Did you know that modern Formica is pretty awesome?

[Kaido]

Check out the new 180FX materials: (high-resolution printing)

http://www.formica.com/en/us/products/180fx#swatchesTab

Pricing is pretty favorable too. The sheets come in as large as 12' x 5', so you can do seamless installations even on stuff like large kitchen islands. The two limitations seem to be not putting hot stuff directly on it (up to 275F degrees, for short period of time) & no cutting on it - so you have to use a potholder under hot pans, pots, and trays, and use a cutting board. The benefit is the cost to look ratio.
Here's a lady who did a marble countertop in her kitchen; the real stuff would have been $6k, but the Formica marble countertop (bullnose edge with 11' x 5' dimensions) cost $1,300: ($4,700 price difference)

http://simpledetailsblog.blogspot.com/2014/09/formica-calacatta-marble-review.html

It's not limited to just countertops, either - you can do walls, backplashes, waterfalled edges, and even dinner tables with it. IdealEdge technology eliminates the brown seam lines (my current place has seams & it's uggo). The dinner table idea is what initially caught my attention because I have been looking at large dinner tables & they get crazy expensive, whereas you can build one out of Formica for a pretty good cost savings, while still getting a great-looking surface. Some more ideas here:

http://www.houzz.com/formica-180fx

A dinner table off Houzz:

Anyway, just an FYI if you're looking to do a project on a budget.

 

[herm0016]

it looks pretty good, but its not the real stuff. The lack of end grain on the "wide plank" makes me .

 

[Kaido]

it looks pretty good, but its not the real stuff. The lack of end grain on the "wide plank" makes me .

Yeah, I hear ya. Although in small places like mine, putting granite or marble in would be the equivalent of putting carbon fiber into a Toyota Yaris

 

[Fanatical Meat]

For the very brief time I did at home depot selling kitchen remodeling they looked much better than expected however they still felt cheap. I think Corrian type stuff is better for a lower cost alternative. Also buy what matches your house don't be obsessed with stone.

 

[herm0016]

My 5 ft by 6ft island top only cost me about 400 bucks, and its nearly 3 in thick maple/walnut/hard pine antique bowling ally. weighs more than a piece of granite that size.

 

[Kaido]

For the very brief time I did at home depot selling kitchen remodeling they looked much better than expected however they still felt cheap. I think Corrian type stuff is better for a lower cost alternative. Also buy what matches your house don't be obsessed with stone.

What matches my house is pale 1970's Spongebob yellow (no joke), which is currently the color of the laminate countertops I have in place. It's gloriously awful

 

[Kaido]

My 5 ft by 6ft island top only cost me about 400 bucks, and its nearly 3 in thick maple/walnut/hard pine antique bowling ally. weighs more than a piece of granite that size.

Wow, I've never heard of anyone using that before...reclaimed sports equipment! Got pics??

 

[Fanatical Meat]

What matches my house is pale 1970's Spongebob yellow (no joke), which is currently the color of the laminate countertops I have in place. It's gloriously awful

You touched upon what I meant in your previous post carbon fiber on a Toyota...
Seriously before you move forward look at the solid countertops they're just a little more money.

 

[herm0016]

Wow, I've never heard of anyone using that before...reclaimed sports equipment! Got pics??

Cabinet doors are all on now, this is just after finishing the island top. I still have another 6 feet of ally in the garage. Wrapped it in 4/4 walnut for a finished edge.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Cabinet doors are all on now, this is just after finishing the island top. I still have another 6 feet of ally in the garage. Wrapped it in 4/4 walnut for a finished edge.

Wow great work!

OP look at this stuff, you can get it cheaper than HD but HD does offer great installers and great a warranty.

http://www.homedepot.com/b/Kitchen-...op-Samples/Solid-Surface/N-5yc1vZc3boZ1z0tpl5

 

[Kaido]

You touched upon what I meant in your previous post carbon fiber on a Toyota...
Seriously before you move forward look at the solid countertops they're just a little more money.

Oh nah, I'm not putting any more money into my current place, house is next! I have a tiny, ugly condo right now that needs more work than it's worth, haha.

 

[Kaido]

Wow great work!

OP look at this stuff, you can get it cheaper than HD but HD does offer great installers and great a warranty.

http://www.homedepot.com/b/Kitchen-...op-Samples/Solid-Surface/N-5yc1vZc3boZ1z0tpl5

Oh I'm not doing any projects (outside of maybe a long dinner table), I was just impressed with how far Formica has come. It used to be pretty cheap, not-so-pretty stuff & it looks amazing on a budget now.

