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House and home

Coloured sanitary ware

(130 Posts)
RosiesMaw Mon 06-May-24 15:12:18

Goodness knows why but I found myself thinking of bathroom suites we have had inflicted on us since we married in 1970.
Our first (rented) flat in Greenwich had a pink suite - pretty yukky but I don’t remember being too bothered, probably because that bathroom (it was an attic flat) was so bliddy freezing you’d make a point of being in and out at the speed of light.
Then a flat in a Thirties block in Richmond, blessedly unmodernised with a huge white bath but rather public lavatory style white and black tiles round the walls.
Another pink suite in the first flat we bought , cheap and flimsy like everything the developers had done in the conversion. Our first house had a yellow bath and sink - what was it about coloured suites in those days? Then when we moved out of London, we had to live with Sun King (I think it was called) and avocado in the downstairs loo. The current house had a white suite in the en suite but a pale peach (complete with gold taps!) in the family bathroom until the day we could afford to redo both and replace everything with WHITE.
My old school friend had a dark red/wine coloured suite which was dreadful for showing tide marks and an aunt simply had the pale blue suite dumped on her front lawn and a new bathroom fitted before she would even move into her new house.
What was your worst colour?

grandmac Wed 08-May-24 15:43:25

I remember thinking my aunt was amazingly modern as she had a mauve suite with purple loo paper. I thought that was the height of sophistication as we only ever had white suites and paper at home.

MissAdventure Wed 08-May-24 16:05:05

I bet that really was pretty groovy, though smile

Oreo Wed 08-May-24 16:28:18

You know what? This thread is making me want a colourful bathroom suite.

Mt61 Wed 08-May-24 16:55:49

We had dark green bathroom & guest loo, hideous.
Every bungalow we looked at recently, six out of the ten had coloured bathroom suites 😩

Mt61 Wed 08-May-24 16:58:49

grandmac

I remember thinking my aunt was amazingly modern as she had a mauve suite with purple loo paper. I thought that was the height of sophistication as we only ever had white suites and paper at home.

My friends well off parents had a black suite with corner bath & black shag pile carpet, now I thought that was the height of luxury 🤣

MissAdventure Wed 08-May-24 17:47:27

Oreo

You know what? This thread is making me want a colourful bathroom suite.

What colour would you go for?

How would you style the bathroom?

Oreo Wed 08-May-24 21:43:48

I’d like a pale turquoise with a basin shaped like a shell, as some of them used to be.
Then I’d go for pale sandy coloured floor tiles, and sandy coloured wall tiles.A few green potted plants, maybe fan palms to complete the lagoon theme.😃
A wall canvas featuring a St Lucia type beach scene like something out of ‘Lost’.Turquoise fluffy towels.

Poppyjo Thu 09-May-24 00:40:18

We had navy blue bath ad loo. Awful but now the norm seems to be. White

Grammaretto Thu 09-May-24 01:06:22

We had a beautiful spacious shell shaped basin in our first Edinburgh home, where I bathed the baby.
The people who bought our house ripped out the bathroom and that basin was lying broken on the front lawn. It made me so sad to see it.

Dickens Thu 09-May-24 01:41:04

DamaskRose

An all pink bathroom with navy shag pile carpet (which went all the way up the side of the bath) upstairs and a pale blue downstairs. We lived with it, apart from the carpet, because we had no money. Next house white bathroom and avocado shower room. We changed them both. This house all white but in shocking condition so we had to renew anyway. I would not have anything but white by choice.

An all pink bathroom with navy shag pile carpet (which went all the way up the side of the bath)

... sounds like a fungus growing grin

Grammaretto Thu 09-May-24 09:14:24

Surely coloured suites will make a comeback if they haven't already.

Avocado and brick red were popular in the newbuilds of the early 1970s.
We painted our white bathroom chocolate brown, sh*t coloured. It looked awful but we never changed it.

LovesBach Thu 09-May-24 10:08:22

Sadly, once someone had remarked that we had 'dead budgie' tiles in that gloomy bathroom, that did it for me - luckily there wasn't much tiling so we replaced them with larger, brighter blue and white tiles in an effort to combat the overall funereal effect. (

SueDonim Thu 09-May-24 12:12:18

MissAdventure

The corner baths that you step down into, always remind me of days gone by on tv.
Couples up to their shoulders in bubbles, sipping champagne, surrounded by potted palms. smile

That puts me in mind of the tv adverts that had a woman lounging in a bath surrounded by bubbles from a brand of soap. I forget what it was - Cussons? Camay?

MissAdventure Thu 09-May-24 14:31:10

Oh, I don't know.
I was thinking of the "blacksploitation" type films, with the cool back guys calling in on their chicks, and joining them in the bath... smile

Or Tales of The Unexpected, which is back on tv on a couple of obscure channels.

Charleygirl5 Thu 09-May-24 14:34:24

Bump as the spells have returned

Charleygirl5 Thu 09-May-24 14:34:43

and again

Ladyleftfieldlover Thu 09-May-24 14:53:43

Someone mentioned how we are now decorating in white and grey! Not me. Here is my hallway.

MissAdventure Thu 09-May-24 15:10:02

smile

Oh that's beautiful!
Colours!

Scribbles Thu 09-May-24 16:10:20

@LovesBach ...once someone had remarked that we had 'dead budgie' tiles in that gloomy bathroom, that did it for me...

Please help my poor, tired brain stop boggling. I've looked at all the Dulux and Crown etc colour cards but can't find it! What on earth sort of colour is 'dead budgie'?

Georgesgran Thu 09-May-24 17:32:46

That could be another Farrow and Ball colour!

Callistemon21 Thu 09-May-24 17:35:42

Scribbles

@LovesBach ...once someone had remarked that we had 'dead budgie' tiles in that gloomy bathroom, that did it for me...

Please help my poor, tired brain stop boggling. I've looked at all the Dulux and Crown etc colour cards but can't find it! What on earth sort of colour is 'dead budgie'?

Well, budgies are beautiful and very colourful, even dead ones.

LovesBach Sat 11-May-24 11:16:39

Callistemon21

Scribbles

@LovesBach ...once someone had remarked that we had 'dead budgie' tiles in that gloomy bathroom, that did it for me...

Please help my poor, tired brain stop boggling. I've looked at all the Dulux and Crown etc colour cards but can't find it! What on earth sort of colour is 'dead budgie'?

Well, budgies are beautiful and very colourful, even dead ones.

Scribbles the tiles were popular in the sixties/seventies, and were a design that, viewed with a slight tilt of the head, looked just like a dead budgie lying on its side. Our tiles had a blue back ground with a white dead budgie - other colours were available and could be found in kitchens and bathrooms almost everywhere.

Callistemon21 Sat 11-May-24 11:19:55

Oh, I know the ones, I think.

We may have had some in a house we moved into! Were they Cristal tiles?

Scribbles Sat 11-May-24 12:58:04

@LovesBach
Thanks for the explanation. For reasons unknown, that decorative trend must have whooshed right past me and I don't ever recall seeing them. But, who knows, I'm about to go house-hunting so I might just find some, lurking in a fixer-upper!

Baggs Sat 11-May-24 13:00:04

Every time I see this thread title a thought passes through my head wondering if they are making brightly coloured sanitary towels and tampons nowadays 😂