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My Must Have Mid-Century Bath Resources · Mid Mod Remodel

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Let's wrap up this season on mid-mod bath updates with a little all-purpose advice.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I'm going to do a bit of a roundup of past good sources for design inspiration, practical strategies, and finished details.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: You want to make the best possible choices for your mid-century bathroom repair, replacement, or brand new room.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that involves both subtle granular details, exactly what tile to purchase, and not just which company to choose, but which shapes, which colors, which finishes.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: But also you want to step back and think, why am I taking on this project?
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: How far should I go?
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Is there anything that can be salvaged from, for example, an existing vintage mid-century bathroom that needs some surprising or long anticipated repair?
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Or are you starting from scratch in a room that's been flipped or building a brand new bathroom?
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: How can you give that the proper flavor of mid-century?
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: And most importantly, how can you keep it away from current trends that are going to make it feel dated in just a few years?
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Hey there.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to Mid-Mod Remodel.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: This is the show about updating MCM homes, helping you match your mid-century home to your modern life.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Della Hansman, architect and mid-century ranch enthusiast.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: You're listening to episode 2507.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Diving right in, I'm always going to point you back to my sort of roundup resource on mid-century bath updates, which is my free PDF guide, The Mid-Mod Bath Update Essentials.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is kind of the top elements of design thinking that are going to go into a bathroom that will work well.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Thinking about the lighting, thinking about the fixtures that are best for you, tub versus shower, vanity, single or multiple.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Do you need a makeup counter?
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Knowing your mandatory minimums, thinking about accessibility and space planning and storage, making the space work for you in terms of making it really um maximizing practicality in terms of a snug space.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Most mid-century homes, if you're working inside the existing bath footprint, are very small, but there are some clever ways to make the most out of that space.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Keeping it clean, as in minimalist, but also cleanable, as in not letting a wood surface touch a wet surface.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, assembling the combination of mid-century finishes that match your personal taste in mid-century style and that coordinate well with the rest of the house.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: They don't have to be a perfect match.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Your choices in the bathroom do not have to be a perfect replica copy of what you do in a kitchen update at the same time or in an earlier or later remodel, for example, but they should feel connected.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: They're all in the same house.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Grab that free guide and then check out episode 2301 for a full walkthrough of the master plan method as it applies to bathrooms and my top design tips in a sort of high-level overview way.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: You might also check out the last episode of my previous bathroom season, which is Mid-Century Bathroom Design Advice 2310, that has kind of a roundup of good principles to bring to a mid-century bath update.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think that a bathroom is both one of the easiest and hardest projects to take on.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: It is a perfect encapsulation of all of the complexity that might come up in any part of a remodel.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's got plumbing, it's got electrical work, there's a lot of finished details.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Cabinet choices might be custom built-ins, might be purchased and sourced.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: It has tile in all likelihood.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: There are uh competing choices in terms of metal, you're gonna need to bring in a bunch of shapes, it needs to serve storage functionalities, it needs to be accessible, and it's all gonna take place in a small area.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's a lot that's going on.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: At the same time, so that's why it's hard.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: At the same time, it can be a really good test project.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you're looking for just one relatively small room to to try your DIY chops, or even to self-manage, to do first to sort of proof of concept that you can make good choices for your house.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: A bathroom, particularly if you have the kind of mid-century house that has more than one, a spare bathroom, a hall bathroom, not your daily use bathroom, or the bathroom you're gonna use now, and then later you might create a small addition and put in an owner suite that'll be your more daily use bathroom.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: It can be a really good starting point.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're thinking about a bathroom update in that way, you might want to check out an episode I did several years ago.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: I believe it's uh, yeah, episode 1303, on how to treat a bathroom as a first small remodel project to kind of get your feet in the water.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: One way or another, our society, I think right now, our sort of certainly our building remodeling industry, and I talked about this in the first episode of the season, tends to think of bathrooms as quite disposable, quite quite redoable.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: You can just kind of pick up the phone any day of the week, call a contractor, and have your bathroom effectively scraped out, landfilled, and replaced with all new materials.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: But as we talked about at the start of this season, and we've always are talking about on this podcast, we're hoping for a little more longevity.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: So following along those principles of good bath design philosophy is going to keep you on the right path.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've just reached out and downloaded the Mid Moth Bath Bath Update Guide, if you are popping out to listen to the sort of overview episode for that, 2301, I think you can also benefit a lot from going deeper into some of these other topics.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like, for example, um, getting the lighting right in a mid-century bathroom is something I talked about just in the previous episode this season.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: 2506 is a place where I dug deeper into the philosophy and proper function of bathroom lighting and ventilation too.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're working on setting up your systems, a mid-century bathroom can be just as simple as a single sconce light placed over the mirror, aligned over the sink, or it can be can lights.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm not wild about those.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: It could be an overhead light, a wall light, under cabinet lighting, things on dimmers, light in a toilet chamber.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of complexity you can add.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: So make sure you're thinking about lighting properly by going a little deeper into the light and vent episode there.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: I have also talked a bunch about accessibility this specific season by running through practical strategies for an accessible bathroom update in episode 2504.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are particularly interested in planning for the long term for hosting guests who may need to bring movement aids into a bathroom space, or even just feature-proofing your house for yourself such that you don't have to be driven out of the space into assisted living a decade, many decades from now, because you'd have to pay for or effect a new bathroom remodel, you might as well build that in.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is one of the most common things I do add into my thinking when I'm planning a bath update for clients is how can we make sure that the choices they're making are not just pretty and pleasant right now, but are going to be practical and accessible.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: While in that episode on accessibility, I do talk about the ADA guidelines for public bathroom spaces, it's perhaps more important or just as good in a mid-century residential bathroom update to think not have I got exactly a five-foot turning radius for a wheelchair, which is required in a public accessible bathroom, but have I got practical space to move around this space?
