I constantly update the blog – and have now put all the pink kitchens into this little slide show. Have fun!

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51. One of my favorite pink kitchens EVER, created by the ingenious interior designers selling Armstrong floors:

52. Another kitchen from Armstrong floors. Notice the George Nelson bubble light, nice:

53. A mid-50s Beauty Queen kitchen marketed by, it looks like, Mrs. America!:

54. A new-to-me (and the Postwar Steel Forum) J&L Steel Kitchen:

55. Another Beauty Queen. I love the way that the photo melds into and becomes the illustration. Very indicative of the transition that did actually occur — as by the late 50s, illustrations gave way to photos in shelter publications:

56. Love this mid-50s Lyon steel kitchen!:

57. This Frigidaire appliance advertisement touts the homemaker as queen for a day. Awesome fridge. Pink and yellow was a common combo color:

58. And if you can’t afford an all-new steel kitchen, you can just paint your birch kitchen. This ability to repaint actually was one of the reasons that wood eventually ‘won out’ over steel for kitchens:

59. Another Armstrong kitchen, this time in a lovely pastel-and-wood “Mondrian” style. Love it!:

60. And one final, fab Armstrong design. Wall-fridge lovers, check this one out – set mid-level. You can still get a version of this floor today, and if you’re clever, a pink kitchen to go with it!

Well, now I have an admission. I got to the end of this post – and realize, I do not have 61 Mamie Pink Kitchens – I have 60. Oops. I miscounted. I think I took out several “honorary” pink kitchens at one point and messed up the count. I hope you understand.

So…I am going to wrap it up with this lovely 1968 image. Let me assure you, that by 1968, I see NO SIGNS WHATSOEVER of pink kitchens anymore! Maybe some primary colors here and there. But mostly earth tones, french provincial and that dreaded (by readers) casa de torquemada mediterranean. But pink has never, and will never, die. Lather up.

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41. TGIF, it’s party time and these 1961 Hotpoint kitchen-goers are ready!

42. This 1955 Geneva kitchen is more sedate but setting the pace nonetheless.

43. Pink and yellow, what a spring-y combination. And, this seems like quite the 1957 groove pad! Note the wall-cabinet fridge, every ReRe reader’s favorite, it seems!:

44. Oops. Another formerly used Flashback Kitchen with the numbers stuck in it. But I had to show this pink-lavendar-blue combo. Lavendar for kitchens was promoted later in the 50s. It looks nice here, be clearly never caught on. I think there’s something fundamentally icky about purple+food, grapes and eggplant notwithstanding.

45. A 1952 Youngstown kitchen – you can see the rosy pink cabinet at the right, so this made the list.

46. Religious readers will recognize this amazing kitchen. You gotta give those Formica interior designers credit:

47. A 1955 St. Charles kitchen combining pink, aquamarine and birch (I believe.) Pretty snazzy:

48. An honorary pink kitchen: pink + classic birch plywood cabinets with a darkish stain:

49. Another (painted) pink and birch kitchen, from Coppes-Nappanee:

50. And another all-time favorite, a Dow Styron tile ad with a kitchen that I christen pink because of the wall cabinet refrigerator. Awesome kitchen!

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31. Every day I come up with yet another new/old pink kitchen that is my all-time favorite. I adore this 1964 pink and brown and black-and-white colonial kitchen. It is so homey and comfortable, but with an innate sophistication, as well.

32. A rather hilarious Formica kitchen, circa 1956. Notice the cabinet that opens up from the top to hold the family booze. More seriously (well, sort of, we’re talking about kitchens after all!) one of several designs that show how the 50s fitted kitchen continued to evolve by moving away from dependence on a single color of cabinetry to a more adventurous use multiple colors.

33. AMAZING how modern — today, even — this 1956 Hotpoint kitchen feels.

34. We only get a snippet of this pink kitchen. We are definitely in the midst of the Mamie years here, 1956. Look at the cool electric burners, though. This style, which folded down from the wall was definitely around and marketed pretty seriously. I don’t know, exactly, why it didn’t catch on.

35. This is a very early40s illustration. And why it really violates my rule for what to include in this series (the cabinets are not pink), I wanted to use it today to show that pink definitely was around in the 40s and exerting its influence in the kitchen. One small step – and Mamie Eisenhower — and this color went directly onto the cabinets.

36. I’m not sure it’s fair to call this one pink — how about “pinktone birch”? It’s from 1956. As we’ve seen in previous posts, staining birch was done.

37. We looked a pink-and-erin-green kitchen yesterday, that I was actually a bit unsure of. Taken from a greater distance, and taking it all in, this is actually a very nice color combo. The dark green gives this pink kitchen a bit of gravitas.

