Ours is the 90th Anniversary Edition in Candy Apple Red.
It's a beauty! Makes me smile just looking at it!
I bought it for my DH this Christmas to celebrate our kitchen remodeling progress.
It's coming along but just not quite there yet.

Mine is Imperial Gray (who knew it had a name...thanks pps7!), I always just called it the "matte" gray one! It was a gift from my parents about 20 years ago.

Here is a pic in my kitchen where you can see my "still"... "yet"... "perpetually" unfinished blacksplash lurking in the background!

Our daughter inherited my mother's shiny red one and has it proudly displayed in her very first apartment. When she posted pics of it on her Facebook, several friends wrote in and asked how she got such a nice mixer at such a young age. I had no idea 22 year olds coveted mixers!

Kat :)

I have the black KA and I love it. It doesn't sit on my counter now, but will in my new house! We close on Wednesday and I'm planning to take the KA there first!

Mine's a workhorse. I bake bread at least once a week with it and have never had any trouble. Even dried on dough comes off easily.

I didn't "pick" my color, but got an awesome deal on CL for mine...less than $100 for brand-new in the box! As far as I'm concerned, black is beautiful!! Especially at that price!

Mine is orange. You can barely see it in the corner here. I love the KAs in colors!
(We still need to paint the top cabinets! And I used the backsplash to help me tie in the colors.)

plumorchard your cabs look awesome!

Yes, she will be mine one day. She will be mine. LOL

The cream and almond ones that Timber and Rhome have are so pretty though (and sound yummy). And Lesmis' matte grey - gorge-ous. Sucks that we can only choose one!!

Crazyone, I also have a Bosch for making bread and buns. The KA is used for whipping egg whites and cream, cookies, and cakes. I had the KA first, but needed something bigger for large batches of bread dough. Like yours, my Bosch stays in a cabinet when not in use...Not too pretty.

plumorchard, I searched for a thread with your kitchen and finishings but couldn't find one. Would you mind sharing the colour you have painted your base cabs? They are beautiful.

(sorry for the mini hijack - I don't own a KitchenAid mixer)

~Missy

Mine is Pearl Nickel (kinda like stainless) and it is in my pantry as my light valance doesn't allow it to sit on the counter. It is the Pro Model. For Canadians, the Shopping Channel quite often has the KA mixers for the showstopper and the prices then are quite affordable. They are a powerful mixer and well worth the money. I too love the anniversary model but I've had mine for about 5 years now and it wasn't available when I purchased mine.

I'm glad to see another orange one here. Mine is tangerine:

My husband picked it out, I gave him the option of the tangerine (his favorite) or the red (my favorite). Of course he went for his. If I were buying one now though, I'd go for the copper! GORGEOUS!

My first one - 5qt. Artisan, passed down to DS - was white. I always loved the colored ones and swore I would take the plunge if I ever got a new one but, guess what? My 2nd one - 6qt Pro Model - is white again.

I would love the Steel Blue one they now offer for our lakehouse, but it costs $100 more for the same machine if you get certain colors. I just can't justify that right now.

Mine is always out on my countertop. I have a real working kitchen and use it a lot. Plus, I think they look nice enough to be displayed.

I called my mixer color "creme" but the real name could very well be "almond" like rhome's. We have a bosch mixer, too, but that lives in a drawer since it is much lighter and easy to lift (and not nearly as pretty as a KA!).

My dh couldn't understand why I still wanted to keep my KA when I got the bosch.?.

I love seeing all the other pretty colors.
Plumorchard-I love your kitchen!

Mine is cobalt, a 1992 wedding present. Our kitchen colors were blue and hunter green then ... remember that? We've gotten rid of the green, but not the blue. Almost 20 years later, still love blue.

I have a harvest gold one from the 70's. I also got my mom's when she went to assisted living 10 years ago - that one is that 70's green - can't remember the name. My son took it to college but returned home after graduating so it's in our apartment here.

My husband gave me the new 90th anniversary candy apple red mixer for Christmas. It's still in the box, waiting for my new kitchen.

