I HATE the bathroom, Matt. What's with the colors?

If I had a dollar for everytime I heard that, I wouldn't be writing this blog right now. It's a phrase I have become very accustomed to hearing, especially when touring older homes. For some reason, in the late 1950s and 1960s, the design of St. Louis took a disasterous turn, and someone's spastic designs exploded all over St. Louis bathrooms. It's the Pastel bathroom, and it comes in all colors - Salmon, Pink, Yellow, Baby Blue, and more. The bathrooms all share a common theme - the floor tile, wall tile, toilet, sink, and tub, are all whatever lovely pastel color was chosen as the template for the bathroom.

These bathrooms seem to have built with a bomb shelter mentality - the tile walls are laid in indestructible wire mesh, and the tubs are solid cast iron. The tile floors were laid very uniquely - the laborers would throw bags of concrete in between the floor joists, cut them open, spray them with water, and then lay the tile.

I have had the (dis)pleasure of ripping out several bathrooms like this. The floors comes up as if you are taking a sledge hammer to a sidewalk, and the walls come down in sheets of nasty wire that require three people to carry it.

If you hate your pastel bathroom, and you have the determination to rip everything out, that's certainly an option. However, one awesome, and inexpensive way to do it is by reglazing the tile. You can pick any color you want, and a company will come in and spray the tile - and tub, and leave you with a fresh, crisp bathroom that can be spruced up with paint colors - instead of colored tile.

I rehabbed a home not too long ago, and, because we were adding two brand new bathrooms, we chose to reglaze the tile and the tub, and lucked out as the sink and toilet had already been replaced. We laid the new floor right over the old floor, which is perfectly fine as long as your material isn't too heavy on top of the existing floor.

For less than $1500, we took the oddly, bumble bee colored bathroom from this:

To this - a more modern and contemporary look that most Buyers are looking for:

We chose to reglaze the tile and tub to white because it creates a nice bright space, and can be spiced up through paint colors and bathroom accesories.

Of course everything is personal preference and opinion, and some people absolutely love the retro bathrooms and their colors. But, if you are looking to remodel your bathroom but don't want to break the bank, or if you liked that house quite a bit but hated the bathroom, this is a perfect alternative for you!