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Why we love bathrooms with a retro or nostalgic feel

Posted on 19. Jul, 2011 by Charlotte Laing in Design Tips

Obviously nobody wants a dated bathroom, but hints of the retro or vintage styling can actually help you create a bathroom that’s thoroughly modern, as well as being quirky and unique.

It’s always nice to fill your home with pieces that evoke memories, and the bathroom is no exception – you can buy a bathroom suite, wallpaper, tiles, flooring and free-standing furniture that has a retro or vintage vibe.

The key, as ever, is not to go over the top. You don’t want your bathroom to look exactly like one from the 1950s or 1900s – just retain some elements and combine them with modern design and technology.

Remember that when it comes to retro, a little goes a long way. If you’re fitting retro-inspired lino on the floor, make sure the rest of the bathroom is fairly cutting edge.

And if you’re going for a Victorian-look roll-top bath then teaming it with modern striped blind and plain brightly coloured walls can look better than creating an entirely mock-Victorian room.

The best advice, which I talk about time and time again on this blog, is to play it fairly safe with the big ticket items such as the bathroom suite.

You can opt for funky retro shape free-standing baths or beautiful roll-top tubs, but always choose white so you can change the look with paint effects or new soft furnishings whenever you like.

Freestanding baths with curvy shapes evoke the mid decades of the 20th century. Groovy baby.

Often giving the room a retro or vintage look is simply about choosing the right shapes. The 60s was all about big bold curves, while the Victorian era is more about scrolls and more subtle curves (see my previous blog post on vintage bathrooms). The 70s look is more hard-edged and geometric.

Just bearing this in mind when shopping for your bathroom can help you create the atmosphere you want.

As well as general shapes, think about incorporating pieces that are replicas of traditional pieces from the past. An old fashioned towel radiator, for example, can look very chic in a modern bathroom.

Once you have a white suite in place you can go to town with colour. Think of hues which would have been used in your home when you were a child, or take a look in any DIY store and you’ll see vintage paint ranges.

Orange, yellow and pastel shades, if used correctly are great for evoking previous decades. (For inspiration see my previous blog post on jewel tone bathrooms).

If you’re on a budget then opting for a vintage or retro feel bathroom is a great idea as you can mix in pieces you find at second hand or vintage shops, or on ebay, and you can even scour your own attic for items to put in the room.

A funky twist is to use furniture that wouldn’t traditionally have been found in a bathroom.

For example, we love if you click on the retro bathrooms feature at redonline.co.uk, you’ll spot a bathroom where a vintage office filing cabinet has been spray-painted to give it a new lease of life. We think it creates a fab look.

I hope this post has inspired you to create your own vintage or retro-look bathroom, and made you realise that having a little bit of the past in your bedroom doesn’t mean you have to install an avocado suite!

 

Tags: cool bathroom design ideas, curvy bath, retro bathroom, retro bathroom furniture, retro freestanding bath, Roll top bath, vintage bathroom