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1950s Kitchen Color Schemes

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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.

How to Decorate With Retro Colored Appliances

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There are many appliances available in kitchen retro colors now. Many of the older appliance companies, like Viking are now making these appliances in colors that suit different eras from the past. For instance Viking is making an entire line of gas stoves, fridges and steel cabinets in that long lost color from seventies known as Harvest Gold. You can also get colors from the seventies in the Viking brand in colors like Golden Mist, Apple Red, Mint Julep and Pumpkin. The Mint Julep really does resemble the avocado color from years ago and the Pumpkin is really a bright orange.

Any of these colors look absolutely fantastic when it comes to replicating a kitchen from the 1940s. The best colors though would be a maternity pink or green. Light pastels were common in that era as were white. Make sure there is lots of silver hardware on these appliances as well.

When it comes to the sixties you can star looking at all kinds of amazing colors including dove gray, creams, ivories, steel green, forest green, oranges, dark blues and purples. The colors get even intenser in color as the seventies arrive and that is when we get the odd puces and pumpkin colors that characterized the era. If you are shopping vintage look for doors with smoky glass fronts and fine varnished details. Yet another thing to look for is two-tone appliances. Sometimes you will find a stove that has a bit of harvest gold graduating into the green or a green with a touch of orange in it. You find one of these it is like finding a really great old vintage tie-dyed t-shirt.

Appliances from the eighties and nineties tend to be heavier with a dark burgundy, red, black or dark blue flair to them. Mustard, copper and mint green colors were also very popular in the eighties.

Once you start getting past the eighties the colors start becoming harder and more metallic. The appliance of preference is made out of glass and brushed metal.

They did not really have appliances as we know them in the Victorian era because most things were porcelain or cast iron. When in doubt it is best to go with a white colored with lots of black detail if you are trying to make an old Victorian home look as authentic as possible. However some of the old rounded fridges in green or red do suit a Victorian or Edwardian style home as well.