Although I was born later, I grew up in a late 1950′s house and all of my Aunts & Uncles had the same. The last set of colors are right on target from what I remember & photos I have. I also remember going to the Dutch Boy paint store w/ my mom and they mixed virtually all the paints for you pretty much like they do today. Keep in mind that there wasn’t a Home Depot, etc., so there were many more small stores that specialized in paint & wallpaper. Of course, everything changed in the mid 60′s when all was replaced shag carpeting & swirly wallpaper. I suddenly feel quite old

When Christy’s grandparents built their new home in 1956, the lathe and plaster guys took care of the color on the walls. Back then, the plaster was tinted to the color you wanted, and that was the color you’d better want to live with for a long time. They had a pale turquoise on the main walls of the house, and the kitchen plaster was egg-shell pink. I’ll NEVER forget those colors!

Maybe there weren’t as many colors, because they didn’t have computerized equipment for mixing paint colors?

I want that yummy yellow sink!

Even when I worked at a hardware store in high school (and I’m not that old) we still had a paint mixing machine where you manually pushed the buttons. You know, three drops of blue, one drop of yellow… Now there are 19 year olds at Ace that can’t mix your paint if they don’t have the proper version of the software loaded on the computer.
I have a 1940s home decorating book (printed in b&w) where they just name the suggested colors of paint. I didn’t go with traditional 50s colors – or so I thought – I think every paint color on the walls is on the page of that last book.

We are a newly open decoration company. We like to have your products ange and your price list. Thank you.

Actually before tint machines, painters mixed the color till he got what you liked. They would buy lamp black, raw sienna, vermillion, etc. in little cans and add it as needed making sure they made enough to do the job. Stores would also publish letdown charts showing what you would get if you mixed certain colors. Around here you didn’t graduate from apprentice school if you didn’t know your colors. My dad was one of the best at colors.

We also get a LOT of inquiries from homeowners about stain or paint colors for their Eichler (or other) mid-century mod home.
We just created a basic color guide to assist homeowners who want to preserve the original look and feel. I apologize for the long URL, however you can see the guide if you cut and psate the following into your browser:
http://www.eichlerforsale.com/xSites/Agents/eichlerforsale/Content/UploadedFiles/Color%20Guide%20for%20Eichler%20and%20Mid-Century%20Modern%20Homes.pdf.pdf