Too Bad About Color Tile

Of course I just foolishly watched The Five Doctors twice through, the second time for the commentary, so it's quite late now. So here's a brief rundown on one of the issues John and I are facing on crumbling Casa Blocher, the Museum of the Weird.

This is the bath/shower in "my" bathroom, the one that's just off the library and the storage room rather than the master bedroom. It's never been restored since an anti-mold crew removed the wallpaper and gouged the walls two years ago. A week or so ago, John replaced the faucet handles on the tub, one of which had cracked and would no longer turn off properly. A few days ago, the tiles started coming down. So John cleared out some tiles, and covered the area with plastic and tape. Today we went to look at tiles to redo the bathroom, or at least the bathtub walls.


John insists on calling these ucky ochre tiles "green." They do have a greenish cast to them, but really they're sort of a brownish yellow. I kind of like the style of them, but the color has never been good, whatever you decide to call it. They are offset by a white tub and toilet, salmon blinds, a pinkish-beige sink, brown cabinet and a terra cotta floor. Add that to the wallpaper that used to be there and you get a whole mess of colors that don't quite work together.



At one time I wanted to redo the bathroom in industrial futurism, with lots of gray and silver and chrome. I've long since changed my mind, however. I want to retile now in turquoise (actually the tiles we found today are labeled Azul), edged with white and maybe yellow for the Mâvarin color palette. Right now I'm leaning toward a row of yellow at top and bottom, a double block of azul along the edges of each wall, and the rest in white. But really we'll have to measure and plan, and maybe find a program for previewing rooms according to shapes and color schemes.

We haven't found a good floor tile yet, or a sink, or a cabinet in the right color. The truth is that it's very hard to get colorful fixtures in Tucson, AZ. When I was a kid, there was a chain called Color Tile. They're long gone, but what we need is a company that fulfills the promise of that name. Unfortunately, 90% of the tiles we saw today at Loew's and Home Depot are beige and tan, terra cotta and brown. Phooey. We want 1950s colors for our midcentury home: turquoise and salmon and such, not an endless supply of earthtones.

"So when can we go shopping in the 50s?" John asked.

If only.

Karen