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Is it set up for a proper number of grab bars?
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a way to sort of roll into this space and set a chair to one side?
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: One thing I do find to be particularly important to bring into mid-century bathroom considerations is a zero-step roll-in shower space and also having space next to the toilet that you can sort of do an easy transfer from a chair to stool.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: And those two things can actually go hand in hand.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: So the more you're thinking about future-proofing your bathroom, the more you want to think about the entire space, maybe less the vanity area, being kind of a wet room environment.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: You're tiling up the walls, um, and you are making room for a little bit of extra water to be splashed around.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is also absolutely an argument, in my opinion, in favor of curtains over glass shower enclosures.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: When we look at pictures of bathrooms in magazines today or in movies, we often see the choice of a glassed-in shower enclosure because it shows off everything that's happening beyond.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: It makes a small room seem bigger, it can be very beautiful, it lets you look at all the pretty tile you've paid for in the shower enclosure.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: But unless you find it very relaxing, pleasant, and soothing to constantly be cleaning water spots off of glass, and you never have any concerns about anybody safety glass in a bathroom, but still, uh, I personally am a uh mentally anxious enough person that I always wonder about what if somebody fell against something, dropped something against something in a glass uh space in a bathroom.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: You can have a lot more peace of mind with a shower curtain, I suppose is what I'm saying.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: I also, I've spoken about this on the podcast before.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think a shower curtain is a better choice for any kind of shared bathroom experience.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Not that people should be coming in and out of a bathroom while it's in use, like it's Grand Central Station, but just for like two kids in a family to be able to come in, someone can come in and grab something they left on the bath vanity while someone else is in the shower.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: All of that works better with a shower curtain enclosure.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: And from the perspective of future-proofing, a shower curtain is a lot more flexible for assistive devices than any kind of glass or even sort of like partial wall water direction enclosure setup.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the best answer is the simplest one, and it's just a curtain rod.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you don't have to have a simple curtain rod spanning across your space, the sort of tension rod you can find at any Ace hardware today.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: You could also think about a more elaborate enclosure.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: So you could think about putting a track in the ceiling and then springing for an extra tall shower curtain that comes a full eight-foot length or suspends on cords or something.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that can be a lot more minimalist and sort of visually satisfying.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Or a curtain rod doesn't really need to ruin your day.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: Speaking of, by the way, the tiles that could be shown off by having a glass shower enclosure, which I don't necessarily recommend, I wanted to talk a little bit more about tile in this episode today.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I have done a specific episode on tile choices in mid-century houses.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: That is episode 2103, if you're curious.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I've talked about this on over on the YouTube channel a lot.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to go over to MidMod Midwest on YouTube and search for tile, you'll find my thoughts in several places.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: But I think the thing I wanted to point to the most right now is a question that came up recently when I was chatting with a client on a consult call.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that is, should she let her contractor put in a shampoo niche in the tile?
