Laminate counters as a stand in- Color advice please?

9 years ago

Hello all! Sometimes it seems like every door you try to walk through just shuts, doesn't it? Well, after trying many stone countertop "doors" that just didn't work out (I'll spare you the details) we've decided to put laminate counters in the kitchen of our new build until the slab of our dreams shows up. It's a Scandy-modern kitchen, so the laminate really won't look out of place. Who knows, I may decide to keep them.

Our original plan was to do soapstone on the work wall and Royal Danby marble on the island. (We'll still have soapstone and Royal Danby in the bathrooms so I'll get my fix!) Our cabinets are white slab frameless, we have stainless appliances, floors are natural white oak, walls white.

Sooo… my question is, what color laminate? I'm not one for materials that pretend to be other materials, so no fake soapstone and marble. Do you think white for the island and black for the work wall, or should I just do black for everything? Or maybe black for the work wall and a grey for the island. I'm thinking if the island has a contrasting color it will have an exposed plywood edge and the work wall will have a pencil edge.

I don't know why this is a harder color scheme for me to choose than the stone was. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Featured Answer

User

9 years ago

last modified: 9 years ago

Do something fun, like Aqua Dotscreen, Gray Ellipse, Citadel Warp, Dogbone Storm, Endless Smoke, Geo White, Platinum Drops, PossumWarp, or Sarum Twill. Or just a nice solid color, like Just Blue, Possum, Oyster Gray, Mouse, Gull Gray, Fossil, Dali,or Leaf Green.

It.s temporary, so be brave with pattern and color! I would use Possum to just say the name.

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Comments (20)

stephanj
9 years ago
We are doing al black in our small u-shaped kitchen. I also love the "linen" types http://www.formica.com/en/us/products/jonathan-adler-home/09488

I know you don't like "faux", but some of the wood look stuff is really modern and sleek http://www.wilsonart.com/commercial/laminates/detail?sku=7949&btr=1 http://www.wilsonart.com/commercial/laminates/detail?sku=7945&btr=1
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Nothing Left to Say
9 years ago
I think I might do the charcoal laquered linen for all of it.
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I agree, the darker one looks richer. Is there enough light, since the cabinets and floor seem darker? It looks like the lighting would be fine, with the windows and the lighter countertop. I have a Caesarstone light countertop, (Nougat), and I can say that red wine does not stain. Of course, I have not left it for hours on the counter either. The one caution I have is when I left an empty can near the sink overnight. I think it was sitting in some water (near where I keep a sponge) and in the morning there was a light rust ring. It did take some scrubbing to come off. I don't leave cans sitting there anymore.
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This may or may not be fixable. The only suggestion I have is this. Contact cement can sometimes be reactivated by heat. Here is what I would try, if it were me. Get an iron and a brown paper grocery bag and set the heat to fairly high. Then carefully iron over the flawed area with the bag in place to protect the surface. You want to get the laminate hot enough so that it sticks without getting so hot you damage the top side of the laminate. If that works to get it re-stuck, you then need to remove the bag and quickly place a narrow piece of wood down on the seam and put a heavy weight on top to try to keep the laminate down as it cools. I will warn you, however, that, if you don't do this right, you may get some of the adjacent seam to come up and you will be worse off than when you started.
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Hard water? Definitely avoid darker counters. Also dark sinks and ORB faucets. I won't even have chrome, too many water spots. You are right to avoid shiny granite, the hard water will leave dull wipe marks. Solid surface does come in a lot of nice colors, we considered it, but since we wanted darker counters, rejected it because it scratches fairly easily and we were told the scratches would show up as white. If you want a light color, I think its a good choice.(The light color won't show the wipe marks too much) We chose premium laminate, not a popular choice here on GW but we liked the low maintainence of it. Our last laminate counter wore like iron, 28 yrs and 3 kids later, with barely a scratch, so we decided to go with laminate again. I'm not sorry, I do love my new counters. Will it matter for resale? Possibly, but I doubt it would be a deal breaker. Yes I do have a top mounted sink, which I am fine with but I believe you can get undermount sinks with laminate too. (By the way, you should look into a better water softener, hard water can do some damage to your pipes, maybe a new softener can handle the extreme hardness of your water)
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Soapstone is impervious to heat and staining. The soft and medium hardness varieties will indeed scratch or chip easily _but_ the hardest kinds do not. Check out companies like M. Teixeira and ask them about their hardest stones. No one should use a knife directly on stone btw - it ruins the edge, but if you have to live with countertop abusers in your household :) then an appropriate soapstone (or perhaps a honed Virginia Mist granite) is a good option. I did go with soapstone myself in my recent kitchen remodel - Black Venata, which is somewhat soft . .As a consequence my counters are acquiring a patina of light scratches and dings, most of which are visible for a week or two and then slowly fade away. There are always a few fine marks, but they are never the same ones. It’s an evolving surface, which I’ve come to really like as a factor in its own right. It feels like the kitchen has some life to it. - I appreciate that it is not static. And I love that I can set down a roasting pan direct from the oven without a worry,. As for spilled wine or tomatoes ?Phttf. No problem.
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amg765
9 years ago
I would do this black exposed edge stuff for everything. I don't know how pricey it is though compared to regular laminate for a temporary counter...

