Tasteful Vintage Color Palettes Inspired by Decades in America (2024)

Turn back the clock with a vintage color palette for each decade. These vintage colors that take their creative inspiration from each decade of the 20th century.

Every era has its defining colors—the conservative khakis and browns of the 1940s, the earthy mustards and oranges of the 1970s, etc. These ten free color palettes will transport you to eras like the Summer of Love or the Jazz Age in an instant, featuring color combinations that characterized the fashion and styles of the time. Use these vintage color schemes for nostalgic designs that pack a contemporary punch.

In this article, we’ll cover the following eras:

• 1910s Color Palette: Art Nouveau
• 1920s Color Palette: Art Deco
• 1930s Color Palette: The Great Depression
• 1940s Color Palette: The World at War
• 1950s Color Palette: Americana
• 1960s Color Palette: Psychedelia
• 1970s Color Palette: The Hippie Trail
• 1980s Color Palette: Club Life
• 1990s Color Palette: Smells Like Teen Spirit
• 2000s Color Palette: McBling

Read on to find retro color palettes that truly capture that vintage flavor. Discover their colorful contexts, including why pale green was so popular in 1910, the industrial reasons behind the cheerful pastels of the 1950s, and so much more.

The 20th Century in Color: A Palette for Every Decade

Your free palettes can be used to bring retro colors to designs for print or online, including social media posts, web banners, or emails.

Simply right-click and save a palette to your computer, or pin to a mood board for inspiration later. Each vintage color palette includes HEX codes that can be applied instantly to digital designs, or easily convert your swatches to CMYK for use on print designs.

1910s Color Palette: Art Nouveau

The early 1910s mark the tail end of the Belle Epoque era. This was defined aesthetically by Art Nouveau, an ornate and naturalistic design style. You can see its influence in the 1910s color palette below.

Although the First World War spelled the end of Art Nouveau, which by that point appeared out of sync with the dramatic and brutal modernization of warfare, it was still a prominent design style at the outset of the decade across Europe.

This palette takes its inspiration from Art Nouveau, with naturalistic green and romantic rich red. Ornate gilding was a common feature of the Art Nouveau style, which is why verdigris copper green and metallic gold were such prominent and popular colors in this period.

1920s Color Palette: Art Deco

After the end of the First World War, consumers were hungry for a completely fresh start and a new aesthetic style to go with it. Art Deco emerged as an internationally popular style, which featured geometric designs, jewel-like colors, and ornate details.

The style was associated with the boom period in America, and still remains a byword for glamor and luxury today.

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The 1920s color palette below pays tribute to the Art Deco style of the Jazz Age, with jewel-like teal blue, moody midnight blue, antique gold, and copper evoking a speakeasy setting.

1930s Color Palette: The Great Depression

Following the stock market crash in 1929, a worldwide economic depression set in for a ten-year period. This era was a sharp contrast with the boom years of the 1920s. Aesthetics and colors followed the subdued social mood over this period, with a more muted take on the Art Deco style emerging over the 1930s. This wasn’t to say that the colors of the 1930s are not worth a look. They’re beautiful in their own muted method.

Bottle green, brick red, and dark woods became hallmarks of the country club style, which is still considered aspirational and quietly luxurious now. Explore these shades in this 1930s color palette.

1940s Color Palette: The World at War

When war erupted once again in 1939, daily life changed for most individuals across the globe. Military aspects trickled down into many facets of everyday existence. Even the colors that define this era are reflective of wartime influence.

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Practical khaki green and flag-worthy red were notable colors of this decade. Muted pastels were also popular for home decor and products. Buttermilk yellow and pale mint green lend a lighter mood to otherwise militaristic hues.

1950s Color Palette: Americana

In the post-war period, a huge color revolution was underway. Hollywood started using Technicolor technology more widely, bringing ultra-colorful cinema to American audiences. Meanwhile, massive industrial advances in the plastics and manufacturing industries made rainbow-hued domestic products available and changed the 1950s color palette.

