My problem with laminate is IF the seams get wet they will actually raise. It happened to me, my sister, and my sister in law. I would want as few seams as I could get by with. The glue just isn't what it was 20 plus years ago.

Whoever heard of a countertop that you could NOT get wet..but with laminate you better be careful to catch all spills quick.

If you are thinking of replacing the counter with stone later, you might want to take into account that many stone slabs are between 5 and 6 feet in the short direction. If you go 6 by 6, it may be limiting later if you want to cover the island with granite without a seam. If you can go with a quarter oval instead of a quarter circle, you would have a bigger choice of slabs later.

I have had laminate all my life and NEVER have had a problem at a seam...even in houses built in the 60s with original laminate. We certainly had plenty of spills, and washed our counters many times. We bake a lot and rolled out dough that would dry on and need plenty of water to clean it up...Not a problem. I never was obsessive about getting to a spill immediately. If I'd experienced such things we wouldn't be putting laminate in our brand new home, but we are.

Having seams should not affect durability or structure (if it's installed correctly and if you don't flood it and leave it). How much you sacrifice in look will depend on the installer's ability to do a good seam (some can make them almost invisible), and the pattern you choose. Some camouflage seams better than others.

Laminate can come standard in 5 x 12' pieces, so I'm not sure you'd need 3 pieces. Personally, I think I'd want to go with pie shaped pieces that would work with your design, and look more planned.

How do they handle the seams? We have a mostly laminate countertop with a piece of butcher block added at one end. Egad, the seam between those two pieces is a 1/2"-wide, ugly metal strip. Gunk builds up in it regularly, despite my efforts to the contrary. If *that* is the kind of seam you'll have, run like crazy! I would hope that there are better ways to seam laminate to laminate these days, though -- mine is 20+ years old.

The 2 pieces are usually cut simultaneously, so any tiny variations in the line fit right together, or they are dry fit and filed to fit each other, so that they can be as tight together as possible...No metal strip. I'm way over 20+ years and have never seen laminate seamed with a metal strip. Interesting.

We had our laminate counters pre fabbed for us, with Wilsonart HD, but we did the install ourselves. To get the seams tight we had to place glue between the two pieces being joined and then there are miter bolts beneath the counters that are tightened to pull the two sections together to get a very tight seam. In our particular pattern you really have to look to see the seams. Solid color laminate will show the seam more easily, but some patterns are barely noticeable.
I've had laminate countertops in all but one of my 7 homes in the last 30 years and never ever had a problem with seams and laminate lifting. Nor have I had any ugly seams. As a mom to 4 kids (now grown and gone), trust me there were plenty of spills on my laminates through the years. They all got wet!!! Never had any seams lifting. My biggest problem with laminate is that it's not heat resistant or scratch resistant, although the newer laminates like my new Wilsonart HD is pretty tough and difficult to scratch.

If you're doing a solid color laminate I don't think seams would look very nice on your island which may be the focal point of your kitchen. But if you're doing a pattern, i think you'll be fine.

Thanks to everyone for your replies - I really appreciate the help!!!

Lynn, the post you replied to is 10 years old. A lot could have changed since then!