What to Get for Your Vintage-Style Bathroom

Whether you’ve just bought an old house and are trying to restore it. While trying to keep its original design and appearance, or you want to make your modern suburban home fashionable by giving it an old-fashioned look, you’ll want your bathroom to blend in. Here’s how you can turn your bathroom into a vintage one.

The Tub

This is the main feature and usually the centerpiece of any bathroom, so it’s a good place to start when creating a vintage-style bathroom. A claw-foot tub is what you should go for, and the size and material of the tub depend on your bathroom size, requirements and budget. The early tubs were mainly made of smooth porcelain. Although they were easy to clean and maintain, they were also easy to slip on, so if you opt for porcelain, you’ll probably need to get a rubber mat, too. Other options include cast iron and acrylic tubs. The acrylic tubs are smoother and warmer than the cast iron ones, they won’t crack or rust, plus they’re lighter and easier to clean.

The Toilet

During the Victorian era, people started installing high-tank toilets. In order to flush, they used gravity to build up water pressure, which was why the tank was installed so high. There is no need for that anymore, but it could be a nice classic feature in your vintage-looking bathroom. You can set your tank a bit lower, but it should definitely be detached from the toilet. Also, get a long pull chain with a ceramic handle, as well as a free-standing toilet paper holder for the complete antique appearance. The colors of the toilet, sink and tub should match, the safest option being white, although earthy colors, red, yellow and green tones might work, too.

 

The Sink

Much like the claw-foot tub, a detached pedestal sink will make your bathroom look like it was made in the middle of the Victorian era. Although the main purpose of their appearance was to compensate for the lack of indoor plumbing, nowadays they’re easy to install and maintain, and you can easily find a competent plumber in Melbourne who will do this for you. The sink can be round- or square-shaped, so opt for the shape that goes well with your tub. If you don’t like the pedestal sink. You can combine it with an antique bathroom vanity, or even turn an antique dresser into a vanity.

Flooring

The earliest bathrooms were usually wood-floored, so this is one of the options you can pick from for the vintage look you seek. You may want to choose wood that’s highly polished, since that will make cleaning easy. Mind you, if they’re wooden, you will probably have to oil or wax your floors from time to time. Since you want them to remain non-absorbent and completely water-resistant. Another option is marble, which can be quite expensive, so if you don’t think you can afford real marble, get square marble-print tiles. They are a much cheaper, but they can look just as nice as the real thing.

Details

This is the part where you can really let yourself go. There are so many things you can get for your bathroom, spending next to nothing on them. First of all, the things you get shouldn’t be made of shiny metals, like chrome, but rather copper, nickel or oiled bronze. Get towel holders, a big ornate mirror or faucets made of these dull metals. Decide on wood cabinets or shelves, since the plastic ones don’t really have the antique sense about them. Your towels and bathmats should be thick and plush, while your shower curtains could have lace details on them. You can visit some of your local thrift shops in search of retro-design bathroom utilities. You’d be surprised by what you can find there.

Start with the bigger and more expensive items. Move towards the smaller, cheaper ones to decorate your bathroom the way you like it. Then light some candles, have a bubble bath and enjoy the view.