The rise of yellow kitchens in midcentury homes wasn’t just about aesthetic appeal. The postwar years brought a wave of optimism, and Americans showed that spirit in their decorating choices. Yellow, often seen as cheerful and clean, became a go-to color for kitchens. It was a practical choice too, helping to reflect light and make even small kitchens feel more open.
By the mid-50s, yellow was making its way into everything from cabinets and countertops to small appliances and utensils. At trade shows in places like Chicago and New York, major appliance makers and housewares companies pushed yellow as the hot new color. One housewares expert at the time even declared yellow as the new number one, with red falling out of favor and pink being declared officially over.
Throughout the 1950s and into the 60s, yellow kitchens took on many forms. Some leaned into pale pastels paired with chrome or stainless steel. Others added bold contrasts, like black and white checkerboard floors or turquoise tile. These combinations made each kitchen feel unique, even as the yellow theme stayed consistent. The color was used in sleek steel cabinets, laminate counters and even matching appliances.
Yellow kitchens remained a popular choice well into the 60s, often adapted to fit both country-style and more modern interior looks. They served as a bright backdrop for the new technologies and layouts that made midcentury kitchens more functional than ever. Looking back, these spaces tell a lot about how Americans blended style with practicality during that era.
Below, we’ve gathered a huge collection of original photos and vintage articles. They give a great look at the trends and choices that shaped this sunny kitchen style.
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Vintage yellow and blue kitchen from 1956
50s kitchen decor: Style trend in housewares features yellow (1956)
Better repaint your pink pots and change your turquoise towels, ma’am: The stylish new housewares are all yellow.
A unanimous trend toward yellow, for everything from rolling pins to garbage cans, was shown at the furniture market in Chicago, and confirmed by the International Housewares Show in New York.
Yellow has even nudged out red, the number one housewares color for years. Plastic housewares expert Irving Levine of Forth Worth, Texas, summed it up this way at the New York show: “Yellow is going to new heights, red is going down, and pink is dead. The pink-and-charcoal combination is very dead.”
Levine also said copper finishes are “laying an egg” this year, at least in plastic items.
Pink and charcoal disappear
Displays the Housewares Show backed up his opinion. Not a single booth showed any pink-and-charcoal, and most put turquoise where pink used to be.
As for copper, it was overshadowed by plain familiar chrome. Brass wasn’t as obvious as it used to be, either.
The move toward yellow in small kitchen items, including the trim on clothes-driers and the handles of brooms, matched the new yellow kitchen schemes shown in Chicago by all the big appliance makers.
The Housewares Show also displayed at least one other new style trend, and a variety of new gadgets. The style note was for black on the table — especially in serving dishes, plastic salad sets, and accessories such as pepper mills, pottery and figurines.
Yellow retro kitchen decor with black & white check floor (1959)
Yellow kitchen with red countertops and flooring (1950)
Yellow kitchen with aqua walls and turquoise green countertops (1950)
A basic all-yellow kitchen with white sink and appliances (1940)
ALSO SEE: See 10 old-fashioned gas ranges from 50s kitchens
Retro yellow kitchen with white and red accents (1960)
Midcentury kitchen in red & yellow
A simple yellow steel kitchen and appliances with stainless steel countertops and pink accents (1957)
A butter yellow kitchen and matching appliances 1956)
A rustic yellow kitchen with red countertops and pine windows and ceiling (1951)
A small yellow kitchen with green and blue accent walls and accessories (1957)
MORE: Old-fashioned family-centric kitchens from the ’50s & ’60s
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Yellow midcentury kitchen decor (1955)
More features than ever before in this all-new Capitol steel kitchen! Choose from twelve house and garden colors, including six new color-flecked finishes. New rounded contour design includes extra quality features like self-closing drawers, self-aligning doors, sit-down sinks, choice of handles and countertops.
Muted butter yellow kitchen tile and cabinetry (1940)
Yellow and green kitchen home decor (1940)
Retro yellow kitchens with aqua cabinetry & blue accents (1956)
Kitchen of pine accents and yellow cabinetry (1951)
ALSO SEE: See the mid-century modern Scholz Mark ’60 model home from 1960, inside & out
Yellow kitchen decor (1959)
Kitchen cabinets in yellow, with pale blue upper cabinetry (1956)
Retro yellow kitchens & midcentury appliances (1959)
Vintage yellow kitchen cabinets from 1958
1950s yellow kitchen with stainless steel fixtures
Bing Crosby’s yellow kitchen – Celebrity home (1957)
See why he chose a GAS Kook-Center for his own home! Bing says – “Make it a white Christmas! Give her a gas appliance!”
Modern gas ranges cook whole meals automatically… they’re faster and cleaner, too. And when you cook with gas, you have perfect control of cooking temperature on top of the range, in the oven, in the broiler…
MORE: See inside Bing Crosby’s house from 1950 for some classic celebrity style
Country-style vintage kitchen decor from 1951
Midcentury yellow kitchen cabinets and appliances from 1958
Old-fashioned yellow kitchen countertops and decor from the 50s
ALSO SEE: Retro shelf edging & lining paper from the ’50s & ’60s
Retro lemon yellow kitchen appliances from the 1950s
Old-fashioned yellow kitchen with blue accents (1950)
Vintage 50s kitchen with wood cabinets and yellow floor and paint
Vintage country kitchen with red countertops (1955)
Vintage pale yellow kitchen with two blue ovens (1950s)
ALSO SEE: See some iconic retro Colorama aluminum tumblers & vintage drinkware from the 50s & 60s
1950s kitchen decor you can buy today
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5 Responses
Perfectly hideous, lolol. Can you top with with 70s over-wallpapered kitchens?
Yes! Here are a few:
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A cute DIY kitchen divider made this small breakfast nook
How to wallpaper a ceiling step-by-step, plus 17 colorful examples of this retro home decor trend that’s made a comeback
Well, someone bad to have the bad taste. Congrats–it’s you.
Some of them are on the garish side,, but most of them look far better than the same old monochrome ugly of modern kitchens. Twenty years from now, everyone will be ridiculing the mindless conformity and outright ugliness of 2000s kitchens.
If I have to look at one more “modern” kitchen with granite countertops, adventurine floors steel appliances and clunky wood cabinets, I will scream.
It’s beyond ironic that morons of today lambast the 50s for its mindless conformity, when it was undoubtedly the decade that took the most risks and showed the most originality AND individuality in architecture and home decor.
I would love to find an intact 50s home. They knew how to decorate with taste and style, rather than trying too hard to be hip as so many tasteless fools do today.
Well said. While yellow might not be my personal first color choice even the worst of these kitchens are light years better than the bland, boring, generic, sterile, black, white, grey, stainless steel, granite, etc. abominations of today.
Certainly from an aesthetic standpoint this country is finished and never coming back.
There is no imagination these days.
Black houses with charcoal trim. Open concept with no defined spaces, all to make it easy for builders.
There is no color anymore. Black or white vehicles with an occasional red or blue. No color in the world.