“We’ve made this light for 15 or 20 years,” said Gil Shapiro, owner of Urban Archaeology. “It’s become iconic.”

Or perhaps clichéd.

But that all changed once the company started experimenting with color in the form of powder coating.

“We did one of these in a color, then another, and all of a sudden I fell in love,” Mr. Shapiro said. “With so many stainless appliances in people’s kitchens, there’s now a need for color.”