Mum transforms room into 'dive bar toilet' - 'you can smell urine from photos'

17 February 2024 , 07:26

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Valerie Pickering with her husband Dave who made the grungy transformation (Image: Kennedy News & Media)

A mum has transformed her bathroom into a retro 'dive bar toilet', with people claiming "you can smell urine just from the photos".

Valerie Pickering always wanted to remodel their "gross" guest bathroom, and it became a running joke with her husband Dave that they would keep it as a "seedy bathroom". She was inspired by her lifelong interest in the punk rock venues, music, and movies of Seattle's '90s grunge scene - home of Nirvana.

The couple painted the bathroom in a garish orange to replicate the '90s-style club bathroom walls, made from brick and plywood. The walls are covered in graffiti spray paint, that references various movies and music from the era, including Rock Lobster by the B-52s.

The grimy toilet was inspired by the Nirvana-era rock dive bars (Kennedy News & Media)

Stickers from the couple's favourite bands and local artists at their nearby record store also decorate the walls - with the whole transformation only costing £159. Valerie, from Seattle, Washington, US, said: "To have someone come over and see the rest of our house and then suddenly walk downstairs and see that - we thought it would be a fun idea.

"We've had a few friends come over so far and they're always so excited. A couple of them have brought their own pens. I actually had a couple of people start sending me some stickers of bands to put up on the walls. Some bands I had never heard of.

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"The biggest thing was trying to figure out what colour the walls are supposed to be. In my head they were always black or white. But I went through a lot of pictures to discover that those bathrooms were brick or plain plywood. So we picked those colours to really get that feel about it. It was a little worry because it's bright orange, but as soon as we put it up and put that spray paint on it we could see it."

Guests were encouraged to leave their own graffiti (Kennedy News & Media)

The bathroom makeover was more of 'makeunder' and was made to look like bars of the era (Kennedy News & Media)

Graffiti usually features violent and sometimes offensive language, but Valerie wanted to make it a welcoming space for her family home, as well as visitors, so has made her graffiti more positive. It included lines like 'Worst toilet in Scotland', referencing the infamous scene from Trainspotting, and 'can you dig it?' from the '90s rock band Mock Turtles.

Other slogans include 'we're not gonna take it, 'just do it' and 'no shame'. Valerie said: "When you go to these venues, sure, there are terrible things on the walls, but often there are positive things. The experiences themselves are positive and the places are positive. It's not unusual to see on the bathroom window 'I think you're beautiful'.

"So I wanted to bring that in and keep the positivity in my own house. I want to have a good, positive, warm vibe in my home and I think I pulled that off. I think I nailed it."

Valerie's interest in grunge and punk rock started from a young age. She said: "I grew up in Seattle in the '90s in the grunge scene so we have clubs like that all over Seattle. I've worked in dive bars and been around the scene my whole life. We listen to lots of punk in our house. We watch these kinds of movies. So we thought it would be a really funny thing to do."

Despite pride in her new bathroom, Valerie never thought it would gain so much attention.

(Kennedy News & Media)

(Kennedy News & Media)

She said: "The reaction was crazy, I had no idea it was going to go that crazy." Many Facebook users took to the comments to praise the creativity and authenticity. One user said: "I can literally smell wee on the floor just looking at the photos #authentic."

Another user said: "Now you just have to take a massive dump and not flush it." A third said: "My brain knows it's clean but my eyes are thinking grime [laughing emoji]. I love it. I especially love the orange paint." A fourth added: "Also need to forget to replace Tp [toilet paper]... add some fake puke and empty drinks and used pregnancy test and condoms."

For other people, it brought back memories for some who had frequented dive bars in the '90s. One said: "I love it. But when I look I smell urine. Lol. But I’m not hating on it. Just having flashbacks." Another added: "I can smell it from here."

Graeme Murray