Scathing Jane spotted this pink kitchen for sale at Second Use in Seattle. Anyone? Anyone? Thanks SJ.
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From the category archives:
pink kitchens
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| From Karmi’s kitchen |
A break today from our Lexington-Louisville series for a regular-reader feature: Karmi gets the award as the reader most likely to make me LOL daily - because she’s a bona fide crazed retro renovator AND she calls me her Mid Mod Queen. [click to continue…]
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Speedway Ron and I have become great online friends. He really knows his stuff when it comes to vintage steel cabinets. [click to continue…]
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I constantly update the blog - and have now put all the pink kitchens into this little slide show. Have fun!
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Angela, a new Flickr friend, sent me the listing link to this house in her Dallas neighborhood of Sparkman Estates. $255,000.
A real time capsule and perfect for another Monday of voyeuristic vintage living.
Oh my gosh, there are so many ideas to take from this house, I’m speechless!
Thanks so much, Angela!
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So sad. The last day for all of our pink kitchens. I hope that you have enjoyed them, and that they have provided many new ideas for your own kitchen retro renovation — or as Uncle Jack calls it, ‘down-dating’.
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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Our penultimate day of pink kitchens. I love that word, penultimate!
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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Day 4, and today I’ve included a select few “honorary” pink kitchens. Kitchens one small step away from full-blown pink, so we can better understand the trend as it unfolded. And, my mom alerts that there is a complete set of pink cabinets, oven & cooktop for sale in the Louisville Courier-Journal, $999. No brand named, but, this is GE-land…Call 512-495-0756. Thanks, Mom!
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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Its pink kitchens #11-20 today, as we continue to look at how the iconic color of the 50’s — “Mamie Pink” — was translated into everyday, middle-class, mid-century homes.
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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