Great vintage bathroom. What is your budget range for current changes? Paint , lighting or replacing countertop?

What are you replacing in there? The vanity? Mirror ( I hope ), etc.

Going to try to keep it around or under 3 grand if at all possible. Yes looking to replace everything just don’t have a clear vision of how.

Yes looking to replace everything just don’t have a clear vision of how.

Then the best way is to live with it for a few months and it will tell you what it wants.

Try the retrorenovation website - there is TONS of information and ideas about 1960's bathrooms

3K -I'd concentrate on the vanity area, if it's not in a good shape/you dislike it

I'm not sure you can afford/should mess with the tub..if you don't like glass doors(I like the look but I tend to get bruises from metal fames lol..but then I'm clumsy. They also are very hard to keep clean)-you can change those, put a shower curtain.

Yes, this tile is definitely worth working with.

One either likes things or doesn't. If you like it and it's not broken-who cares whether it's outdated? It's beautiful, and works in your space.

(same goes with "updated"-if it doesn't make sense and I don't find it beautiful, or reasonably nice-I really don't care what year it is, and what month.)

Vanity is a bit different sensibility, and countertop might be worn, faucet might be too old etc-so I can see one wanting to change the vanity.

(truth to be told I might try and change only countertops, if the wood is solid..but I tend not to change big things unless they really make no sense to me, or irritate me for some logical or illogical reasons, or make my life more miserable on daily basis (say white slippery tiles)

I think it's a great bath overall

Don't touch the tile, as said above the vertical lay is very up-to-date. Remove the shower doors and replace with a white curtain. Change floor to plain white 12 x 18 tiles. New white vanity with white top. New lighting. Tub stays, as do all the "built-in" ceramic holders, bars. A plus would be if you can find a sink that matches. It's going to look great.

I llike the floor too. Everything looks to be in great shape. I am not fond of the cabinets, but, I would never change the mirror. I have a mirror very much like that in my own vintage bathroom. I have a lavender tub and a lavender sink.

keep tiles as is, (just be careful when removing that vanity)

change floor, mirror and look into doing a cool mcm style vanity. top w/some recycled glass or quartz countertop. the warm walnut would look so nice w/the blue tiles. (which are in great shape).

check craigslist or local vintage shops for mcm dressers/credenzas.

you can buy these walnut vanities outright, I was trying to give you a cheaper option. if you have some basic DIY skills, you can find an old dresser like these for a few hundred, cut a hole for plumbing, modify a drawer and top w/countertop and sink. that first pic I posted is exactly what they did.

this vanity w/these blues will look amazing. I'd refinish your vintage lights by spraying the metallic w/metallic paint. do a wall mount faucet like shown above.

I'd do cement tile or these porcelain cement look-alikes for your flooring.

this one is from RetroRenovation and can match the exact color of your tiles.

https://retrorenovation.com/2012/07/03/an-atomic-1950s-designmood-board-for-kates-master-bathroom-remodel/

Just be aware that to swap out that original tile is to lose value. People are beginning to appreciate those old baths these days. I wouldn't touch it.

Your budget is very small for even a low-end Big Box re-do. Keep it as is until you've lived there a while, better understand your own wants and needs and how well everything in this space works (or doesn't!). Then save until you can do it right. I agree - kind like the tile, hate the tub and vanity, but no way the tub can come out without serious damage to the tile. That's why previous owners in my house had it resurfaced. When you're ready, see if making it white is an option if you still want to keep the tile.

Thank you all so much for the suggestions! This has been so helpful! I’m glad the tile is worth saving!

I love the blue bathtub too - you hardly see them anymore. It's an oldie but goodie.

Like others have said, I would concentrate of the vanity area, and what I would do is use a white solid surface top like Corian, mirror the wall up to the ceiling to fill that whole area and get simpler inexpensive ball pendants.

That tile is probably Daltile Keystones in the Waterfall color. I finished a bathroom in that tile (in 2 x 2) a few years back, and I am finishing up a bathroom with one wall of tile in 2 x 4 set like your tile on a vertical grid, so I am partial to this look.

The mix of modernism and 1960s regency (vanity, lights, and ornate towel ring) was pretty common, so it is authenitic. It would be relatively simple to go purely modern by changing just the vanity and the lights, but it my area that would cost every bit of your $3000 to get it done right.

