Gransnet forums

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?

HeavenLeigh Sat 11-May-24 20:04:52

We have had a cherry red bathroom suite Apple green one silver fox beautiful colour one and for more years than I care to mention white

LovesBach Sat 11-May-24 16:14:15

Callistemon21

Oh, I know the ones, I think.

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

I don't know which company made them - I just wish they hadn't!

RosiesMaw Sat 11-May-24 16:03:16

Baggs

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 😂

Well it shouldn’t!
You of all people know the difference between “wear” and “ware” !

Baggs Sat 11-May-24 13:00:25

Not to mention moon cups....

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 😂

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!

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?

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 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.

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

That could be another Farrow and Ball colour!

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'?

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

smile

Oh that's beautiful!
Colours!

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.

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

and again

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

Bump as the spells have returned

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.

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?

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. (

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.

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 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.

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

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

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.

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?

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 🤣