If you own a mid-century home you might be wondering how you are going to renovate it to make it look authentic. Luckily lots of painting charts from major painting companies still exist and can actually help instruct you on making the most ideal color choices possible.
Here are a few absolutely authentic ideas as to how to use color to make the colors in your 1950s era home look authentic.
When painters approached a vintage kitchen years ago they often painted the bottom cabinets a different color than the upper ones. This is one indication that the décor is from the fifties (aside from the memories that the actual colors bring back to us as memories.
For instance one popular combination would be to have grey colored lower cabinets and white upper cabinets showcased against a celadon green backlash. The kitchen counters and the floor would both be a bright crimson red. Another combination might be both upper and lower cupboards in a misty forest green, a brown floor, a pearl grey counter and a pumpkin colored backsplash.
Montone combinations were popular too. The upper cupboards would be a light forest green and the lower cupboards would be a dark forest green. The counter would be a mustard yellow and the backsplash would have a green, red and cream patterned wallpapaer on it.
Gray and yellow combinations were also quite popular with bright yellow cupboards paired with floors, backsplashes and counters in dark reds and burgundy browns.
Pink and mint green were popular combinations for kitchens. It would be quite common to see a red or almost brown ceramic colored floor paired with mint green cupboards and an aspirin pink backplash. The counter itself would be a pearl white color.
Combining natural wood with painted wood is also a very fifties thing to do. It was quite common to leave all of the lower cupboards in their natural wood state and then paint all of the upper cupboards white or yellow. Mints and teal colors would serve for the backsplashes. All wood kitchen cupboards were not as common but they too would be paired with dark greens, mint greens and reds and sometimes teals, reds and pinks.
Once you have painted your kitchen cupboards don’t forget to update them by adding historically correct looking drawer pulls and cupboard knobs as that can make all the difference as to how authentic your kitchen restoration looks in the end too.