Today, from my archive of vintage marketing materials: A tri-fold brochure showing the 18 paint colors available for St. Charles steel kitchen cabinets in the 1960s. I will estimate that these kitchen cabinet paint colors are mid-1960s because of the Harvest Gold — which I have seen before in St. Charles cabinets, dated 1966. But, hey, there is still Carnation pink — so Mamie’s sway had not completely diminished.
We’ve seen quite a few of these colors in the wild… A few are “close” to some of the colors in my 1957 St. Charles Kitchens catalog… but now we have more to look for. Apricot? Antique Gold? Black Pearl? Capri Blue? I would sure love to see these before I head to that big retro party in the sky.
The graphics are just too fun.
See all our stories about vintage St. Charles kitchen cabinets by clicking here.
Michele DeGroat says
my kitchen in Oyster Bay Long Island is original metal St. Charles cabinets in Starlite Blue. They need much work to refurbish them but love that they are metal. House custom built in 1962
Scott says
Sigh. I think the world was a better place when color palettes included vibrant shades like Raspberry, Carnation, Capri Blue, Apricot, and Plum. 🙂
Scott says
Some of the ads where they mix and match colors in the dream kitchens are enough to make your brain fail from pleasure overload. Can you imagine ordering up your kitchen from scratch in some amazing color, then building your accents right in? One accent? Two? Three? Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
pam kueber says
yup
tammyCA says
Such delicious colors…love that melon green and chiffon yellow and apricot – a lot…like a fresh fruit salad.
mary says
Was just thinking I’m going to refinish my GE kitchen from Barbie Pink to some other color…perfect timing. Rustoleum held up beautifully for 13 years…I’m just ready for a change. Originally wanted a coral shade but it was not available in spray…still isn’t.
Josie says
I love that Melon Green. With swiss dot yellow curtains for sweet or Lilly Pulitzer super-brights for sassy.
The Plum is striking, I wonder what colour scheme I could do with that. Either lots of white or maybe a random slate floor with purple-grey tones?
Carnation is banned via Husband Veto, so obviously Plum is the subtle choice for tasteful people like moi. 😉
Can see either with wicker dinettes. And perhaps a custom matched bullet planter. Do I get kicked out of the cool kids club for that?
pam kueber says
Of course, not, you are totally in the Club!
Jonny says
My cabinets are not St Charles, but they are very close to that Raspberry red color. Nice to see a bit of documentation that the red was a period correct color.
I’d love to see a kitchen done with “black pearl” steel cabinets. I would guess that was meant to go on the lowers, with a colorful countertop and lighter colored upper cabinets, but imagine a whole black steel cabineted kitchen.
JKM says
Our friends have a black St. Charles kitchen in their 1957 contemporary home and it’s stunning. The floors are original white terrazzo and walls are painted a soft blue similar to the blue band running across the bottom of this page. They replaced the countertops with white Caesarstone, added undercabinet lighting, and added backsplashes of 1″x1″ white ceramic tile. Very simple but gorgeous. Lighting reflects off the white surfaces and it doesn’t feel dark at all.
Alisha H says
I would love to see photos of this. We just bought a 1950 home that has the original cabinets. My husband wants to rip everything out! I would love the have the cabinets finished black!
Chris says
I have an entire kitchen of St Charles harvest gold that we are thinking of painting black pearl.
Alisha H says
Please post a pic if you do!
Cynthia says
Beautiful colors! What happy kitchens they must have produced! I’m especially partial to the entire top row.
Mary Elizabeth says
Great timing! I was recently corresponding with the woman who now owns my old 1939 house with the St. Charles kitchen that was installed in the late 1950s or early 1960s. (As it happens, she also got my ex-husband along with the house.) 🙂 Anyway, I asked her if the kitchen with the white cabinets and natural wood upper doors is still there, and it is! She was just thinking about what to do to update the kitchen without too much expense, and I told her about the autobody shop approach to painting the cabinets and how beautiful some of the restored kitchens are on this site.
So I am sending a link to this post to my friend Kathy so she can think about whether she wants to paint her cabinets or pull them out and put them on Craigslist. If she decides to paint them, she can choose a retro color or whatever she likes. My favorites from the color chips are the Suede and Chiffon Yellow, but don’t let me influence you.
Roundhouse Sarah says
I would have picked apricot cabinets with yellow appliances… At least we can dream!
pam kueber says
I am so into that apricot. sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Robin, NV says
How about a mix of the apricot and the melon green? With white appliances that would be totally swanky!
Gosh wouldn’t it be great to find these in the wild? I wonder how many people ordered Plum cabinets? That’s a bold choice!
Mary says
Robin,
I was wondering the same thing. I’m happy to see that plum in the brochure, because I’d love to do something retro in that color, but I don’t recall seeing that color much on items from that era. Love it!
Sara says
I am buying a home with mint condition plum-colored St. Charles cabinets! Unfortunately, the kitchen floor is black and purple carpeting, so I’m trying to decide what to replace it with (it’s too worn to keep, and I honestly don’t like it). The plum was a VERY brave color choice! It’s really loud, but oh-so-interesting. I have a cork wall, and some great yellow and green linoleum nearby, as well as some blue-green slate. 🙂 I’m looking into commercial-grade linoleum that looks like terrazzo.
Pam Kueber says
Plum! Fantastic! What year is the house?
Sara says
It was built in 1960. Fantastic construction with many Frank Llyod Wright-influenced design aspects. The owner put purple glittery tile with a 10 ft long white marble vanity in the master bath, so I’m assuming she loved the color purple!????
Meggan says
Our new home, a midcentury modern masterpiece, once had apricot St Charles cabinetry. The top cabinets have since been refaced and all cabinets painted white, but the interior is still the lovely apricot. 🙂
pam kueber says
Wow! Apricot! LOVE IT! Oh and…. lucky you, St. Charles are the best!
Steve says
Wow, some of those colors are pretty wild. I wonder if anyone ever did a kitchen in multi colors – different hues from the same family – sort of like the Raymond Loewy casework from the 1960’s.
Joe Felice says
That would be mondrian, and yes, it was done.