A ’70s Sunken Tub Was the One Thing That Stayed in This Retro Bathroom Refresh

PublishedAug 14, 2022 1:00 AM EDT

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OK so it wasn’t the arched metal fireplace or the throwback-cocktail-worthy wet bar that made Sam Ushiro and her partner Kyle fall for their 1979 home (they’re only the second family to ever own it!). It was the grooviest detail of all: that sunken tub in the main bathroom.

The rest of the space, though? Painfully retro—and not in a cute way. There was dingy black and white tile that the designer and Aww Sam blogger immediately diagnosed as “low energy,” plus the layout was super cramped. Bringing this house back to life meant a full demo and committing to a single hue. Like, a LOT of it.

“Yellow is one of my favorite colors and it just feels like such a joyous, energizing shade to start your day with,” says Ushiro. “Spending every morning getting ready in the bathroom, I needed a space that lifted me up and made me smile.”

Looking back, the one thing she’d do differently is wait for everything to be delivered before starting any of the work (“So there wouldn’t be as many delays!” she says). Here, Ushiro spills how she honored the bathroom’s past while bringing in all the sunshine.

Plenty needed modernizing, from the floor tile to some structural stuff, but Ushiro did want to honor a few key original features. “We always intended to stay true to the style with the whole house, and even push it further so it looked like it could’ve stepped right out of the ’70s,” she says. That sunken tub wasn’t going anywhere, and neither was the vanity’s tiled countertop—well, the idea of it, at least.

A new base in a lighter wood finish better complements Ushiro’s fresh spin on the gridded surface: canary yellow squares. The tub’s bones stayed intact, but it got a glow-up with brass fixtures (golden in their own right) and two sizes of light-reflecting glass tile. The same, but just different enough.

One of the biggest tasks Ushiro had to nail? Matching alllll those yellows, from the flooring to the towels to the wall hooks. “It was made easier by always having a tile sample on hand,” she notes. “Whenever we knew we’d be shopping, we brought it with us so we could match colors as closely as possible.”

The tub will always be the star of the show, but Ushiro tracked down pieces from the ’60s and ’70s to authentically amp up the groovy factor in every corner. Some of her favorite finds: porthole-esque mirrors, a space-age stool, “and the coolest toilet paper holder I’ve ever seen.”

Before, the toilet nook felt way smaller than it actually was, thanks to a wall of bulky built-in cabinets. Ushiro couldn’t nix the valuable storage altogether, but she could totally reimagine it. Taking cues from the round vanity mirrors, she designed inset arched shelving that takes up half the cupboards’ footprint. “We knew we wanted the toilet area to have its own distinguishing feature,” she explains. Mission accomplished.

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