Sunday, August 13, 2017

Leftovers Day 13 -- Little Pink Houses for You and Me

Back in 2015 I attended the estate sale of a bona fide hoarder. On the property was a dump where the homeowners threw out things they apparently no longer needed, but couldn't let completely go (or maybe they just refused to pay for trash service).  I decided to take a look through the dump just to see what I might find.  I came across a disintegrating cardboard box filled with pink plastic wall tiles.



There were over 300 pieces along with matching gray boarder and corner trim.


Growing up, we had similar tile in our kitchen except it was yellow and gray.  I remember when a tile would fall off the wall, my mother would use chewing gum to stick it back up.

In the 1950's, America went crazy for pink due to the then First Lady's love of the color. According to savethepinkbathrooms.com, Mamie Eisenhower's pink passion stemmed from her belief she looked best when dressed in it. She decorated all of her homes in the color including the White House when Ike became president in 1954.  The love of Mamie and her favorite color swept America filling our bathrooms and kitchens in a plethora of pink. The fad lasted into the early 1960's when a changing world and decorative tastes turned its backs on the innocence of the 50's.

There has been a resurgence of pink love in the past decade and more people are preserving the remaining pink time capsules.

I ended up selling the tiles on eBay and while I didn't make a fortune on them, I was satisfied that they were going to be put back into use. Mamie would be pleased.

3 comments:

  1. our front bathroom is pink - actually, more precisely, it's "dusty rose," which was popular in the late 1920s/early 1930s through to the 1950s, i believe. we have a pink tub, sink, and toilet, and when we did a light remodel of the space about 8 years ago we were thrilled to find hex tile in the same shade. we used it as accent tiles on the floor. of course, i'm familiar with the "Save the pink bathrooms" site -- they were invaluable when i was looking for resources on a new toilet seat for our pink toilet, among other things. i almost submitted pix of our bathroom to them, but i never got around to it. i love pink bathrooms!

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    1. I didn't realize there was a prior pink (or at least Dusty Rose) trend in America.

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    2. me neither. it's one of the things i learned scouring the internet (and sites like that Save the Pink Bathrooms site) looking for info on our fixtures.

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