The Retro Kitchen Appliance Color That Was Everywhere In The '80s

We might not think about the colors in our kitchen that often, but they can make a difference. For example, did you know that your kitchen's color can affect your appetite? And while today's designs may favor a more muted color palette featuring whites and metallic grays and blacks, this was not the case for the kitchens of the 1970s and '80s. During this time period, bold, earth-toned colors were all the rage — and there's one shade that is particularly associated with kitchen appliances of this time: a warm, golden-yellow hue known as Harvest Gold (if you're interested in the technical side of colors, this shade has a HEX value of #D9A06A).

The popularity of Harvest Gold is tied to General Electrics and the kitchen items it manufactured. In the 1960s, the company introduced three colors for its stoves and other appliances: Coppertone (brown), Avocado (green), and the aforementioned Harvest (yellow). The latter would eventually take on the more descriptive name Harvest Gold. Many Americans purchased Harvest Gold appliances in the 1970s, and they continued to be in wide use during the '80s. If you scour sites like eBay and Etsy, you can find a large variety of kitchen items in this specific shade — including blenders, fryers, and vegetable steamers. While some kitchen paint styles never go out of fashion, Harvest Gold is very much tied to a specific time and place.

Because of the color's emotional association, some people say you should avoid yellow in your kitchen. But people weren't following that advice in the 1970s and '80s. Those who grew up in this period and remember the ubiquity of this mustardy hue — which was gleaming on their kitchen walls and blaring from their kitchen appliances — have mixed feelings about the aesthetic. On one hand, it's nostalgic and evokes a homey feeling; on the other, it's a garish color that feels hopelessly dated. A comment on Facebook sums up the ambivalence about this appliance color scheme nicely. "Although the colors and decor of yesteryear can be a bit tacky[, it] also gives off vibes of comfort and safety for me," they said. "Safest kitchen in the world."

On the other hand, some users who grew up with Harvest Gold appliances only remember this color in a negative light. One Reddit user said that Harvest Gold "was and still is hideous." And even General Electrics itself realized that the color was stuck in the past; in the 1990s, it advertised its new white appliances by saying, "It's a far cry from [Avocado]. And it certainly isn't [Harvest Gold] either."