was styled by an interior designer to appeal to the 1950s women who desired luxury.
This vintage blue & white bathroom had an all-tile look that was created by combining richly-patterned wallpapers and fabrics with standard floor and wall tiles.
These vintage glass screen dividers, brilliantly decorated with undersea motifs, offered a beautiful and creative way to visually expand this space without adding a lot of weight.
This elegantly decorated marble bathroom, clad in gold and black stone, was paneled with painted moldings in the Louis XVI style.
This beautiful mid-century modern curved mosaic tile bathroom was covered floor, countertops, walls and ceiling in an elegant light green and brown combo.
With the help of an interior decorator back in 1969, this psychedelic bathroom was transformed, by wallpaper and indoor-outdoor carpeting, into a trippy glory of patterned color.
This silvery and shiny bathroom decor from 1969 was once an interior designer’s concept of the ultimate in contemporary bathrooms.
This beautiful boho bathroom decor was created by none other than Gloria Vanderbilt Cooper back in the 70s, using a collection of flower prints she designed.
This luxurious bathroom-dressing room was part of a high-end master suite built back in the 1950s, and even the most practical objects were aesthetic delights.
Take a look at these examples of old-fashioned bathroom tile style in one beautifully decorative bathroom from the 1930s.
This beautiful Asian-themed 1950s bathroom decor was grey, white and aqua. The room’s tiles and wallpaper shared the same Chinese motif to great visual effect.
Flash back to 1960 with the Scholz Mark 60, a prefab mid-century modern home! From the blue bathroom to the wooden wall paneling, every inch of this house screams retro
This vintage mid-century modern model home – the House & Garden magazine Hallmark House for 1963 – offered nearly 5000 square feet of beautiful 60s style.
This mid-century modern home design was created for a busy family of five, and in addition to the spacious floorplan, it glows with light, from huge windows and stunning clerestories.
Bold 1950s linoleum flooring: See how the postwar bathroom floor became a fantastic design statement
1950s linoleum flooring and vinyl were bolder than you’d expect — see 20 real bathroom floors from some of the decade’s most creative designs.
What were popular ’50s floors like? They might have bold stripes, checkerboard squares, or many other classic and creative ideas. Take a look back!
Remember getting drinks in vintage Dixie Cups? While many of us recall them from childhood because of their cute designs, they weren’t invented simply for convenience.
Here, see 15 ways homeowners and interior designers back in the 1950s used colorful vintage vinyl floor tiles to create trendy square patterns using a variety of colors, sizes and styles.
If you want to make a tiny bathroom vibrant and colorful, here are some retro ’70s powder rooms for a little vintage inspiration!
In the sixties, homeowners loved using tile in the bathroom, as you can see here in this eclectic collection of vintage 1960s bathroom tile design ideas!
Although tile was available in a range of hues, when it came to creating the vintage 1950s bathroom tile design ideas homeowners wanted, the most popular colors were the ones shown here.
Here’s a look back to some of the most colorful examples of popular Kohler bathroom suites from the 1960s and 1970s – bold blues, harvest gold, avocado green, basic black & more.
Keyed for color, comfort and convenience, the retro bathroom decor for two homes in the city and two in the country have been remodeled for maximum relaxation.
Decorated vintage bathroom sinks with designs that looked painted or stenciled on had some popularity in the ’60s, until less frilly designs were once again favored.
A hundred years ago, needle baths were popular in hotels and luxury homes. They were like a shower, but with a few basic differences. See some here.
Take a look back at 20+ elegant antique bathrooms and decor from the turn of the century, many of which were intended for luxury homes.
By design, this spacious one-level family-friendly ’70s model home opens graciously from a center linking two living areas. See inside this 1975 house here!
More than just a way to dry off, these retro towels from the 1950s gave vintage bathrooms color and style! Take a look back at this functional fifties decor.
When you take a look at these retro 1990s bathroom decor & accessories – shower curtains, floor mats, toilet covers and sink skirts – you’ll get the sense that the decade was dominated by ruffles and pastels, plus fish and floral motifs.
