During the late 1950's and 60's St. Louis housing design took a turn, a bad turn, a left turn down a one way street into oncoming traffic, it crashed and exploded and left it's contents all over South County. Sure they were still using the signature bricks and planting beautiful trees and they even continued to install wood floors as a common feature in the homes. But, something bad happened on the way to the bathroom. I don't know if an influential interior designer fell asleep at her desk while drawing the lovely white bathroom and then spilled her can of Orange Crush over her drawings then woke with a start and fled to the meeting with her client and thus was born the PASTEL BATHROOM.
Oh Lord. They're everywhere in every shade. So far, I've lived with blue, salmon/mauve (later to be designated the 80's peach), golden rod (previously known as harvest gold) and blue again. These bathrooms all have the same common features; the floor tile, wall tile, toilette, sink and tub all match. They're all pink, blue, yellow, green. The bad part? They were built to out live multiple generations. I tell you the tubs are solid cast iron, the toilets are indestructible, the tile will not part from the floor or wall. It's there to stay. So, as you visit houses in the county you will see these bathrooms, they will start to grow on you, you will become partial to one of the pastel shades and wish you had the pink and not the yellow, you will wonder why people don't embrace the pastels now, you will mourn the loss of a toilette seat when you try to match your pastel with the new plastic colors that are always a shade or two off and then you'll resort to a wooden seat because it might look better.
Recently, we had lunch with some good friends in their county home. They got the pink bathroom. I went to use the restroom and was thinking fondly of the pink tile and how cute bright white towels set off the pinkness. I was giddy with the blush colored glow and was thinking about how fun these bathrooms are, but as I turned to flush, my eye caught a glimpse of something not pink. It was this sign;
Posted for all to see right there behind the pink toilette on the pink tile. I'm so glad they warned me, all that happy pink was clouding my thoughts and I was just about to dive in and swim a few laps.
Long live the pastel bathroom! Long live the manly man that lives with a pink bathroom and posts warnings for the rest of us.
