Coppertone memories

[cycluxe]

When I was growing up ('80s-'90s) I knew a lot of people with older appliances, but oddly enough no one had avocado. Coppertone was the choice for ranges, so much so that in my mind "stove" still equals "rusty brown."

My mother had a coppertone GE range (rotary controls), while my aunt's was a coppertone Frigidaire, maybe from the '60s. One fancy neighbor, with more kitchen space than the rest of us, had a single-oven Flair on a coppertone cabinet. An even fancier neighbor had a coppertone double-decker gas range that ran on propane (no gas lines where we lived).

Despite (or perhaps because) of all this, I think it's an underrated, dare I say regal, kitchen color. Anyone else out there like "rusty brown?"

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Copper in my ipinion:

What to get when you can't make up your mind bet. Avocado & Harvest Gold...

 

It was a veteran color from the Yellow/Pink/Turquoise period--it lasted almost throughout the Almond era...

 

An alternative to Sterile White, what I wish I had as opposed to my "Everyday Stainless Steel", and can make a Warm or Cool Kitchen (or Laundry)...

 

No matter what the appliance or brand, Copper is Classic--Copper is King!

 

 

-- Dave

 

[firedome]

Coppertone has always been our favorite...

we love the warm look that goes so well with maple finish cabinets so we bought brand new a Coppertone GE drop in 30" range, Coppertone KDC-17 d/w, and Coppertone 15 cu ft Frigidaire Custom Imperial top freezer fridge for our first house in 1974. Now have a Coppertone 1968 GE wall double oven awaiting our new retirement home next year.

 

[joeypete]

I really do miss those old colors. Growing up in the northeast (NH primarily) we had a lot of avocado green appliances or the harvest yellow. I remember our green GE dishwasher in our second house in NH. It had a rusty spot on the inside. We still used it everyday though lol. And we had a range with an oven on top...in green as well. I believe that was a GE too.

 

[turquoisedude]

Fond memories of coppertone here!  Our family's first dishwasher was a coppertone portable, so just the mention of that word will send me back in time.    Years back, Hubby and I bought a weekend place in the Laurentians (north of Montreal) that had a coppertone tileboard backsplash in the kitchen area - we had avocado appliances and I thought they blended really nicely (guess who didn't??  LOL). 

 

[philr]

Paul, I wish I could see pictures of that kitchen! Did you do any?

 

[norgeway]

My Aunt and Uncle

Remodeled their kitchen in 1965 just before I was born, they installed all Frigidaire stuff in coppertone,A Compact 30 range, 2 door fridge and Custom Imperial DW along with a coppertone sink, white counters and a Armstrong brick floor , hammered copper hinges and door handles completed it, I thought it was beautiful. I have many good memories of that kitchen.

 

[goatfarmer]

Love Coppertone!

Always been one of my favorites. I have this Frigidaire range, can't talk my wife into installing it in the kitchen, maybe someday!

 

[philr]

Maybe you could do it while she's away!!

 

;-)

 

[gusherb]

My grandmothers kitchen used to have a coppertone refrigerator (long before my time), a coppertone KDS-17, and built in Caloric oven and cooktop (with the thermostatic rear burner). Now all that's left is the oven and cooktop.

I used to really dislike coppertone until we gave her kitchen a facelift, painted the cabinets white, getting rid of the nicotine trashed translucent panel drop ceiling, and replaced the worn out linoleum. The antique white cabinets really makes that coppertone color pop.

 

[goatfarmer]

Phil, then you wouldn't see me for a while.....

 

[tomturbomatic]

Kenny, What's there now?

 

[appnut]

The new house we moved to in September 1961 had a coppertone kitchen--gas O'Keefe & Merrit 42" cook top with griddle-in-the-middle and burner with a brain; companion wall oven with broiler in lower compartment--motorized for rotisserie and meat probe; Vent-a-Hoot; matching sink; as well as O &M dual drench dishwasher.  Because the house was in the Houston parade of homes that spring, it also had a Norge gas fridge with ice maker.  As an adult, the Maytag A700 pair in the laundry room was white, which I don't understand.  The NtoTone intercome system was a copper color like on the bottom of Revereware pans. So it all pulled nicely together.  The beautiful harmony lasted until we moved in and brought the white paneled 1-year old Waste King and my dad spray painted (that looked like medium-light chocolate milk) the 1948 Kelvinator that took up residence there until my grandmother's 1957 1-door Frigidaire fridge came to live with us.  I've always had a soft spot for coppertone.  Felt GE has some of the deepest, richest looking coppertone a few years later (I.e. the recent posting of that beautiful Americana Fridge) as did Maytag in the late 1960s & early 1970s.  It's those deep rich tones that will make me drool. 

 

[jmm63]

My Mom always thought white appliances looked "cheap" so we always had color...mostly shaded coppertone.  Our first house,1969, had all coppertone appliances and that's when she bought matching coppertone Kenmore 700's which she had for over 30 years.   The back splash in the kitchen was metal copper squares so the appliance looked great with it. 

 

Our next house was sooo mid 70's.  Harvest gold appliances with red indoor outdoor carpet in the kitchen, and the Kenmore 700's came with us.  

 

My Aunt and Uncle had coppertone too well from the 60's to mid 80's when they remodled the kitchen and went with Almond.  

Even today, although all my appliances are white,  I still tend to feel they look "cheap",  it must be genetic?

 

[mom11]

I'm a coopertone baby

as well. The house I grew up in was built in 1963. My father moved into the house while my mom was having me in the hospital. She came home to a brand new house in a Detroit suburb with a new baby. It had coppertone gas cooktop and single gas oven but the coppertone was not shaded. I believe they were Kenmores. It had the matching coppertone sink, too. When they finally got their 1st dishwasher in the 80's it was a coppertone Kenmore. Oddly, the fridge was always white as were the washer and dryer in the basement. When my folks moved out of that house in 2006 those coppertone appliances were still there.

 

[abcomatic]

I bought my mom a coppertone Lady Kenmore dishwasher for Christmas in 1967. It was a portable and had a roto-rack for the top rack of the machine. She used it a long time. I still have the cutting board top from it. Gary

 

[circlew]

The first people I knew with Coppertone appliances was my mom's friend Marguerite Frost & her family. They built a new house in '59, with Frigidaire built-ins in Aztec Copper, which is not shaded.

As for Shaded Coppertone, Glenna C., a friend of the family, got her kitchen redone around '64, with a new GE Mark 27 drop in range.

 

[toploader55]

I always loved Coppertone. Especially the edged.

My Mom back in the mid to late sixties wanted to do the "Colonial" Theme that was so popular back then. (Especially in New Jersey or it seemed.) All that faux brick, plastic bottled glass cabinet door inserts, Vinyl Brick Tile flooring and Coppertone.
Just as she was getting her plans together to do this reno., along came Avocado which she liked better because it was brighter and "Mod". She then went with one wall of the kitchen in a Peter Max sort of "Pow Flower" wallpaper which was hip at the time. W had a Philco Side by Each Fridge Freezer, a Whirlpool Mark 100 Dishwasher, but still had the White in color Westinghouse Range. (Like Kevin313s)

This presently today is the only Coppertone Appliance I have.

 

[goatfarmer]

Tom, there's  a Maytag gas range, in bisque, that matches the WP side by side. I could run electric, no problem there.