Instead of having chests of every color, why not just make the "core chest" the only chest, which you can select a color upon placing it on the ground? This prevents the clutter in the menu from all of these chests.

See Generic Logistic Chest for an example of what I mean: https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Generic_Logistic_Chest

Good idea. I will work on it

I have upload an implementation for this feature.
Don't forget to set the option "Generic chest" in the settings to have full access to generic chest (remove recipes on coloured chests, mining a coloured chest give a generic chest).

I'm testing it now, how do I pick what color the chest will be? It's always red when placed.

In the smartchest panel (previously only for filter), click on the button of the choosen chest (with the image of the chest item) (was not clickable before).
See last image in gallery

I figured it out, the smartchest button is not appearing properly after I unlock research with sandbox mode or via console, but once I get the button to appear the panel seems to be working properly.

Ok, i have a problem with research. Should be fixed now.