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Answer absolutely yes.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: But he also had pitched a I I went ahead and like said, but uh here's the caveat to that: don't let him decorate it with a highlight tile color.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: And she was like, oh, that's exactly what he wanted to do.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: And he showed me examples of it.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: So allow me to say it to you, to everyone thinking about mid-century bathroom updates.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Do not let your tile guy decorate the shampoo bottle niche with a contrasting tile color, not a vertical stripe of tile, not a special tile highlighting the inside.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is definitely a place where in a mid-century design the prize goes to subtlety, not to drama.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: What's impressive and beautiful about a tile niche is if the tile guy nails it just perfectly to size the niche in line with the tile size you've chosen, and the edge hits the pattern without being cut the entire way around.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: I think actually a big part of the modern fashion to run the tile up and down on three walls of a bathroom floor to ceiling, and then definitely to decorate the inside of those niches with a contrasting shape and color of tile is not aesthetic.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's simply ease.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's dare I say, laziness on the part of the tile installer, not to have to choose the end point and be forced to think about where the last cut is gonna hit, but just to run it up to the ceiling and cut it at the corners.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: We can ask for more.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be afraid of an exposed tile edge.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Most mid-century bathrooms don't have tile that runs all the way to the ceiling.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: They stop at a high tide line at about five or six feet in a shower enclosure.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: And that top edge is another detail that needs to be paid attention to.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Don't mess this one up.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is definitely a place I ranted about this in a recent YouTube video, which we can link to in the show notes for this episode.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: But if you allow your tile installer to put in even a mid-century 4x4 square color block tile with a metal Schluter edge going around the sort of finished cap of it, it will feel modern and not vintage in every single case.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: So just say no to the Schluter Edge install.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: You want to choose a tile that comes with a bull nose in its sort of color match options.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to hear a little bit more about this and why it matters and how to choose it, and a great suggestion for where to find that particular tile, this is a conversation that came up when I was chatting earlier this season with Aletha about her home.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: She is another mid-century designer, and the choices that she made for her bathroom were not the right ones 10 years ago when she moved into her house, and she's since updated not at everything about her bathrooms, but the tile specifically in her bathrooms to fit her more deepened appreciation for mid-century details.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: So this is really, I think ultimately the thing I want to leave you with as you think about mid-century bathrooms and as you make choices for your own is that the subtlety is really the point.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: The micro details are going to be what you end up noticing the most as you use your own bathroom on a daily basis.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: So to think about how to make good choices for your bathroom, you're going to be picking specific micro product selections.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: But to get there easily, the master plan method starts at broad focus and then zooms in.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: So thinking about those broader questions of starting from just identifying, are you working with any existing features in a mid-century bathroom?
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: If so, how much or how little are you prepared to change?
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: The more you change about a bathroom, the more you will lose, essentially, in the case of a vintage time capsule bathroom.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a bathroom that has all its original tile fixtures and features and built-ins in place, if you decide to change it from a tub to a shower, you have essentially committed to retiling the entire bathroom because you can't cut out a tub without damaging the tile in part of a wall, and it begins to be a little bit like a loose thread in a sweater.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: So you pull on it and suddenly you've sort of you're chasing around the entire room removing tile.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Tile does not come off the wall and go back on.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: So the more you change, the more you lose is true.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: But you can also choose to put back time capsule features.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of resources you can track down to recreate time capsule bathrooms, especially if you're willing to source vintage, um, hunt down a set of specific colorway features, fixtures on Facebook Marketplace, travel a little bit across state lines to find uh a matching set of aqua toilet and uh sinks, and then match the new tile in the shower to those pieces.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: There are also a lot of specific um mid-century style colorway tiles available on the market, and you can do custom color match tiles from BW tile, for example.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: This is another place to remember to focus on the why of your project, which takes me back to the beginning of this season, episode 2501.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: The underlying purpose of your bathroom is a really important one of the broader questions to ask.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: So you're asking, what are you trying to get out of this?
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: You can also ask, um, what's the goal of this project?
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, are you touching this bathroom because there's something wrong with it?
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Something going wrong with it?
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a plumbing leak?
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Is there something going on behind a wall?
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: If that's the case, you're gonna need to get pretty drastic.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: Are you touching this bathroom because it's not suiting your life properly?
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um in that case, you know, maybe again, you're substituting a tub for a shower because your family does not use the tub and you would really benefit from having a shower on a daily basis.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: You are extending vanity space because you simply don't have enough counter space.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: You are adding storage because there's constantly clutter in your bathroom and it drives you nuts.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's one good reason.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think the other, the third reason for coming in and touching a bathroom of any mid-century status is that sometimes other things around it need to change.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: To talk about that a little bit more.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: There is an example on my boards right now, uh, the next up design master plan I'm gonna be tackling.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: We've got two bathrooms in near time capsule condition, absolutely adorable, in a fairly charming time capsule mid-century house.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: These bathrooms are both holding up well, they have no major maintenance issues, the tile work is exquisite, and they're nicely laid out.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: My strong impulse as a designer is to leave them alone.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: And certainly we're gonna propose that in at least one scheme that leave those bathrooms alone is what happens.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: So, starting from that standpoint, why on earth would I ever support touching them as a designer?