38. My “cheating” continues today and only today. I could not resisting adding this 1954 kitchen as an honorary to the Mamie pink kitchen collection because of that American Standard sink and drainboard combination. I love it!

39. 1955. I am putting apricot into the pink collection. This is what our grandmas’ on the farm kitchen were likely to really look like. Granpa made the cabinets himself. They bought the steel sink base with the awesome porcelain drainboard. ANd of course, the electric stove! You can be sure that a lot of real work was done in this kitchen.

40. Another honorary to the collection. Circa 1954, pink on the rise. Very sophisticated! The cabinets are excellent – they are a short-lived (I believe) American-Standard design. Note how they hung a shelf below with 18″ wall cabinets – this was actually an option, the text (cropped out) said. Very clever.

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I love the photo above so much, I had to feature it again. It’s Mamie Eisenhower’s outrageous pink hat, perched on her pink hatstand. Now, back to our 61 pink kitchens, #21-30 today:

21. Love this pink kitchen designed for a 1957 Modernfold door ad!:

22. Is that plastic fruit to the left of this photo, of a quite ‘real’ 50s pink and birch kitchen, from Kitchen Business, 1956?:

23. This comes for 1944, and the reddish hues of the drawing hint at all the pink to come. Be sure to enlarge and read the text. With the end of WWII, renovation of the kitchen was #1 on everyone’s list!:

24. This 1957 is a real classic. I love the pink combo with soft green, and I think that I got the idea for the soffit wallpaper treatment in my kitchen from this image. Notice also, the wall cabinet refrigerator to the right:

25. A second shot of the spacious kitchen above — great retractable light, and another (!) refrigerator unit on that side:

26. A 1958 ad for a washer and dryer – aren’t they great? Marketers and designers really tried to get women to accept the w/d into the kitchen. Clearly, it didn’t catch on– we needed our laundry rooms:

27. A 1964 illustration from a Sears Harmony House collection. Move over, Mamie, the 60s have arrived!

8. Another ‘64 image from Sears Harmony House. I adore this kitchen with its painted pink wood cabinets, ’spotlight’ cabinet pulls, and orange floors and orange plaid wallpaper. And look – Corning Ware!:

29. A 1957 “Rose Red” steel kitchen, great grey countertops:

30. And we conclude today’s pink fest with these pink steel cabinets available for sale today, from John Lewis of Hungerford, in England.

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11. This 1959 GE pink+white+copper/brown kitchen is really quite snazzy, I like it a lot!:

12. This one is another take on the ‘49 American-Standard kitchen we saw yesterday, but ready for Thanksgiving. Sweet:

13. A classic St. Charles kitchen with some terrific design elements — another one of my all-time favorites. I used this photo for a “Flashback Design” feature last year, oops, I can’t find the un-numbered image:

14. Republic Kitchens marketed their “Prelude Pink” pretty heavily, circa 1956. A gray palette certainly gives pink a dash of elegance, don’t you think?:

15. A 1957 GE pink kitchen. Awesome refrigerator, and note the wallpapered backsplash. If you’re going to have a pink kitchen, people, you might as well go for it the gusto!:

16. A 1957 ad for a Tappan stove is set with pink Republic steel cabinets. Great looking backsplash here, too:

17. Another 1959 GE pink kitchen — in fact, I just noticed that this is another angle on kitchen #11, although these images were in separate places.  Great fridge+fridge combo. Note how nice this soft pink looks with the orange and yellow curtains. And see the wood-grained countertops. My goodness, pink is SO versatile!

18. A teensy illustration from Curtis Kitchens. A wood cabinet company. Painted pink was de rigeur, too:

19. Not sure who made these. Pink with erin green….Hmmmm, this I’m not liking so much, and you know I rarely say that…:

20. I believe that this is 1957, not sure of the maker. They certainly went for pink on pink on pink — Mamie would have approved. The wallpapered ceiling is growing on me — it certainly makes a big statement. And why the heck not!:

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To start – let’s head right to 1957, the absolute pinnacle year for pink pink pink!