In this decade, optimistic color palettes helped to shape a new forward-looking America. Paintbox brights and saccharine pastels contributed to this cheerful 50s color palette for clothing, cars, and diners.

1960s Color Palette: Psychedelia

The early 1960s still clung to the tail-end of Mid-Century Modern interior design and products. By the mid-1960s, a radically different style was gathering pace. Psychedelia was inspired by the mind-tripping experience of taking hallucinogenic drugs, but became much more than an acid trip.

Heavily inspired by the liberal and free-thinking music scene that was emerging through the likes of The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, psychedelic design used neon colors, swirling patterns, trippy cartoonish illustrations, and stylistic references to Art Nouveau.

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Transport your viewers to the Summer of Love with this psychedelic scheme in this 60s color palette. It merges yellow, orange, rhodamine red, and vivid turquoise blue into a free-spirited tribute to the Swinging Sixties.

1970s Color Palette: The Hippie Trail

By the 1970s, a more muted and grounded color palette was in vogue for fashion and decor. Influenced by the hippie movement, and in particular the Hippie Trail—a pan-Asian travel route taken by many young people over this period—this decade popularized nature-inspired tones.

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Mustard yellow and burnt orange were hallmark colors of this era. These were inherited from the late ’60s. They can be teamed with teal blue and pistachio green for a relaxed and earthy 70s color palette.

1980s Color Palette: Club Life

The era of home workouts, power shoulders, and VHS tapes, the 1980s was a decade of brash excess and even brasher color schemes. Purple, pink, and aqua blue was a particularly favorable color combination in this decade, adorning tracksuits and blazer suits alike.

This 80s color palette lends a club-ready flavor to any design. It’s an instant way to make designs feel more optimistic and fun.

1990s Color Palette: Smells Like Teen Spirit

The extreme flashiness of the 1980s had reached exhaustion point by the early 1990s. In music and fashion, a new aesthetic was emerging. Grunge was authentic, earthy, and undeniably cool. It was a reaction to the artificiality of the decade before. Spearheaded by grunge rock band Nirvana, the new penchant for grime-y, post-punk grunge trickled across into fashion, pop culture, and design.

This 90s color palette pays tribute to the gritty aesthetic of the grunge era. Its subdued colors have a brown or gray undertone, including faded blue and muddy mauve.

2000s Color Palette: McBling

In the endless cycle of boom and recession, a cultural style overhaul is never far away. In the 2000s, often coined “The Noughties” or “The Aughts,” a slow-burning recession was brewing.

However, this decade in decline produced one of the most overt counter-reactions to a recession, in terms of design and popular culture.

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McBling is a term used to describe the flashy, money-centric aesthetic that dominated music videos and television shows between 2003 and 2008. Think Paris Hilton, Juicy Couture tracksuits, flip phones, and an excess of pink and rhinestones.

This flamboyant 2000s color palette takes its cues from the McBling era, with hot pink, baby pink, aqua blue, and coral blue teaming up to create a scheme Regina George would be proud of.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What colors are considered vintage?

Vintage color palettes are determined by the decade you are trying to recreate. As you can see above, each color palette is linked to a discernible era. When trying to decide what colors are vintage, consider if you’re looking to recreate a 50s color palette, 70s color palette, or something from another decade entirely. For example, as seen above, vintage colors from a 1960s color palette consist of yellows, oranges, reds, and turquoise blues. Vintage colors can often make you nostalgic for a previous time period. If you are trying to find nostalgic colors, think about the period you are trying to evoke and

How can I create my own vintage color palette?

To create your own vintage color palette, determine which decade you are trying to evoke. If you are basing your vintage color palette off an existing poster or image, you can either use Photoshop’s eyedropper tool to select pixel color values within the image or try Shutterstock’s color palette generator.

Uncover even more design and marketing inspiration:

You can license this cover image via Maurese.