Why We Saved Our Vintage Blue Bathroom Tile

Out with the old. In with the new! Or not?

I recently read an article in Domino about why designers are saving vintage bathroom tile during remodels. We saved the vintage blue bathroom tile in our upstairs bathroom for a variety of reasons, so the article resonated with me.

It was a tricky choice though.

Is this vintage blue bathroom tile a tile I would have chosen? 

Enthusiastically, no!

Not in color. Not in pattern. Not in shape.

Has the blue bathroom tile grown on me? 

Yes.

I’m not ready to pledge my undying love, but I don’t recoil in horror every time I walk into that bathroom either.

Why did we keep it? 

Well, if we wait long enough that vintage blue bathroom tile will come back in style.

You know it’s true. Everything comes back around. Wide-leg pants and long denim skirts are back in style. It’s only a matter of time before we are live, laugh, loving, and plastering everything in a chevron print again. It stands to reason that colorful tile and bathroom fixtures will make a comeback too.

I just have to wait. tick, tock

No, but seriously. 

Fine. There were other reasons for keeping that tile.

We kept it because there was nothing wrong with it. It also perfectly matched the blue tub in the bathroom. Talk about synergy. Haha!

It seemed wasteful to remove it and keeping the vintage tile meant that we saved thousands of dollars on a bathroom remodel.

But how do you make that blue tile work style-wise? 

Two words. Shower. curtain.

Kidding! Sort of.

A shower curtain does work wonders for hiding what a shower looks like.

But I think the real trick is to make the tile look intentional.

I tried to do that with accessories and art that brought in similar blue tones.

I think I more or less achieved that objective.

But it probably helps that my vintage blue bathroom tile is limited to the shower. I am neither a trained interior designer or a magician. It would be harder for me to make it work if it was on the walls and floors too.

Will we keep this vintage blue tile forever? 

I don’t have a crystal ball, so I’m not sure.

I don’t have any plans to remove the tile at the moment. We have discussed replacing some tiles with glass blocks to let more light into the shower, but that’s laughably low on the priority list.

I think it’s more likely that we’ll encounter a future plumbing issue that will force us to remove the tiles to access the pipes. But that day is not today. And hopefully not tomorrow.

What would you have done if you were me? Happily keep the vintage blue bathroom tile or remove it?

I’d love to know. You can always comment on this blog post, email us here, or reach out via Instagram or Facebook.

Have a fantastic day!

P.S. In full disclosure, I did remove a blue toilet and two blue sinks from this bathroom. They were not in good shape and I don’t miss them.

Thanks for hanging out with me today! If you’d like other blog posts to ponder, I can help you out. Try one of these. 

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