Have you seen Jane Powell's book "Bunglow Bathrooms"? It might give you some inspiration on interesting older styles that you can work with and give a modern twist. I really like her books.

Go to the HGTV site and mess around there. I found one section of it with HUNDREDS of pictures of bathrooms done in all styles from modern, to arts and crafts, to traditional.

On ebay, do a search for old bathroom advertisements. I went looking for some to use as artwork in our new bath, and I had had a free history lesson in the search process.

Hi, I realize this is a posting from 2007 but when I read it after all the web surfingI have done and found nothing to help me I couldn't believe it, I thought I had written this myself. I have the same bathroom issue and color and was curious what you ended up doing In your bathroom. I have the peach tile from 1940 chest high and the small subway mosaic tile on the floor. I also have a chest high tile modesty wall between toilet and sink? I can't figure out what color to paint since tearing out the tile would be very expensive and I'm not sure I rally want to be rid of it. I feel like it's much more sanitary. I want to remodel but am having so much trouble finding a sink to fill in the area. It is so small and the door opens right next to the sink. I'm guessing they designed much differently in the 40s. I'd love to see pics of your remodel. Thanks, Kim Teague

Kim,
I don't know if you've been to the Retro Renovation site. They have a lot of pics and articles on colors from the era etc. I think there's info on sourcing fixtures too.

I have three bathrooms from the 40's and have decided to keep them intact but have been looking for ideas to "update" them so I feel your pain. You really have to search around the site, I don't think it is organized very well and I often miss info I'm looking for the first go around.

Here is a link that might be useful: retro renovation

Thank you skyedog for the link, it was very helpful. I think I have determined that I have the original Crane tub (color- Sun Tan), unfortunately the toilet and sink were removed before we purchased our home. I did find one link to purchase a "new" Crane sink in Sun Tan that someone found along with the tub, toilet, etc the whole set, imagine that, such old stuff found in original packing and never opened. Whether or not it is affordable remains to be seen or whether it is still available, maybe I will hear back from the gentleman today. If not, I think I will keep looking for the original sink style and color and hold out, sooner or later one has to turn up that is affordable....right? Lol. Now my biggest hurdle is finding a paint color to go with my sun tan fixtures, lighter tan tile with salmon trim.......all my samples are yuck! matching the salmon trim looks to fleshy and since I have no sample to color match it's a trial and error thing. I'm thinking sable brown might be the way to go rather than color. Anyway, thank you for the link.

Kim, try the link I"ve added here--lots of pics of period rooms, especially kitchens and baths.
You might keep an eye on Craigslist for the fixtures, if no one else has them. Also, Freecycle.
How about a nice light coral for the color? Sherwin Williams had a nice period color I used in mine.

Here is a link that might be useful: Picasa House Pics

Could you carefully remove the vanity wall, using some of the tile from it to patch the wall it abuts? I don't know what you could use to patch the floor... But anyway, just a thought on how you could get a bit more room for the sink.

That is a good suggestion and when I mentioned it to my husband he thought so too but after looking at it we both just really like the wall....go figure. I think we have decided on a wall mount sink in bone until we can find the correct vintage color sink to match the tub. Everytime I think I'm sure of the color I find another that is so similar. I wish there was a clue at the brand of tub and color somewhere on it. I did go to sherwin williams and get their period paint samples and found a color I like. It was almost comical when we took the light fixture off there a small spec left of the original paint color. I guess when we took the wallpaper down and painted ourselves when we first bought the home we had forgotten about the peach paint (it matches the sherwin williams sample perfectly) now to figure out the color of the tub.