I had 30 year old white laminate the last rental I lived in. They were just fine after all that time, except for where people had used them for chopping.

I would avoid white laminate countertops at all costs. I have them (well not anymore, in the middle of a remodel), and they show EVERYTHING! Every drop of coffee, wine, etc. has to be scrubbed with a magic eraser which eventually leaves scuff marks.

It depends on how you take care of them. We had them for over 20 years and the laminate still looked good. It was the oak edge that was awful. When DH left red wine rings on them a either used a little barkeepers friend or bleach. We never got scuff marks from the barkeepers friend but I never really scrubbed that hard. My SIL was appalled when I told her I bleached blueberry and strawberry stains. Apparently that is a no-no because she said bleach is known to take some sort of surface sheen off the laminate. I never noticed a problem but maybe that's just me. If your beach house is a rental you might want to hesitate to use laminate because I doubt renters would care much about using a cutting board or cleaning up with the proper products. One thing that I always was very careful of is using a cutting board so we never got scratches or nicks. HTH.

Thanks!

No. It's not a rental, but I do want it to be low maintenance. I could also do black. The cabinets will be white, and we'll probably end up doing checkerboard black and white vinyl, but I thought the white on white would look more beachy.

I really want the retro boomerang aqua laminate, but my parents and I have gone in on this all together and I don't think it will go over well.

I could also go up to IKEA and get their butcherblock countertops.

I'm just looking for cheap and kinda funky.

My mom has had her counters since 1964. They still look good. My current kitchen built in 1980 has slightly off white counters that still look good. I do think laminate would be a great choice for a beach house. We both use BKF with a bit of care. Go for it!

I've had white laminate counters and they have held up remarkably well. Only have 2 small dings that happened very early on. If you're looking for beachy, I'd definitely go with the white instead of the black.

I am currently having my kitchen done - on the cheap, relatively speaking The cabinet guy, when he came to measure and again when they came to pull out the old cabinets told me that my original 1960 counters were not laminate like I thought, but linoleum, and that nothing would hurt them. He told me not to expect the laminate replacements to hold up as well.

Both black and white will show everything. If you want easy they aren't your best choices.

Ooohh! Giacomo's picture is so cool! I've been scouring the internet looking for laminate in a modern kitchen and I just haven't found what I'm looking for and that just might be it.

I think white laminate is perfect for a beach home.

I had white laminate and really thought it was easy to take care of and I liked the look. I have a laminate in my basement now (office area) that is kind of a shell or travertine look. It might look good in a beach house.

Formica makes colorcore laminates which are the same colour all he way through in solid colours including a few whites (and black). I would check them out (other companies make them as well). My Mom had white laminate and it was not so great but I think it depends on whether you want the upkeep hassles of white counters (my Mom is an adamant no).

My mother has white Formica in her breakfast room from the mid-'60's. It doesn't get the same use as kitchen proper but they're just fine.

I saw the coolest stuff today, but it's probably too expensive for a beach house. It's recycled plastic solid counter material. The white is solid, pure white. It feels really good and substantial. I don't know anything more about it, but they have it at epOxyGreen in Venice, Calif.

I loved our formica.

Thanks for all the responses.
But hmmm...some of you said that it's easy and durable and some said it's a pain in the butt and easily dinged.

I don't know who to believe!!!!! :) I guess it's the particular material?

I'll post pictures when we're done. I don't know what I'm going to do! :)

I had white laminate in my last house for the 16 years I lived there. I really liked - and like - formica laminate. I'm not especially careful about preventing stains - ketchup, wine - yet, not often did I have them. I kind of remember mustard. I am one that grabs bleach and bleaches spots out. I have heard since then (like someone has already said here) that bleach removes the coating/seal. Maybe that is true, but I guess I didn't use bleach enough that I saw a deterioration. My countertops were as nice the day I moved out as the day I moved in.

I never ever used a knife to cut on the countertop surface --- I just always knew from growing up that you don't do that sort of thing. I would never think I could or should be able to use a knife on the countertop, so my countertops were never scratched.

Also, I grew up always using hot pads for a hot pan on the countertop, so it never seemed like extra work to have to do that. It just seemed "normal".

So, all in all, I loved my formica countertops, and I never felt like I was "settling" for less, or that I had to take extra care of them. They last for such a long time, and really hold up well.

Miss Mary

Someone had cut on my Mom's so she covered those areas with cutting boards. Counter tops are 20+ years old. Here are some photos, draw your own conclusions.

We took out super cheap white laminate and put in Ikea BB. It was at least 8 years old, but may have been closer to 15. The POs put it in- they were extremely messy and had at least three kids. It was showing its age, but considerably easier to deal with, and looked better than our >1 year old wood counters. If I could find laminate I like, we would cover the counters in a heartbeat.

I vote for the ikea butcherblock. Beachy, cute, and cheap. But I do like laminate, I'm just not a big fan of the white. They make a million colors...why not a solid blue or something? And can you still get the cute aluminum edge they used to do? that's so much better looking than the rolled edge, I think.