Carpet in the bathroom isn't just a US thing, I remember avocado bathroom suites with carpet going up the side of the bath, matching mats and toilet seat covers, and reeded glass windows.
Who else used to pull the removable ring pulls apart and flick them at each other in class?
yes on the mat and the toilet seat covers. I found an ad here a while ago talking about the need to match toilet paper to both of those, and those would've been keyed to the color scheme in the bathroom (most of the 30s-50s bathrooms here in the states have matching tile, tub, sink and toilet and the colors are bold like the cars were at the time. )
At some point around 1970, the toilet seat covers went to wood and colored tubs maybe came in fridge colors at the time at best (Avocado, a dull gold, etc).
The toilet paper ad, at any rate, talked about the shame you'd endure if people came to your color matched bathroom only to find garish white toilet paper clashing with everything.
I also recall seeing shields that went over the toilet paper so that you couldn't see the roll.
When I was a youth, there were decorative hand towels for the bathroom and kitchen. We were not to use them, they were for show for the guests. In the bathroom hung behind the decorative towels was a grungy towel that you could use to dry your hands, removed if we had company.
Kitchen, same - towels were kept out of sight for use. I think that era of fake neatness is over here, at least in the middle class where I reside.
Before I did our kitchen, there were a couple of fold away fixtures that could be used to dry the "real" towels, while the decorative ones maintained their place on the oven handle, etc. Same with a dish cloth over the sink - a fold away wire contraption that you could use to dry cloths day to day, but then fold it away and hide it if company was coming.