I got mine for Christmas. I call her the Blue Beauty. LOL. The color is Cornflower Blue, and I think she looks so pretty on the Blue Pearl granite. Even though my kitchen is not done, I gave her a place of importance on the counter.

What a great thread. Mine is plain old white and I am thinking of having an appliance garage built to house it and the toaster and jar opener.

Mine is the white lift. It stays out all the time since the remodel. I made sure the uppers are very high as I love a tall workspace. It gets used a lot with heavy duty artisinal wet dough breads, but I still make many things by hand in 13 qt bowls...I just love to knead and stir by hand. Here is a pic from a couple weeks ago. Great thread , and I too love pics !

Mine is also white, but I really, really love Ice.

Boo hoo :(

I feel like the nerd girl who hasn't gotten her braces
off, contacts on or breasts yet. Total dweeb trying to
fit in with the cool kids.

I don't have a KA mixer. I really want one but I have this
sunbeam thing that won't die.

I believe I am getting one for Valentine's day. At least
that's what my alter ego is going to buy me.
I thought Santa was going to have one under the tree
but he forgot. So I guess Cupid will be helping me out.

Here is what I want... I think this color. Red might
go better but something about this blue is fun.

And just maybe I will fit in.
~boxerpups

Wow - thanks for all the responses on our work in progress! And - love that cornflower blue mixer.

mini hijack response - prairie girl - the bottom cabinets are Grape Vine (410F-6) Behr Premium Plus. They are glazed in burnt umber.

Our intent is to paint the top (someday) a lighter color that will work with trim/tiles/soapstone. It's on the list! I did things a bit out of order. We painted first, then did the countertops, then did the backsplash. And, when we started my vision was way different than what we ended up with. (The brown matched the granite I thought I had to have)
Here's some more photos below. The first page is most of the kitchen. A lot of the range- but you'll get the idea.

And here is my excuse to have a lot of color in the kitchen. I can almost match anything! :)

Here is a link that might be useful: More Pix

Boxerpups- I LOVE LOVE that color, and it was one that I was toying with. In the end, I thought maybe that color wouldn't work quite as well with my granite. I was, quite frankly, surprised that DH bought me one, though, my finding an absolute bargain online really sealed the deal.

If you get that one (or any one for that matter), be sure to post your pics!

This is such a great happy thread.
Especially for a Monday morning that is dreary, gray and pouring rain here in NY.

I had a white one - got it my Jr. year in college as a birthday present from my parents. That was 1991. It was used at least once a week for everything. Served me well for 18 years without a glitch or a hiccup.

When we redid the kitchen (just waiting for the window treatments that have come in wrong twice already to be finished, then I'm DONE), we spent a lot of time talking about storage for the mixer. I thought we would do some sort of garage for it. Didn't like the idea of a lift. The garage thing absolutely did not mesh with my layout and would have cost us a lot of money.

Ultimately, it was cheaper to buy a brand new black KA mixer to proudly display on the counter.

I love it, it looks great, and it's always convenient.{{!gwi}}
{{!gwi}}

In a recent thread on KA, there was a discussion on the glass bowl that was only available with the Williams Sonoma KA mixer. It's going to be sold separately starting this spring.

Here is a link that might be useful: KA glass bowl

Thank you, plumorchard! Your kitchen is gorgeous. I love the red colour on your island, and the different counter top materials. Blue paint for the upper cabs?

You will have to post in the FKB when you're all done.

Sounds like many that have a colored KA have the cobalt blue. Chalk me up as one more. I got it I don't know how many years ago (12-15?) at a Black Friday sale at Tuesday Morning. For those of you familiar with TM, you know that there is a VERY limited number of their advertised deals. I got in line over an hour before opening and they had 11 mixers. We all just grabbed a box and ended up with whatever color was inside. I asked a man at checkout who got almond if he wanted to trade, but now I am glad he didn't. No, the color doesn't really go with my new kitchen, but I don't care about all matchy-matchy anyway. It's out on the counter at all times and I love it. If I could choose new today, I would probably go for the turquoise. It's beautiful!

