31 retro yellow kitchens from the 50s & 60s: Sunny midcentury home 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: 7 old-fashioned gas ranges for ’50s kitchens

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

Retro yellow kitchens: Do it in a day with Frigidaire appliances!

No muss — no fuss — no waiting! You bring breathtaking new beauty, time-saving ease, work-eliminating convenience into your kitchen with your very first 1962 Frigidaire appliance. In most cases, it takes only minutes to install.

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

Old-fashioned yellow kitchen with blue accents (1950)

Retro lemon yellow kitchen appliances from the 1950s

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