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, because of that third question.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: Not because something's going wrong with them, not because they're not suiting the owner's life properly, but because other things around them might need to change.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: In both cases, while the bathroom in question is doing everything it should, the storage solutions in other space around those bathrooms are very tight.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: One's located in a relatively snug entry passage from the garage, where this household is going to need a lot more breathing room and places to put things the way than the previous owners had.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: On the opposite side of that little hallway is the basement staircase, which is a very major expensive choice to move.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: So at the time of recording, I haven't even gotten to the design for this project yet.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: And isn't that even as I'm thinking about it, I'm thinking that two or maybe even three of my schemes are going to protect this bathroom.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's so weird and wonderful.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: Essentially, this bathroom down at the entry of the house is a charming little powder bathroom with a custom-built vanity that has this raked slant back from the counter surface to the floor, this playful angle, and exquisite striped tile work in one-by-one tiles.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: But what really sets it apart is that in addition to the sort of powder core of the bathroom, there's a shower chamber.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really a three-quarter bath.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: And the shower is tucked behind the hall closet in such a way that you enter it through this snail shell spiral.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's really hard to photograph because it's so snug and tight, but I'll you know what?
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'll put a few snaps into my show notes for this episode.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, as you've been listening to me thinking out loud about this space, there's a lot of reasons to leave it alone for its own sake for mid-century charm reasons.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: There are also a lot of reasons to leave it alone simply from a waste reduction and a cost reduction point of view.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: Nearly anything else we do in that space would be pretty expensive.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now, moving the stairs would be more expensive.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but demolishing walls and reframing them, anything outside of the footprint of that bathroom that we could change would be less expensive than all of the work that's involved in in rebuilding, replumbing, refinishing a nice, snug bathroom to a standard that would match what's there right now.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm gonna have to find ways to bake in more storage around it uh without damaging it.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's a it's a snug space.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: This bathroom is a perfect example of a house in general that is very custom-built rather than your classic little mid-century rectangle ranch, um, where all of the spaces are a little bit arbitrary.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: They're all the smallest they could be, but if you move one, it's not that big of a deal.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: The challenge for me as a designer, reworking a custom-built home as this one is, is that everything was very intentional.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Spaces are slotted together in clever, efficient ways, which means that moving one thing may mean moving and sacrificing other things.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um to continue the example of this particular house, at the other end, surrounded by bedrooms, is this shared family bathroom.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: And this house is interesting to me because, again, I said it's a custom build, it's jam-packed with irregular, specific owner design desired features, built in, I think, '62, and yet it does not have an owner's bathroom.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: The first owner and the builder must just not have thought that was necessary for them.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: What it does have is an incredibly charming, although simple, double vanity shared family bathroom.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: It has a tub with a shower curtain that actually needs to wrap around three sides.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, showers not having been entirely common in the mid century era, although again in the 60s, I would have expected to find it.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then a really, a really adorable little privacy built in in front of the tour.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Toilet again.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: I might put a few photos of this into the show notes page.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: Go check it out.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: But so here's the question: Can we should we change these bathrooms?
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: In that case, there's one other place we can push to get an owner's bathroom with a little bit of a sacrifice of other office den space.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: But the other way to bring an owner's bathroom into this house as it stands would be to build an addition.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is, by the way, I should just say, if you're curious about the idea of building on an owner's suite, I've talked about this on the podcast before, and you absolutely want to check out my episode 1305 for where to carve out space for an owner suite, if you want that.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: And a little bit about the history of owner suite bathrooms and the debate over whether an owner suite bathroom was necessary or not when they became more popular in history in episode 1301.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: Those are both good references for this.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: But in this in this design project, I'm going to be pitching options to the owners.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to ultimately make the choice of what feels more important to them.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: But if we decide to preserve the existing family bathroom, that basically means that we may need to put an addition on the house.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now, breaking ground for new footprint, adding new wood roof lines, new envelope, expanding the heated and cooled envelope of the house, all of that is a very intense, expensive thing to do.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: From a dollar perspective, it will almost certainly be more expensive than destroying and rebuilding a time capsule mid-century bathroom.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: On the other hand, you can never put back an original mid-century bathroom after you've destroyed it.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: You can recreate one and you can feel pretty charmed by it, but it won't be what was there to begin with.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: So it's an open question.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: And in this case, I'm going to design it several different ways and leave it to the owner to decide.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: Someday this will probably be a case study project and you can find out what they chose.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: For the meantime, um it's just going to be up in the air.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think when we come back around, you know, we we just have to question like what is the value of a time capsule mid-century bathroom?