I love KA mixers in bright, cheery colors. Loved the Meyer Lemon and the red...I'm another one with a Cobalt Blue mixer. Love, love the blue. It still makes me smile.

Boxerpups, I was going to post a link to that aqua blue KA. Macy's has it as the "Martha Stewart Blue." Not a big Martha Stewart fan, but love that blue! Talk about a cheery color. And would fabulous in a retro kitchen.

Plumorchard, I love your kitchen. I'd love to introduce some color into my kitchen and alternate between being incredibly gung-ho and incredibly nervous.

Mine's cobalt blue and over 20 years old. It's out on the counter all the time. I love the orange, tangerine, meyer lemon and cornflower! How fun....

MidwestMama & TrailRunner...I was beginning to think I was the only one with the bowl-lift mixer (as opposed to the tilt-head)!

Photo from Amazon.com

Since most people have the one with the head that tilts, is there an advantage to that one over the one that has a bowl-lift?

Mine is the green lift from the late 80's, before they offered red, which is what I will get to replace the green if it EVER goes out, but, it WON'T!

Maybe it will be replaced eventually, anyway. :)

Buehl,

The bowl is bigger on most of the lift models, and it's probably easier to add ingredients by lowering the lift, than tilting the head. Most of the lift models are heavier duty as well.

I have the tilt, and am perfectly happy with it. I never make more than 3 loaves of bread in a batch because I can't shape fast enough to stay ahead of more yeast than that, and I've never made anything that was too stiff for the mixer to handle, though people report having those problems. I'm wondering if climate has something to do with it? Do colder ingredients make the dough too stiff?

For a lot of people, the deciding factor might be whether they can lift it in and out of a cabinet, or if it fits well under their uppers. And the tilt is less expensive, comes in more colors, and it's cuter.

Since most people have the one with the head that tilts, is there an advantage to that one over the one that has a bowl-lift?

I think it's the open/easier access into the top of the bowl, both for scraping the sides of the bowl and adding things. It seems easier to lift the beater out of the bowl and clean it off over the bowl, rather than get the bowl out from under the messy beater as it drips before you can get it unattached in order to clean it off over the bowl. But I've never had the bowl-lift kind, so I can't really compare by experience.

Oh! I thought with the lift you were supposed to scrape around the beater with the bowl still on the arms.

To put what I said above into car terms: It's a Beetle vs. a Jetta.

Mine is the sunny yellow. I love it!

Plllog...Was your last comment in reference to what I said? When I was talking about getting the bowl off the mixer, I meant when you were all done, not just to scrape the sides while still mixing things in. But I could be just confused about what you meant.

I think the bigger bowls are deeper rather than bigger around? So I always thought it'd be easier to add ingredients using the mixers where the head tilted out of the way instead of the ones that go down, but the mixer is still mostly in the bowl. The only person I know who had the tilt then changed to the lift to have a bigger bowl, wasn't as happy with the lift, and felt it was more awkward to work with...But it could be just in what one is used to.

buehl,I believe that the lift mixers that we have are heavier duty and also larger bowl. They are a pain to add to though as has been stated. And to scrape. I keep meaning to get the new flexible beater that came out over a year ago but haven't done it. I rarely make cakes and batters so don't really need it that often. Nice thread and I love all the pretty colors...c

Nope! Rhome, I was the one who was confused. I didn't understand what you meant, so thanks for clearing it up for me.

My complaint with the tilt head, btw, is on the add while mixing. I don't like the shield thing, and the top of the bowl is too high. Though I did get some Pourfect bowls as a present and am just waiting to have my kitchen back to see if they fix the problem. I'm just so used to using my hands!

So have you all seen CHROME?

And I really like the looks of the limited edition 620 (don't know what's limited, but that's what they call it). I'm sticking with my ol' white giftie though.

{{!gwi}}

You cant really see the color in this pic but it's the stainless looking one....

