Which floor tile for the 1963 blue bathroom? Elizabeth wants our help

Elizabeth wants our help: Which tile should she choose for the floor for her 1963 blue bathroom Retro Renovation. And fun: The renowned architects of the house built the Austin, Texas, airport, and Elizabeth is taking the color of the still-standing control tower as her color cues.

Hey, did I ever tell you that Elizabeth and husband A.B. traveled from Texas to Las Vegas last year to hear me speak and then attend the Nevada Preservation Foundation’s Home + History tour. {See all my stories from the event here.} It was super fun to meet them. Elizabeth: BFFs, for sure!

Elizabeth writes:

Hi Pam! I’ve been enjoying your stories, as usual. I mentioned to you recently that my husband has bought a 1963 house in Austin that has nine bathrooms. I’m ready to beg for your and your readers’ assistance on the first one.

Be forewarned, there is nothing original in this house. We did get the original floor plans from the Austin History Center, because the architects are locally reknown. (There were only two bathrooms originally!).

And did everyone notice: Elizabeth is wearing one of our “I Saved a Pink Bathroom” shirts!

Here is the powder bathroom of the foyer. Many of the bathrooms will have to stay as is, because we do want to move in sometime this decade. But this, the only public restroom on the main floor, is going back in time to 1963.

Our architects (Fehr & Granger) built our house in 1963. In 1961 they built the Austin airport, which is now gone except for the control tower. We are using the control tower colors as our theme for the house, which we named Sky Crest.

Here are the givens: new Dresden Blue toilet and sink from Peerless Pottery; I think the sink that drops into a floating vanity. We definitely want the Blue field tile from Gardena, Calif.,  through Clay Squared. The sticky decision is the floors:

#1 — shown above — Do we go with the Merola Crystalline Square Blue [See this tile in Pistachio on Kate’s floor] or …

#2 — above — American Olean in a Pinwheel or Windmill pattern, using Glacier, Ice White, and Ocean Tide? 

Thanks!!

Elizabeth

Thank you, Elizabeth, we love to decorate vicariously! And I LOVE that you are using the Austin airport control tower for color and pattern inspiration. Brilliant!

I have my own ideas, but I’ll let readers comment first.

Readers: Which flooring option:
The Merola splatter mosaic
— or —
A pattern involving American Olean unglased porcelains?

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