Thank you to everyone involved in bringing these documents to the Library. The 1957 service manual is especially timely for me.

Now let's get some 1962 and 1961 washer and dryer service manuals to webmaster!!!!!!!!

I am glad you were able to preserve them Robert!   The Canadian border agent was enjoying flipping through them when I brought them back to Ogden last weekend, too!

Still beautiful colors even today.  I remember being fascinated by almond when I first saw them in Dillards in Austin while doing a house hold equipment course series of research.  As white proved with the plastic control panels, they discolored and looked awful and ugly.  With almond everything remained uniform in color.  But then I can't stand white or pink. 

I'll have to say that with our dishwasher shopping adventure this past weekend, I still like Almond.  Fortunately, we both detest black & stainless appliances!  Finding a mfr that still has almond in their offerings is very limited.  Thank heavens for GE still having a few models available in that color choice however.  The new dw will be delivered/installed Thursday.

but

Charcoal doesn't CLASH with anything !!

I agree.  I think Almond and Bisque were intended to tone down the avocado and harvest gold and allow a transition as people replaced their appliances one by one that blended with what was still there and didn't clash and still gave an option that wasn't plain ol' white. I can tell you all the new houses that were built in my subdivision from 1960/1961 (upper middle-classes houses) through the mid-1970s all had kitchen appliances which were NOT white unless the homeowner specifically requested.  All other colors  and finishes available during those times under the sun were used but white.   I can only recall one house on my street (26 total for both sides of the street) that had white appliances and the homeowner built the house and specified white.  Seemed like everything was white, including original carpet.  Housewife was OCD about cleaning.  Of course the two kids stayed out a lot playing and no neighborhood kids wee allowed in--they had an outside water fountain for everyone. 

I think color was a cheap way for a builder to make it look like he had spent more $$ on appliances than he actually had spent.  My folks bought a new spec house in the spring of 1963, in a subdivision that featured 3 floor plans (count 'em, three).  Two plans had 2 full bathrooms, one plan only had 1.5 baths; some had basements, some had carports - you know the drill.  The appliances were BOL Hotpoint, BUT they were in colors!  Our house had pink, others had yellow, others had turquoise.  Stylish, but still BOL.

As I've looked for appliances for my Mobile house, I've found a lot of Avocado and Coppertone, and I don't have a problem with either color, except both of these colors were selected to blend with stained wood cabinets, which were in vogue at the time.  I do not want stained cabinets - painted will do, thank you - but I've not been able to come up with the correct color combinations to make either Avocado or Coppertone work.  Unfortunately, Almond almost always works.

So far I've not gone over to "the Dark Side".

lawrence

I have challenged a lot of my designer friends to come up with combinations where Avocado (the hardest vintage color to deal with IMHO) would work well. So far, my own entry was the most pleasing to me and this was adapted from the first kitchen my family ever made. Although no GE 1962 appliance was available in Avocado, I used what we had as the models. And from reruns of Bewitched, I noticed that every single Bell telephone they used on that show was an Avocado Desk model.  I think that colors like Avocado and Coppertone worked best as accents; too much of either was overwhelming and oppressive:

Ken, I love that design that you presented in those pictures.  The particular shade of avocado appliances with the white cabinets and the dark color counter tops and accents all looks amazing and hot as far as I'm concerned.  I bet it would look just as impressive with coppertone, various hues of yellows and gold, turqoise, and poppy red appliances.  Very nice contrasts!!!

I just love wood.  It makes a serious statement.  It's natural.  Paint is just whitewash of any color.  It just kills me to see houses built with beautiful custom cabinets well-taken care of for decades and someone comes along and paints the damn things.  And that becomes high maintenance.  DUMB!!!  My mother thought she wanted all her beautiful cabinets painted just like everyone else was doing.  My dad knew her well.  He painted one small section of cabinets obscure enough that still allowed the idea to go either way.  She decided she did not like it and hated the wood being abused.  My dad knew her too well, she was too fickle in ways.  But I thought it still looked like hell until they sold the house.