I'd keep the wall tiles and work with them as others have suggested.

If you can get the skiddy strips off the tub floor, that would remove a significant amount of the ick factor from it. If you google around there are a number of ways to approach that.

We had the Rubbermaid flowers in yellow and green to match the original wallpaper and we did get them off the cast iron tub without a trace .

Very nice bathroom overall. I would take the plastic paper towel holder off the wall, remove the strips from the bathtub floor, and replace the vanity top with a similar laminate top if it is looking worn. Keep the blue tile, blue tub, and blue accessories. Look to https://retrorenovation.com/ for inspiration.

I would suggest trying to find a blue sink, but I know that is difficult, if not impossible, from trying to do the same thing with my retro renovated 1950s blue bathroom.

Adore your bathroom, including blue tub. Excellent advice to live w/it til you get a feel for what your priorities are.

if it were mine, I’d replace glass door w/shower curtain and install a floating cabinet, white or light colored wood, along the lines of what Beth H posted above.

ps: non slip strips easy to remove but don’t discard possibility you might need an anti slip tub rug.

Also there aren't too many bathrooms left of this era - everyone want the "houzz" look. Your bathroom looks like it could be getting on towards 60 years old now, and you could make it an intentional unique feature. Really think about it. You already said you loved so many of the features of your house. Baldwin has great ideas

Look for a blue toilet too - it will be a labour of love

Peerless was still making blue toilets a year or so ago. Don't know if they've stopped since then, but worth checking.

Some places for blue toilets and sinks:

https://retrorenovation.com/2016/02/15/pink-gold-blue-beige-toilets-where-to-buy/

I have seen many blue sinks, in excellent condition at Habitat restore. I have also seen blue toilets there. I am often in that area looking, because, I have been looking for the lavender toilet to go with my tub and sink, for a few years now. Apparently lavender wasnt as popular as the blues, greens, golds, etc.

You can lay a wood look luxury vinyl plank floating floor over the floor tile. Maybe a bleached or weathered look. If the vanity is in good shape you can paint it white or pale grey. You should be able to find a white marble look quartz remnant for the vanity top. The shower doors have to go unless you're staying very vintage. Maybe a zig-zag white and teal shower shower curtain

I love the tile! I agree with others on here about living with it for a while. The only thing I would do now is take out the shower doors and replace with a white long shower curtain.

If you changed (took down ) your curtain, removed the carpet in front of the bathtub, removed the paper towel holder, found some awesome mcm light fixtures, removed stuff from counter, found a vintage handtowel to hang in your round towel holder, and put some interesting 1960's ceramics on your counter, your washroom would look completely different - and none of them are expensive changes.

found some awesome mcm light fixtures,

There are several posts to the effect that it should be more mcm, but it's already 100% real mcm, so I'm confused.

If you do remove the shower doors and replace them with a curtain, I suggest going the custom route with a fun mid-century print you could use for a window curtain as well.

Your wall tile is fabulous!

This is a completely authentic mix of midcentury modern (tile) and midcentury Regency, (lighting, vanity base, towel ring).

So right now it is midcentury, but it's not really Mid Century Modern, not it a pure form. I grew up in a midcentury house that was colonial revival and while the bathrooms are clearly 1960s they only real "Modernism" is the faucets and the lighting in one bathroom. You can tell when they are from, but they are far from modernist overall.

Retrorenovation calls some forms of interiors like this Mid Century Modest, but sometimes the houses are bigger than modest, so there is blurring of terms. It's imperfect terminology, really.

Yes, that is all very true, palimpsest, but you know as well as I do that "mid-century modern" is almost wholly a construct of the 21st century. At the time there was modern, sure, absolutely, but styles were very rarely as pure as they need to be today, so that it was perfectly normal to have a room with a lot of modern scandinavian furniture and a Sheraton secretary or an early American sampler.

Our dining room in the 60s, for instance, had my mother's ultra modern (late 30s ultra modern) cherry slab dining furniture with wrapped brass handles on the sideboard, but all the art except for one portrait was 18th century engravings and it would never have occurred to anyone that it was a faux pas to do that. I can imagine what the decor forum would say about a room like that today.

So I don't wonder that the folks over at retrorenovation flounder so trying to come up with names for it all.

ETA I'm pretty sure that if anyone had asked mom in what style her house was decorated, she would have looked puzzled a moment and then said, "mine." :)