These colors reflected a broader trend toward more colorful and expressive home environments, transforming the kitchen into the heart of the home.
Below, we’ve gathered an inspiring showcase of retro yellow kitchens from this era, each offering a peek into the charming and lively styles that defined mid-century home decor.
These retro yellow kitchens — in all their buttery, warm and sunny splendor — are here for the midcentury home decor enthusiast to appreciate!
- Hardcover Book
- Archer, Sarah (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
Vintage yellow and blue kitchen from 1956
50s kitchen decor: Style trend in housewares features yellow (1956)
Better repaint your pink pots and change your turquoise towels, ma’am: The stylish new housewares are all yellow.
A unanimous trend toward yellow, for everything from rolling pins to garbage cans, was shown at the furniture market in Chicago, and confirmed by the International Housewares Show in New York.
Yellow has even nudged out red, the number one housewares color for years. Plastic housewares expert Irving Levine of Forth Worth, Texas, summed it up this way at the New York show: “Yellow is going to new heights, red is going down, and pink is dead. The pink-and-charcoal combination is very dead.”
Levine also said copper finishes are “laying an egg” this year, at least in plastic items.
Pink and charcoal disappear
Displays the Housewares Show backed up his opinion. Not a single booth showed any pink-and-charcoal, and most put turquoise where pink used to be.
As for copper, it was overshadowed by plain familiar chrome. Brass wasn’t as obvious as it used to be, either.
The move toward yellow in small kitchen items, including the trim on clothes-driers and the handles of brooms, matched the new yellow kitchen schemes shown in Chicago by all the big appliance makers.
The Housewares Show also displayed at least one other new style trend, and a variety of new gadgets. The style note was for black on the table — especially in serving dishes, plastic salad sets, and accessories such as pepper mills, pottery and figurines.
Yellow retro kitchen decor with black & white check floor (1959)
Yellow kitchen with red countertops and flooring (1950)
Yellow kitchen with aqua walls and turquoise green countertops (1950)
A basic all-yellow kitchen with white sink and appliances (1940)
ALSO SEE: See 10 old-fashioned gas ranges from 50s kitchens
Retro yellow kitchen with white and red accents (1960)
Midcentury kitchen in red & yellow
A simple yellow steel kitchen and appliances with stainless steel countertops and pink accents (1957)
A butter yellow kitchen and matching appliances 1956)
A rustic yellow kitchen with red countertops and pine windows and ceiling (1951)
A small yellow kitchen with green and blue accent walls and accessories (1957)
MORE: Old-fashioned family-centric kitchens from the ’50s & ’60s
Retro yellow kitchens: Do it in a day with Frigidaire appliances!
No muss — no fuss — no waiting! You bring breathtaking new beauty, time-saving ease, work-eliminating convenience into your kitchen with your very first 1962 Frigidaire appliance. In most cases, it takes only minutes to install.
Yellow midcentury kitchen decor (1955)
More features than ever before in this all-new Capitol steel kitchen! Choose from twelve house and garden colors, including six new color-flecked finishes. New rounded contour design includes extra quality features like self-closing drawers, self-aligning doors, sit-down sinks, choice of handles and countertops.
Muted butter yellow kitchen tile and cabinetry (1940)
Yellow and green kitchen home decor (1940)
Retro yellow kitchens with aqua cabinetry & blue accents (1956)
Kitchen of pine accents and yellow cabinetry (1951)
ALSO SEE: See the mid-century modern Scholz Mark ’60 model home from 1960, inside & out
Yellow kitchen decor (1959)
Kitchen cabinets in yellow, with pale blue upper cabinetry (1956)
Retro yellow kitchens & midcentury appliances (1959)
Vintage yellow kitchen cabinets from 1958
1950s yellow kitchen with stainless steel fixtures
Bing Crosby’s yellow kitchen – Celebrity home (1957)
See why he chose a GAS Kook-Center for his own home! Bing says – “Make it a white Christmas! Give her a gas appliance!”