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: If it's in perfect condition, as these really are, just absolutely the peak of maintenance and um cleanliness and beauty and performance.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard to justify having to change them.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: The reason that we most often have to end up changing a mid-century bathroom is that something has gone wrong.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: And when you have to get inside the walls to get at the plumbing of a mid-century bathroom, if you want to keep the tile intact, you're gonna have to come in from the back side.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: Some cases that's possible.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: I've got another client on the boards right now who have been able to go in through their garage wall and uh through the floor of the existing bathrooms to do a little bit of maintenance fixes, but ultimately they have found that they are going to need to get into the existing interior walls of the bathrooms, which means the existing tile has got to go, which means we've basically tripped the switch and now we're doing a major bathroom renovation for them.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: At that point, we have to make a uh we have to acknowledge that are certain sacrifices are going to be made.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's also often the case that mid-century bathrooms, if there are more than one in a house, back up to each other.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: So that means you might have to choose to sacrifice one to protect the other, or if you want to borrow space between the two of them, if you want to rearrange the footprint allocation of the bathrooms, you have to just make the decision that you are going all the way out of remodel.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: Let's interrogate that a little bit.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: There are simple sim There are some simple substitutions you can go ahead and make.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: You can sub out a vintage toilet for a modern one without destroying the tile around it.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's pretty easy to reseat a toilet and replumb it.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, similarly, you can probably remove and replace a whole vanity unit and sink.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um if you match or exceed the existing footprint, you won't reveal any missing tile underneath.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: You can make one-to-one replacements of wall-mounted elements like mirrors and light fixtures, uh, towel bars, etc.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you have to destroy the tile, um you are probably destroying all of the tile.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's really hard even to stop at a corner and then feel like whatever you put in that's new will properly complement and not make the old tile look bad.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: The old tile or the new tile is gonna make the other one look bad.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: And as I've said earlier in this episode, it is possible with effort to recreate a mid-century style of tile.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: Number one point to consider is you need a bullnosed edge.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: Do not allow a Schluter situation to come into the play.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but this is yeah.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: So this is kind of the question you're gonna be doing math on.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: When you are talking about a mid-century bath update, how far you're going to go will be driven by how much you need to do and what was the underlying purpose of changing the bathroom in the first place?
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: To fix something, to fit it better to your life, or because it's in the way of other things.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: This has been a little bit of a ramble of an episode, but hopefully it's given you some useful food for thought.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna point you to the show notes page for this case in particular.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: Go check out midmod-midwest.com slash 2507 for links to all the other episodes that I've mentioned today, and particularly to grab for yourself if you don't already have it, that Midmod Bath Essentials uh PDF that will sort of give you a checklist of all the spaces and considerations to consider to bear in mind as you plan a great mid-century update.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: One way or another, whether you're addressing every space in your entire house or just dipping your toe in the water with one small mid-century bathroom update project, the mid-century master plan method is going to be your guide star for making smart choices that stand you in good stead to avoid trends, to really assure that your money is spent well to fit the space to the life you want to live in it, and to help you communicate smoothly with contractors, whether they're experienced in mid-century bathrooms or not, to get the look that you're looking for and the quality that you're looking for.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: If you need help at any point with planning a mid-century bath update, I'd love to chat with you about it.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: Schedule a consult call through the link on my website, or roll in a bathroom update with a bigger mid-mod remodel master plan.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: And let's talk about how to make strong choices for your house over this phase one or multiple phases of projects over the next few years.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be back next season with storage solutions for mid-century houses.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm actually really excited about the season topic because A everyone that I've ever talked to about their mid-century house needs more space for their stuff.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: And B, storage solutions can be such a twofer in mid-century design.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: They can be practical, they can be effective, and they can also add beauty and style and charm.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna talk about how to work with basement entertainment units, how to dress up your living room, how to plan closet replacements for your otherwise existing mid-century bedrooms that will level them up 100% in terms of both charm and effective storage space, and a whole bunch of other things that will come up.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: So stay tuned for those episodes dropping in October.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: And in the meantime, if you have any questions, just reach out through the links on my website and say hello.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to hear about your house and chat with you about how to make it more excellent in a mid model model.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: Catch you next season, Mid Model Modelers.