“Tiger Lily” kitchen sinks, “Antique Red” bathtubs, “Fresh Green” toilets — and new for Kohler in 1972, “Black Black”, too. The late 1960s heading into the early 1970s were chock full of interesting colors for bathroom and kitchen plumbing fixtures. These are some of my favorite colors ever — “Tiger Lily” orange, yes! — and don’t forget: Harvest Gold and Avocado galore. Let’s take a look at 15 photos from a Kohler catalog I recently added to my collection.First off, let’s get the color names:
That said, Google can’t read words in photos, so here’s the list:
Available on all products:
- Kohler Mexican Sand
- Kohler Peachblow
- Kohler Harvest Gold
- Kohler Avocado
- Kohler Cerulean Blue
- Kohler Fresh Green, introduced in 1971
- Kohler New Orleans Blue
Available on selected products:
- Kohler Black Black, new for 1972
- Kohler Coppertone
- Kohler Antique Red
- Kohler Tiger Lily
- Kohler Expresso
- Kohler Blueberry
Now let’s look at some of the colors in action:
Kohler “Black Black”, new for 1972.
Above: My favorite, Tiger Lily, is shown in the “Trieste” kitchen sink. I also spy Coppertone on the “New Man’s Lav” and the “New Urbanite” sink is Harvest Gold.
Avocado Green must already have been a phenom, because there were three photos of products in the catalog. Including of: Urinals; no comment.
My catalog was mostly in black-and-white — it was a catalog for stores to order from, not a consumer-focused catalog. I’m featuring pretty much all the product photos in it.
Above: That the Kohler “Lady Vanity” in Mexican Sand, I’m pretty sure. Those Lady Vanities — and their countertpart, the Man’s Lav, were awesome.
Above: I think the three photos above are all Cerulean Blue. The color is not identified.
Above: New Orleans blue is a deeper blue tnan Cerulean blue. The scan did not pick up the richness I see in the actual catalog image.
Yikes, dig the poles — these were marketed as “stanchions” in sets of four. They included two stanchions with interior water tubing and shower arms.
I’ve seen this sanchioned bathtub in the wild [emphasis: wild!]:
I visited then wrote about this 1963 ‘Showgirl Chic” Palmer Krisel house when I spoke at Las Vegas Home & History Week. An incredible bathroom in an incredible house!
Back to the Kohler catalog: Peachblow shower insert… and a pair of bubblers. Yes, that’s what they call drinking fountains in Wisconsin, at least when I lived there many a moon ago.
Harvest Gold. And a Stangl wigstand in the photo shoot — I had one of those but I… dropped it.
Scrumptious, all of these colors.
Oh Pam, I just gained 10 pounds from looking at all this eye candy! I love colored bathroom and kitchen fixtures. I always thought they looked glamorous and fun. please Kohler, bring them back.
We had relatives that built a gem of a house in 1975. It had two bathrooms, one on each floor. Both had the lady vanity sink. One bath was Mexican sand, the other was copper tone. One thing the woman hated was cleaning floors around toilets. The solution was that Koehler made toilets that hung from the wall, rather than sit in the floor. This made it really easy to just swipe underneath. Sadly, the bathrooms were remodeled in the late 90’s by new owners and all that great stuff was thrown away.
Have a fresh green triest sink in my garage right now with 2 round Tiger Lilly bathroom sinks. I just installed 2 oval in my master bath. All n/o stock.
I found your Blog shows Kohler New Orleans Blue (color) is “Available on all products”. I’m looking for a toilet in that color. Can you provide some wholesaler suggestions on where I can purchase one?
Hi Pam, as far as know this is a discontinued product — this story is about colors from 1972.
I think you will have to find this vintage….
Thank you.
I need a drop in sink in the fresh green color my husband broke mine today.
Having failed in my efforts to find a satisfactory 1920s-style kitchen sink with integrated backsplash, I am now the proud owner of a gorgeous 1974 Kohler Brookfield in Harvest Gold. But in person Kohler’s Harvest Gold turns out to be a gorgeous light butter yellow very similar to the 1920s pale yellows. The rolled rim enameled cast iron should work fine in the 1920s-style kitchen I’m planning, and the color will look fabulous with the blue-yellow-red liner tiles I snagged on eBay last week. Plus it cost me all of $40 at a local salvage place, compared to over $2000 for the Strom Whitney. Call me a very happy retro-renovator today :).