First Lady Mamie Eisenhower popularized the pink bathroom trend.

First Lady Mamie Eisenhower, 1954

At least 57 women have held the title of first lady of the United States, but not many have had colors named after them. One was Eleanor Roosevelt, whose inaugural gown was of a hyacinth hue that came to be known as Eleanor Blue, and another was Mamie Eisenhower, who was so tickled by a certain color that her favorite shade was nicknamed Mamie Pink. It wasn’t just her dresses that were pink, however, as she adorned so much of the White House residence in the color that reporters called it “the Pink Palace.” That included the bathroom, beginning a trend that there’s still evidence of in midcentury homes today.

Bathrooms had been styled a sanitary white for decades, and the move toward a brighter, happier color has been identified as a visual marker of the postwar optimism that defined the 1950s. It wasn’t just a few Mamie-heads who got in on the action: It’s been estimated that as many as one in four American homes built between 1946 and 1966 had some form of pink bathroom. The trend fell out of favor as the Cold War and space race resulted in a shift toward a colder, more futuristic aesthetic, but many midcentury houses still sport bathrooms full of Mamie Pink.

By the Numbers

Did you know?

Dwight D. Eisenhower never saw active combat.

Despite spending more than three decades in the armed forces, most notably as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force during World War II, the 34th president never saw active combat. He enlisted in 1915 and requested an overseas appointment once the U.S. entered World War I, but he was never deployed; by the time WWII broke out decades later, he was already one of the country’s foremost generals. As a five-star general who orchestrated the D-Day invasion, Eisenhower was an immensely important part of America’s successful war effort; he was also beloved at home as a result, hence his two landslide victories in 1952 and 1956.