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You are here: Home / Interiors / My 1970’s Bathroom Remodel – Before

My 1970’s Bathroom Remodel – Before

Interiors· Bathrooms

15 Mar

When my house was built in 1977, Harvest Gold and Avocado Green were THE hot decorating colors. The original owners of our ranch style home went all out: an Avocado Green kitchen and a Harvest Gold bathroom.

We’ve lived with this for over twenty years, but it’s finally time for a complete bathroom remodel. Not a complete gut job, but pretty close.

Ready to step back into, what my teenager calls, the “Lawless 70’s”?

 Bathroom Remodel – Updating a 1970’s Bath

Before picture yellow and green bathroom remodel

The bathroom is small, or at least small by design magazine and most modern standards. It’s 5′ x 10′ – about 50 s.f., but it’s functional and just right for the size of the house.

A single sink, a toilet, and a tub/shower; pretty much all you need. The bathroom was done with quality materials for the time – Formica countertop, custom cabinetry and Kohler fixtures.

When we moved in, all, and I mean ALL of the woodwork (doors, baseboards, door and window frames) was dark brown.

One of our first projects was to paint everything white. It took at least three coats to cover that ugly brown. You could practically hear it sucking in the paint.

Other than that, the only thing we’ve done in here is replace the door and paint the walls.

For the longest time, we couldn’t figure out why the bathroom was compartmentalized with that framed opening. Eventually, we found a pair of saloon doors in the attic.

Saloon doors. Let that sink in for a minute. Talk about the “Lawless 70’s”! I imagine it looked something like this:

Bathroom remodel - dark saloon doors with green walls

This just generates soooo many thoughts and questions.

Bathroom Vanity & Sink

Yellow countertop, green wall and wood cabinet before bathroom remodel

Aside from the color, this is the area that is causing us to do the bathroom remodel right now. The joint between the sink and the plastic laminate countertop has deteriorated so much that the underside is disintegrating. Eventually, the sink will probably fall through the countertop.

Bathroom remodel - rotting yellow sink edge on a plastic laminate countertop

All that gross brown stuff is old caulk and other unidentified substances. You can’t clean it – it just crumbles and makes more of a mess.

Chipped yellow sink edge before bathroom remodel

The sink is also chipped and stained. It’s been a rough forty years.

Wood medicine cabinet before bathroom remodel I really like the custom vanity. It matches the vanity in the other bathroom and the kitchen cabinets. The medicine cabinets in both bathrooms also match the cabinetry. I think they are made of hickory.

Bathroom remodel before picture - hickory vanity

Bathroom Flooring

Harvest gold sheet vinyl flooring before bathroom remodel

Check out this flooring. The kitchen floor was the same pattern, but in avocado green. Although incredibly dated, I do admire the durability of this sheet vinyl floor.

Despite being 40 years old, it’s in really good condition. Much better than the flooring we installed 15 years ago.

Tub/Shower Unit

Bathroom remodel - yellow fiberglass tub/shower

Harvest Gold fiberglass tub/shower unit. Our well water has stained the fiberglass. Yuck.

Harvest gold toilet with white lid in green bathroom remodel project

The toilet is actually the subject of debate: to replace it or not. Color-wise, it needs to go. But, flushing power-wise, it is prized and should stay. The first time we have to plunge a new low flush toilet, I know we’re going to regret replacing this.

It’s the only toilet in the house that doesn’t cause “flush anxiety”. You know it’s going to work, no matter what. TMI? Sorry.

Don’t you love the non-matching toilet seat? Surprisingly, I couldn’t find a Harvest Gold toilet seat last year.

Finally, when we removed the counter, we found this wallpaper hiding underneath. Looks like the entire bathroom was Harvest Gold. Wow. Just wow.

1970's era yellow wall paper in bathroom

We can’t wait to get started on this bathroom remodel and get rid of the Lawless 70’s!

Check out Small Bathroom Remodel – Design Decisions for a 1970’s Era Bath to see what we keep and what we replace.

Please share!

About Lori

Lori is a licensed architect, and has specialized in residential, commercial and industrial building projects. She lives out in the sticks of Central Illinois with her brilliant husband, three wonderful teens, and two cats of questionable intelligence.

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We are Lori and Kim, licensed architects who took a few years off from our professional careers to raise our families. Sage Cottage Architects explores our passion for residential architecture and environmentally friendly design. We aim to make beautiful spaces accessible to everyone.

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