An original condition poppy red stove and refrigerator spotted roaming the wild! Along with avocado green, harvest gold and coppertone brown, poppy red was a color promoted for kitchen appliances in the 1970s. Poppy did not take off, so it’s rare to see these red appliances still around. Thanks to reader Trish who over on our Facebook page tipped us off to this terrific vintage stove and refrigerator in this rare and luminous color. [Update: Listing gone. Looks like these found a buyer!]I reached out to the seller, who gave me permission to feature these photos for our ever and ever archive. They are for sale in Des Moines, for just $350. And I bet if you ask real nice, the seller will even throw in that macrame owl, what a hoot 😉
Here is what the seller’s listing says:
-Mid 70’s Frigidaire Custom Deluxe Poppy Red Refrigerator and Stove for sale
-Both work, I just upgraded mine so these need a good home.
-Hard-to find poppy red, classic kitch/retro
-Super clean, like New
-Electric Stove and fridge with freezer produced between 1975-1977
-Selling them as a set, may consider an offer on the stove by itself but not the fridge alone.
-Asking $350 but make me an offer! First come first served
She also found an ad for Frigidaire appliances from 1972. This stove cost $289 in 1972. The refrigerator was $369. I think that’s way more money, adjusted for inflation, than we pay for appliance today.
Come on, someone must neeeeeeeed these!
Update: Thanks to some keen eyes, reader Janet in CT spotted another rare red appliance — this 1960s red GE range, listed for sale on the Pensacola, Florida Craigslist.
From the listing:
Vintage 1960’s Range. Original paint (RED), push button setting,very clean in good condition.
Wow, what a beauty. Mega thanks to the Craiglist seller for allowing us to archive their photos of this retro-licious red stove. According to the seller, there are already several interested parties and they think the stove will be sold before the week is through.
Janet in CT says
I think the stove itself, poppy color aside, is really interesting. I actually came across one on craigslist yesterday but it was just plain ole white. I think it is a deluxe top-of-the-line model, and it looks like it has a fluorescent light on the top under the poppy band. GE stopped putting fluorescent lights on their stoves at one point except for some really high end ones, and you would not believe how many people got angry at that change! I guess alot of people used it for a nightlight, not just cooking. Funny what we get used to and many of us just don’t like change!
Rita@thissortaoldlife says
Well, now I know what my 70’s split-level kitchen needs! These would even look gorgeous with the white laminate cabinets that were put in during the 90s. Free shipping to Portland, right? 🙂
Janet in CT says
I think GE tried a brighter truer red in the late fifties that didn’t take off either and didn’t last long. I too love this color. I swear Bea Arthur had this fridge in one of her sit-coms; I think it was the first one she did. It was a side-by-side in Poppy and even had a radio in the freezer door, which may have been split into a small door at the top and a long door at the bottom. GE brought out several colors I loved that they dropped right away because they didn’t take off. One was Sand, a slightly browner almond that was beautiful but by then, I believe in the mid eighties, neutrals were starting to fade away. At the same time they were doing silver, but they must have seen the writing on the wall and dropped it in favor or producing stainless instead. I love the really old fifties pastels the best, but I don’t think even then that the colors were popular. When I see appliances in color, be it pink or jade or poppy, I can picture a kitchen designed around them!
Rick says
I had a poppy red sauce pan (Club brand) for decades; don’t know what happend to it. Poppy red had/has darker edges just like the vintage copper. It might be ‘this red’ just didn’t go with that many kitchens + avocado really taking off. Also, harvest gold was probably considered a ‘sunnier’ color. Then came ’80s almond when people didn’t want bold ’70s appliance colors.
Rick says
Apologies to Pam for off topic, but just came across this ‘small kitchen’
http://graphic-design.tjs-labs.com/show-picture?id=1185838269
Elaine says
I love those! I can just see Alice Cramden standing there in her apron, shaking her head at Ralph.
Laura says
I had no idea Poppy was a rare color!! I grew up with it – Poppy red fridge and matching dishwasher. We had a corning ware glass top stove that all my friends thought was so cool and cabinet mounted double oven but I can’t remember if the Poppy was on those too. We had this incredible floral vinyl flooring to match – bright orange, white and yellow flowers on a red back ground. It was padded – there were cuts in in from each time we dropped a soup can on it…. I wish I could find an example of that. The fridge stuck around in our basement after we “updated” to a late 80’s white side by side which at the time as a young teen, I thought was LONG over due. Oh what I would do to have that kitchen & those kitchen appliances now now!
Lori H says
Cool appliances – I made those owls to give as gifts (I’m sure one is hanging out somewhere in my basement!)
Kelly says
Ahhhh…my first fridge growing up! I remember being a rather precocious child and climbing up a stool to retrieve the Scooby Doo coloring books my mom hid on top of that fridge…then crashing down on the Spanish tiles and getting my first cast! Still wish I had that fridge though!!!
Paula says
I think this is the fridge my grandma had, which was funny because everything else was 1940’s (metal cabinets, drainboard sink, stove with a trash burner). Come to think of it I guess I need to go take a look!
lisa says
Maybe your Grandma got it discounted at scratch-n-dent and didn’t have a choice of colors? I have a friend who has a new red washer/dryer set that I covet, and she doesn’t care for. It’s just that the floor model in that color was so much cheaper she couldn’t pass it up.
Paula says
could be. They lived in a really small town and my guess is that the appliance dealer had it, she needed it and that was that. She did have red brick linoleum and she had yellow enameled cookware with a red pattern that was “just for show”
Jenny A. says
When I was around 10, or so, my sister bought a house (she’s a lot older) and it had gorgeous poppy colored appliances. I remember thinking they were so beautiful and much more exciting than the plain white ones in our house. She hated them, thought they were “dated” and had them all replaced. Even at 10, I felt that was a tragedy, lol.
Morgen says
Ooooo, I love the poppy color! I love poppies, so I guess it was inevitable.