Bathrooms, before the 1920s, were often very utilitarian; but as the decade progressed, they became more decorative. Most Americans could not afford a large, luxurious bathroom but did strive for a room that was attractive that fit into their budgets. Homeowners looked to magazines such as "Ladies' Home Journal" and "The Saturday Evening Post" for ideas and style inspiration in the latest trends.
Style
Colonial Revival dominated the style of early 1920's homes with light colors and traditional styling. This interest began in 1880 as a response to the centennial of 1876 and the styles when the country was founded. As the decade moved forward, romantic aesthetics popular in English Revival, Spanish, European and Art Deco styles. Americans decorated their homes with the styles the servicemen saw during WWI, such as apricot-colored plaster walls, iron light fixtures and Tudor-arched doorways. This style translated to bathrooms, where decor and fashion became the norm.
Walls
Porcelain tiles were commonly used on bathroom walls in the 1920s because they were considered sanitary and easier to keep clean than other wall surfaces. The tiles were often square and used as a tub enclosure, as wainscoting or floor-to-ceiling. More affluent homes had wallpaper which was blank with no preprinted pattern, requiring an artist to paint a mural on the paper. Sears Roebuck began offering printed wallpaper as a much less expensive option. Wallboard and plaster walls were very durable and typically coated in dense, oil-based paint. High-fired vitreous glass walls, known as Sani-Onyx and Vitrolite, were other wall surface options available in a range of colors.
Plumbing
The most common sinks used in 1920's bathrooms were wall-hung, rolled-rim china or single pedestal types. Marble-topped vanities and porcelain sinks with two nickel-plated legs in front were much less common, reserved for more luxurious bathrooms. Old-fashioned claw-foot bathtubs were an economical choice, but many up-to-date tub styles fit into a corner or were recessed into an enclosure with a single side exposed. Showers were integrated into the tub rather than a separate stall.
Flooring
Hexagonal-shaped 1-inch porcelain tiles beautifully graced the floors of many 1920's bathrooms, often combined with a decorative border or geometric patterns. Wood floors were much less common due to the high maintenance and frequent sealing that were required. Linoleum was starting to be used in few bathrooms near the end of the decade.
Color
The end of WWI brought innovations in manufacturing, which meant new materials and colors were more widely available than ever before. The early '20s saw mostly soft neutrals and pastels, but Art Deco influenced design later in the decade with more saturated colors and bolder patterns. Around 1927, bath fixture manufacturers Kohler, Standard and Crane moved away from white and introduced sinks, tubs and toilets in a beautiful array of pastels and even dramatic black.
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