Colored appliances
Circa 1950
International Harvester and Caloric start offering differen colored handles on their Fridges and ranges respectively to give the woman of the house a choice with which to harmonize with the color of her kitchen.
Late 1953-1954
Frigidaire introduces the first appliances in colors. You had a choice of Stratford Yellow or Sherwood Green in addition to plain white.
January 1955
GE introduces 5 new colors for their appliances, Woodtone Brown (the color of light chocolate milk), Turquoise Green, Cadet Blue, Petal Pink, and Canary Yellow. Woodtone Brown and Cadet Blue are not very popular colors and are gone by the late 50's
1955-1956
Frigidaire adds Mayfair Pink to its color palette for the 1956 line of appliances/ Maytag washers and dryers become available in Pasteltone Pink, Green, and Yellow, Kelvinator produces a plethora of colors including such beautiful shades of blue known as Lagoon Blue non of which are all that popular. The majority of these colors were dropped sometime around 1960 and replaced with the standard pink, turquoise, and yellow colors. It is also around this time that stainless steel appliances start to make their debut...especially in the new field of built in appliances range, oven fridge etc.).
1957
Frigidaire introduces Charcoal Gray to its new Sheer Look line of appliances. This color is not at all popular and is discontinued after 1960
1959
Frigidaire introduces Aztec Copper to its line of appliances and this color will eventually become know as Coppertone or Copper Brown and be offered all the way into the early 1980's Also about this time Frigidaire drops Stratford yellow and repalces it with Sunny Yellow.
1963-1964
The number of companies offering pink, mint green, and yellow appliances have dwindled while the hot colors of the early 1960s are copper brown and turquoise. About this time Frigidaire offers a color called Honey Beige which is lighter than Aztec Copper.
1966
GE introduces the first new appliance color since 1959.... Just in time to go with the Danish modern look of the late 1960s.....Avocado. Maytag offers turquoise for the last time on its redesigned Washpower automatics.
1967
GE introduces a second new color ....Harvest (never officially know as harvest gold). This color along with Avacado catches on like wild fire and is offered until circa 1984. Also about this time Whirlpool offers a very rare version of GE's Woodtone Brown and Cadet Blue on their washers and dryers (that is my guess as I have seen a Woodtone Brown dryer and a Cadet Blue washer) Maytag appliances are offered in Cordoba Copper Spanish avacodo and Castillian Yellow. Castillian Yellow is reploaced circa 1970 with California gold (aka Harvest Gold).
Circa 1970
Frigidaire introduces the color poppy on its appliances
1971-1976
No major changes are made in colors during this period
1977
GE gets rid of all its shaded colors and introduces a new line of colors called the New Naturals. These colors are named, Onyx, Coffee, Harvest Wheat, Fresh Avocado, and a brand new color called Almond these colors are more vivid then their predeccessors and they are advertised in a huge campaign in all the "home magazines" of the day.
Early to late 1980's
Copper Brown and Avacado start to fall by the wayside as the favorite colors of the early 80s seems to be Almond and what is now known as Harvest Gold. During this time Whirlpool experiments with a light brown/beige color they call toast. Kenmore offers toast as well as a light gray color called platinum starting around 1987. Both of these colors prove not to be too popular and they are dropped after a few years.
Well that brings us up to the 1990's where I choose to stop lest I vomit on my keyboard from being subjected to awful 90s appliances Drop me a line and let me know what you think. PAT COFFEY