I have wanted a pistachio one since I first saw one on display at Macy's. I thought it was the most beautiful thing! Santa brought one this year but I was surprised that it was a matt finish. I cleaned off a section of my countertops just for it. Do I need to be concerned about the matt finish holding up as well as the glossy ones?

Mine is the matte silver. Lift heavy duty pro. Its loud, it lives on the counter. It's used a lot. My family tolerates the noise, because of what it helps produce. :)

I don't think it makes a difference. Mine is matte licorice. I love it!

White and battered from 35+ years of heavy use. If it ever dies and can't be repaired I will hunt up an old one or use a different brand. KA isn't what it used to be when Hobart built the mixers.

My first was a black lift model in 2004 but i didn't like the mechanism at all. I sold it and bought a black gloss tilt model. Have had it since 2005, and it looked great in my jewel tone circa 2002 kitchen, and my modern gloss white circa 2014 kitchen!

I had a friend who suddenly passed away at the young age of 23 back in 2001. She was a sassy young Texan who knew how to formulate an argument. She once said that if her dad was allowed to have a four-car garage in Texas to hold all his "toys", she didn't see why, once she bought her first house back in Texas where space was aplenty, she couldn't have a dedicated space in her pantry that held 5 or 10 KA mixmasters in a range of colors. I always remember her saying that and thought her logic was solid! One day!

What a great thread - I have the original white, lift bowl Model K 5A. And I have to confess that many times over the years I've been tempted by the siren call of those glorious cobalt, pistachio and and chrome machines.

But I have a strong sentimental attachment to my Kitchen Aid and I still remember the day my husband and I purchased it. While waiting to have the tires changed on our 1971 Plymouth Duster we wandered across the parking lot to a Best Products store. He spied me eyeing the mixer and encouraged me to buy it. I thought it was too extravagant - we were living on one income and he still had 2 more years of med school. But we had been scrimping and watching every penny and DH was working in the lab on weekends so he bought it for me. I still have the receipt, I use it as a bookmark inside my Joy of Cooking. That was 11/20/1976 and I paid $164.89 for it.

And it's also the first thing I look for when I check a bridal registry - it's my favorite gift.

Maire

Mine is white. Received it as a wedding present in 1990. It's still going strong, although no longer so pristine in appearance. Since I'm Foreign Service, this mixer has done duty in Togo, Senegal, Spain, and the UK, as well as many stints in the U.S. (Overseas, it requires a step down transformer.) It has never missed a beat (literally LOL). I do muse over investing in a new, snazzy color and passing this guy to my DD. Love the pearl finishes.

Maire, what a sweet story.

My original KA, an almond Classic, was a gift from my mother and sister in the mid-80s. I'd been baking my own bread, and they decided I needed a leg up. I used it until 6 years ago, when I bought a (gently used) red Artisan for the new kitchen. The old standby was given to my DD, who was thrilled with the re-gift.

I joined GW in 2010. It's been nice to read through this thread and see some names from that time, including plllog and plumorchard, whose range hoods were among my inspiration pics.

After more than two months of obsessing over what color to choose and leaning toward the willow blue (basically navy blue), yesterday I ordered the cornflower blue. I'm in the middle of having my kitchen refaced and although I wanted a medium brown it's ending up being dark brown. I figured the cornflower blue would brighten up the kitchen. Seeing Shelayne's picture of her cornflower blue pushed me over the edge to go with what I love instead of what is more practical.

Ours is a well-loved 34 year old in Almond. It was a wedding gift, and one of our favorite kitchen tools. We recently bought a nice red cover for it, since it lives out on the counter, and red is our accent color.

ours is red, still love it!!! had over 10 years!! love the meyer lemon!!

This brings back good memories (and I need to get mine down and use it!). Mine is Almond but I got it free from a free-spirited friend when she moved to Costa Rica and gave away anything heavy :-) The color's not chic but it reminds me of my friend and of the first year of retirement I spent learning to bake. I kinda covet the lovely colors available but KA mixers seem to come with emotional attachments as well as the other kind!