Colors From the 50s

1950s Style

• Many of the design trends we tend to think of as “1960s” were actually well established in the 1950s, from polka-dot, abstract, atomic and “boomerang” print fabrics to blond maple contemporary Scandinavian furniture and Naugahyde artificial leather upholstery. Post-World War II optimism left drab and dreary camouflage colors behind and opted instead for jazzy, over-the-top enthusiasm. The general look of the 1950s was modern, the mood upbeat, and the colors and fabrics eye-catching.

Modern Brights

• Clear bright colors that represented postwar cheer included electric blue, turquoise, bottle green, poppy red, bright orange, chartreuse and canary yellow. Thanks to a postwar explosion in color availability, almost any color might be chosen; creating a surprising or notable contrast was the point of 1950s color schemes. One particularly popular combination was black, white and red. In the 1950s, bright colors such as canary yellow, turquoise and cadet blue could also be found in kitchen appliances.

Exuberant Pastels

• With the postwar boom in young families and babies, pastel shades of brighter 1950s signature colors became quite popular -- often in the bathroom, kitchen and living room as well as in the nursery and kids’ rooms. Pastel turquoise, mint green, pink and yellow were the most common pastels, but there were others, including pastel reds, oranges and salmon. An enduring 1950s legacy in some vintage homes is the two-tone pastel tile combination used in bathrooms and kitchens.

Scandinavian Sophisticates

• The other major 1950s color trend involved Scandinavian neutrals, a sophisticated, muted array common in contemporary decor that embraced almost every color found in nature. There might be a dark color or two in any particular palette, such as dark blue gray, midnight blue, mecca red, chocolate brown or moss green, but lighter neutrals and unusual pastels predominated -- from ivory and countless beiges and tans to silver gray, ice blue, light mustard and pale moss.