Save the Pink Bathrooms
Our goal:
A gazillion people pledged to preserve vintage pink bathrooms.
Maybe you have a pink bathroom. Or you just love them.
All are welcome.
Your Comment is your Pledge…
and while you’re there, share your pink reveries.

And, be sure to visit my main site: RetroRenovation.com

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Add your photo to our Flickr group: Save the Pink Bathrooms

Tags: pink bathrooms

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Lou writes:

I hereby pledge to prevent the pulverization of period perfect pink potties and to persevere over pressure to part with my practical pedestal where my pint size prince and princess piddle…I Promise!

Please pause and peruse the SaveThePinkBathrooms.com photos and pledges, if possible. Pretty prone to perk you up promptly. Praise to poet Lou.

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This post originally ran on RetroRenovation.com in March 2008 — leading a 5-day segment featuring 61 Mamie Pink vintage kitchens.

Image: Library of Congress

“Mamie Pink.” The iconic decorating color of the 50s, arguably. Ubiquitous in fashion as well as 50s bathrooms and kitchens, of course!

The mid-century trend to pink seems to have come directly and irrefutably from Mamie Eisenhower, first lady from 1953 to 1961. Pink was Mamie’s favorite color. She wore a pink gown with 2,000 pink rhinestones to Ike’s inauguration. Ike sent her pink flowers every morning. Her bathroom in Gettysburg was pink down to the cotton balls. She re-decorated the private quarters in the White House in pink. So much so that reporters called it the “Pink Palace.” The color also seems to have been known as “First Lady Pink.” As a result of all this pink-think, there was probably no question that American women (and marketers) would pick up on it. It also was a color trend right in line with the exuberance of the time — and even supportive of the return of women to the home after WWII and their complete remaking of the American domestic landscape.

In fact, my own informal research from scouring marketing materials from the period indicates that pink kitchens and baths arrived solidly in ‘53, reached a total frenzy in 1957, then pretty rapidly started to fade after that, as other trends took hold. A typical adoption curve for a trend like this.

I have an aquamarine kitchen – the decorating gods sided with my husband on this decision. But I really truly wanted pink. I have to admit, a total fixation.

Meanwhile: Here’s a nice story about Mamie:

All About Mamie

By Jan Biles, The Capital-Journal (Topeka, Kansas), Published Sunday, November 18, 2007

Not much is known about Mamie Doud Eisenhower.

She was a dutiful wife and mother who stood in the background as her husband, Dwight, excelled in his military career during World War II and then led the country from the Oval Office as the 34th president from 1953 to 1961.  Read more here on the newspaper’s website – well worth it!

Tags: first lady pink, Mamie Eisenhower, mamie pink, pink kitchens, Retro kitchen

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Yes, evolutionary biology pretty much answers all questions about why we like anything. Our partners. Chocolate. Pink bathrooms…. Our preferences are hard-wired into our brains (which reach all the way down to our stomachs) back to caveman and cavewoman days. Why pink? Well…for women, scientists hypothesize that our senses are honed to the color as part of our historic hunting-and-gathering role. Those of us who can spot the bright red berries — survive! Hey, it sounds good to me, I like berries a lot, too. Read more here.

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In her comment, g left an amazing passage from A.S. Byatt’s novel Possession – all about a pink bathrooms. Gave me an excuse to make a Wordle, which I’ve been wanting to do.

Click through for the complete passage:
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Check out these pink bathrooms that have been featured on RetroRenovation.com:

Tags: pink bathrooms

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