#1: 1957 GE pink kitchen and look at that all-new Refrigeration Center!:

#2, a 1955 Crane kitchen in Blossom Pink:

#3, a 1953 pink Formica kitchen (which we have analyzed before):

#4, 1956 Westinghouse appliances including the cool wall refrigeration unit — with a pink kitchen:

#5, a 1949 American-Standard kitchen — cabinets that foreshadow the frenzy to come:

#6, very pixelated, but I wanted to show this early pink St. Charles kitchen as well:

#7, a few years later now in the heart of the Mamie years, a 1955 St. Charles pink kitchen:

#8, yes, I’ve been dreaming of a 1956 Westinghouse pink kitchen:

#9, an early- to mid-50s Geneva Blossom Pink kitchen with the classic accent color, red:

And number 10 for today: This gorgeous 1958 GE pink kitchen, which incorporates wood and 60s groove:

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The mid-century trend to pink seems to have come directly and irrefutably from Mamie Eisenhower, first lady from 1953 to 1961. Pink was Mamie’s favorite color. She wore a pink gown with 2,000 pink rhinestones to Ike’s inauguration. Ike sent her pink flowers every morning. Her bathroom in Gettysburg was pink down to the cotton balls. She re-decorated the private quarters in the White House in pink. So much so that reporters called it the “Pink Palace.” The color also seems to have been known as “First Lady Pink.” As a result of all this pink-think, there was probably no question that American women (and marketers) would pick up on it. It also was a color trend right in line with the exuberance of the time — and even supportive of the return of women to the home after WWII and their complete remaking of the American domestic landscape.

In fact, my own informal research from scouring marketing materials from the period indicates that pink kitchens and baths arrived solidly in ‘53, reached a total frenzy in 1957, then pretty rapidly started to fade after that, as other trends took hold. A typical adoption curve for a trend like this.

I have an aquamarine kitchen – the decorating gods sided with my husband on this decision. But I really truly wanted pink. I have to admit, a total fixation.

So much so, that: Tomorrow I am starting a very special series: More than 60 pink kitchens, rolled out over the week. A festival of pink pink pink to start the month. So be sure to check back in, to check it out.

Meanwhile: Here’s a nice story about Mamie…Photo of her at right is from the Library of Congress collection:

All About Mamie

By Jan Biles
The Capital-Journal (Topeka, Kansas)
Published Sunday, November 18, 2007

Not much is known about Mamie Doud Eisenhower.

She was a dutiful wife and mother who stood in the background as her husband, Dwight, excelled in his military career during World War II and then led the country from the Oval Office as the 34th president from 1953 to 1961.  Read the rest here from the Topeka, KS, Capitol-Journal online.

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Since so many readers are dealing with pink legacies, I’m on the lookout for vintage treatments. I actually wanted a pink kitchen, but the decorating gods rewarded my husband with the aquamarine that he preferred.

This Beauty Queen kitchen and lavanette are from the same company, Toledo Desk and Fixture Co., Maumee, Ohio. Oh how I wish I had a lavanette! (See one also in blue, in this 2007 post.)

And, the kitchen is pretty sweet, too. Notice the drawers that convex out – like the English Rose’s and Americans. And, the great stainless steel or chrome handles, like the GE’s. Very stylish!

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Holey moley, look at this pink Formica kitchen. I have to admit, I wanted a pink kitchen, not aquamarine. My husband won, and anyway, it was meant to be, because that’s the kitchen that found us. Even so, there is a super soft spot in my heart for this kitchen and others like this. Here are some flashback observations, starting at 10 o’clock:

1. If you have the space, built-in pantries are ideal. Notice how the soffit extends to enclose them. And how the pantries themselves create an enclosure of sorts for the washer and dryer. Fitted=50s.
2. On the orange accent color: With such a dynamic cabinet color, the accent has to be strong, too, or it will disappear.
3. I love this light fixture – very very modern, like the chairs and lamp. The “appliance white” repeats in the chairs, the lamp, the tile, and the appliances.
4. I haven’t seen a lot of photos from this period featuring subway tile (vs. 4″x4″ tile). Here, the horizontality (word?) of the subway tiles contrast nicely with the verticality of the pantries. Also in this space, see the washer and dryer. There certainly was a move to convince women to do their laundry in the kitchen …. it didn’t work. Finally, this whole block of appliances is treated as one working “white space” and is a part of what keeps your eye moving around the kitchen.
5. Notice the second light above the two sinks, same idea as the one above the pantries.
6. The designer used the soffits throughout the room as a design element. This can be very important in kitchens. I’ll do more on soffits sometime soon.
7. Notice the cabinet pulls. Is there a word for this style? They are awesome.
8. Monotone countertops. Considering the strong orange and green accents, it works.
9. Shell chairs are cool. Get authentic repro’s from modernica.net.
10. George Nelson bubble lamp. Also from modernica.
11. Green carpet – exact opposite of orange, on the color wheel. In fact, when you put together the pink, orange, green and white blocks, this kitchen takes on a Mondrian-esque color block feel.

One more interesting note. As the 50s progressed, we really saw kitchens opening up to the other spaces, rather than remaining a separate room. “…a definite trend toward making Mother a member of the family again,” as the Formic ad says. Of course, the open concept kitchen is a trend that continues strong to this day. And mom not only made it back into the family, she is in the Board room, too!

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