Modern gas ranges cook whole meals automatically… they’re faster and cleaner, too. And when you cook with gas, you have perfect control of cooking temperature on top of the range, in the oven, in the broiler…
MORE: See inside Bing Crosby’s house from 1950 for some classic celebrity style
Country-style vintage kitchen decor from 1951
Midcentury yellow kitchen cabinets and appliances from 1958
Old-fashioned yellow kitchen countertops and decor from the 50s
ALSO SEE: Retro shelf edging & lining paper from the ’50s & ’60s
Retro lemon yellow kitchen appliances from the 1950s
Old-fashioned yellow kitchen with blue accents (1950)
Vintage 50s kitchen with wood cabinets and yellow floor and paint
Vintage country kitchen with red countertops (1955)
Vintage pale yellow kitchen with two blue ovens (1950s)
ALSO SEE: See some iconic retro Colorama aluminum tumblers & vintage drinkware from the 50s & 60s
1950s kitchen decor you can buy today
- Start Your Morning Right! – Whether you prefer thick toast or English muffins, our impressive retro toaster will give you just the right amount of crispness every time! The charming toaster features...
- Style Inspired – Beautiful in its simplicity, this vintage toaster gives you 1950s styling, but with premium durability and functionality. The sleek, glossy design with stainless steel will be a...
- Versatile – Relax into your morning with fresh toast, no matter what is your favorite bread type. Our 2 slice toaster lets you conveniently toast either one or two slices at a time. Plus, with the...
- PROVIDES A COMPACT PLACE FOR YOUR DISHES: Get an all-in-one, compact place for all your dishware with this drying kitchen rack. This drainer rack has two wide tiers for storing plates, bowls, and...
- INCLUDES CUTLERY & CUP HOLDERS: This drainer rack has everything in mind, especially when it comes to storing utensils and cups. At one side of the dish drying rack, there is a cutlery holder for all...
- CRAFTED FROM DURABLE MATERIALS: This kitchen dish drainer is crafted from plastic and iron, making it waterproof and built to last in your busy kitchen
- ▶Perfect Size - Vintage Tin Sign Is 8x12 Inches (20cmx30cm), It Is Perfect Size For Many Places Such As Home, Gate, Bathroom, Laundry, Garden, Office, Bar, Restaurant, Cafe, Man Cave Or Garage.
- ▶Material - The Vintage Tin Sign Is Made Of High-Quality Tin/Metal Material, Waterproof, Non-Glare, Clean Simple And Colorfast, And Will Stay Good As New Even After Many Years Of Indoor Or Outdoor...
- ▶Appearance - The Four Corners Of The Vintage Tin Sign Have Pre-Drilled Holes, Easy To Hang, Easy And Simple To Install, The Tin Sign Is Printed, It Is Not Really Rusty, The Edges Of Each Tin Sign...
- Vintage 50s retro design with art deco styling
- Light blue and green with gleaming painted chrome tops
- Fill from the bottom; silicone stoppers
- Add a vintage and fun touch to the walls with this tin "Eat Here" retro wall decor in multicolor
- This wall decor is suitable for any industrial, rustic, or retro style of home decor, as it creates a nostalgic and quirky look with its vintage design and heavily distressed finish
- These wall décor pieces have an integrated hanging mechanism that can hang them vertically
4 Responses
Perfectly hideous, lolol. Can you top with with 70s over-wallpapered kitchens?
Yes! Here are a few:
Anyone with 1960s paisley kitchen decor like this had to have been digging the hippie vibe
A cute DIY kitchen divider made this small breakfast nook
How to wallpaper a ceiling step-by-step, plus 17 colorful examples of this retro home decor trend that’s made a comeback
Well, someone bad to have the bad taste. Congrats–it’s you.
Some of them are on the garish side,, but most of them look far better than the same old monochrome ugly of modern kitchens. Twenty years from now, everyone will be ridiculing the mindless conformity and outright ugliness of 2000s kitchens.
If I have to look at one more “modern” kitchen with granite countertops, adventurine floors steel appliances and clunky wood cabinets, I will scream.
It’s beyond ironic that morons of today lambast the 50s for its mindless conformity, when it was undoubtedly the decade that took the most risks and showed the most originality AND individuality in architecture and home decor.
I would love to find an intact 50s home. They knew how to decorate with taste and style, rather than trying too hard to be hip as so many tasteless fools do today.
Well said. While yellow might not be my personal first color choice even the worst of these kitchens are light years better than the bland, boring, generic, sterile, black, white, grey, stainless steel, granite, etc. abominations of today.
Certainly from an aesthetic standpoint this country is finished and never coming back.