Cherokee Road · More Info
kiwi_bird
Original Author
9 years ago
Thank you all for your comments! The supplier is saying he thinks the plywood edge may void any warranties. Not sure how much that matters with laminate, but it's something to consider.
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nancyjwb
9 years ago
I like what fishcow posted! Very.. edgy:) seems like it would look good in a modern kitchen.
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kiwi_bird
Original Author
9 years ago
Nancyjwb, I like it too! (Edgy…haha :-)) That's the exposed plywood edge I'm hoping for. Waiting to see if it will void any warranties. Fingers crossed!
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User
9 years ago
Yes, it would void any warranty. Plus, that's a custom formed top, which would be as expensive as an inexpensive granite. Laminate is only a cheap choice if you stick with a standardized postformed top.
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kiwi_bird
Original Author
9 years ago
That's good to know going in. Thanks, Sophie!
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palimpsest
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
If you did Formica ColorCore2 ( a number of whites, greys, black or red) or Wilsonart Solicor (whites or white marble) there is no black edge.

The square, but solidly colored edge is visually nice and more- "solid surface" or "quartz"-looking
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mark_rachel
9 years ago
Have you looked at the Formica 180FX? There are some really cool colors going on there.
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kiwi_bird
Original Author
9 years ago
I haven't seen those, palimpsest. Thank you for the recommendation!
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amg765
9 years ago
If your island is less than 4x8, you could source a sheet of laminate faced baltic birch from a specialty lumber yard, and use the white colorcore formica for the wall counter.
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funkycamper
9 years ago
Fishcow, that laminate faced plywood is incredible. Thanks for sharing that.

I love the edge of quality plywood. We're planning on using quality Baltic birch for our countertop edge. We are topping it with zinc. We'll wrap the plywood edge around the undermount sinks but leave the edges exposed elsewhere.

Although, now I'm wondering if I wouldn't prefer one of the laminate-faced ones. We could just seal the edge around sinks with some good marine varnish. Hmmmmmm....something else to ponder, lol.
mabeldingeldine
9 years ago
I don't know how to avoid this, but my faux soapstone Formica counters show every scratch, no matter how small. The black color is printed on white paper. Beware!
nosoccermom
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
What about IKEA? 25 year warranty.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40274880/

Or even the turquoise
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amg765
9 years ago
funkycamper - I love plywood too. I think I want to use the phenolic stuff I linked for a dining table top. I've been meaning to call them and get prices.
I've seen zinc bars in restaurants and liked the look but I remember reading they are $$$ to have fabricated. Can you make them yourself?
The houzz kitchen in the picture I posted earlier actually has stainless on the sink counter and laminate everywhere else. Maybe you could do the zinc only around the sink and have formica on the same plywood elsewhere so the edges all match nicely

Cherokee Road · More Info
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funkycamper
9 years ago
That would be a good idea but I have two sinks. One in each counter.

Sink looks awesome, doesn't it? And you can create different finishes although I'm leaning towards staying with the natural finish although I might use the stuff which creates a bit of a patina so you don't have to go through that first few years where each patina mark stands out until they all blend together.

And DIY zinc is extremely inexpensive. If you're interested, check out RotoMetal. We figure about $900 to do about 16 linear feet of counters. We've watched several videos and read instructions and it looks fairly straight-forward. Our whole kitchen is DIY including wiring, lighting and plumbing. This will be our third DIY kitchen. So we feel prepared to tackle it. The hardest part looks like where you have to snip and solder around the sink edge. And then sand, polish and buff a bunch to make it smooth and as seamless as possible. .
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amg765
9 years ago
Ooh, I'll have to look into that. We are planning on diy concrete, and we should have the skills to be able to do a decent job with it, but my current backup plan if things go horribly wrong is phenolic resin lab counters. Zinc might be another option.
kiwi_bird
Original Author
9 years ago
Fishcow and nosoccermom, those are awesome resources! Thank you!!!
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Laminate counters as a stand in- Color advice please?

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Laminate counters as a stand in- Color advice please?

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