 

[Kaido]

Cabinet doors are all on now, this is just after finishing the island top. I still have another 6 feet of ally in the garage. Wrapped it in 4/4 walnut for a finished edge.

Wowza, that looks great! How did you find it??

Also, if you don't buy this ASAP you're doing yourself a disservice

https://www.amazon.com/Bowling-Ball-Pin-Salt-Pepper/dp/B006K1XT0Q

 

[herm0016]

Wowza, that looks great! How did you find it??

Also, if you don't buy this ASAP you're doing yourself a disservice

https://www.amazon.com/Bowling-Ball-Pin-Salt-Pepper/dp/B006K1XT0Q

I was thinking i would make one out of a real bowling pin.

way down my project list though. i have an 100 year old fainting couch to restore, a post and beam to wrap and panels to make for the fridge first.

 

[Kaido]

I was thinking i would make one out of a real bowling pin.

Haha that would be awesome! I bet you could fit an olive oil dispenser (with the little pour spout) inside a full-sized pin!

 

[Exterous]

Cabinet doors are all on now, this is just after finishing the island top. I still have another 6 feet of ally in the garage. Wrapped it in 4/4 walnut for a finished edge.

Oh dear! Someone broke into your house and stole all your kitchen doors!

 

[Meghan54]

Gorgeous stuff. I worked in a bicycle shop for 7 years. The owner had done the same thing, used old antique bowling alley for the workbench top. Darned had surface. Yours looks very, very good.

Cabinet doors are all on now, this is just after finishing the island top. I still have another 6 feet of ally in the garage. Wrapped it in 4/4 walnut for a finished edge.

 

[Mandres]

laminate is great stuff, but to me trying to copy wood/marble/etc is really distasteful. This stuff is factory made and incredibly precise. Why not pick a design that plays to that strength, instead of a tacky imitation of natural materials? I would much rather have some kind of cool, complex patterns with dots or gradiants than ersatz wood grain.

 

[Kaido]

laminate is great stuff, but to me trying to copy wood/marble/etc is really distasteful. This stuff is factory made and incredibly precise. Why not pick a design that plays to that strength, instead of a tacky imitation of natural materials? I would much rather have some kind of cool, complex patterns with dots or gradiants than ersatz wood grain.

Cost, for one thing. That lady who did the faux marble island was quoted $6,000 for actual marble, whereas the Formica was $1,300. Pretty huge cost savings if you're on a budget. Plus the modern graphics are pretty dang nice for being a copy of the real thing...it's not cheap or super tacky like the old stuff was (having had really old ugly Formica in the past). With that said, nothing (currently) will ever replace the look & feel of real granite, quartz, or marble, but it is a nice alternative for the cost vs. aesthetics ratio.

Also, they do have some pretty interesting & unique designs on their website, not just copycats of actual materials. I'm curious as to why they don't market this stuff more...there's so many cool projects you can do with it without completely breaking the bank. If you dig around their website, Youtube channel, etc. there are some scattered projects here & there, like barndoors, dinner tables, TV dinner trays, and so on, but they're also doing some neat stuff with other product lines like Infiniti & writable surfaces for accent walls & other interesting locations. They have a line called decoLeather, which is a recycled leather veneer that can be used in places like kitchen cabinets. This is antique grey buffalo, which I think makes for some pretty cool-looking cabinets:

 

[Humpy]

laminate is great stuff, but to me trying to copy wood/marble/etc is really distasteful. This stuff is factory made and incredibly precise. Why not pick a design that plays to that strength, instead of a tacky imitation of natural materials? I would much rather have some kind of cool, complex patterns with dots or gradiants than ersatz wood grain.

I'm 100% in agreement with this, and it applies to all materials.

Of course, everyone is free to express their own design aesthetic.

 

[Kaido]

Formica countertops, now with wireless charging built-in:

https://thespoon.tech/formica-group-and-convenientpower-announce-wireless-charging-countertops/

 

[luv2liv]

i got my Formica countertop from Lowes. total cost is under $1500. it looks pretty good and fairly easy to clean
but after 3 years, it cracks at a corner of the cooktop. the installer came out to repair it for free. flawless too, no way to know it was repaired with a small piece glued in and sanded down. he said it cracked because my cabinets are not leveled and maybe because i put heavy pots at the corner.
sadly it cracked again at the same spot even though i know it is leveled and avoided putting anything on that cooktop's corner.

 

[herm0016]

hmm. will it heat up your utensils too? and eventually erase your credit cards if you keep putting your wallet on the counter?

Formica countertops, now with wireless charging built-in:

https://thespoon.tech/formica-group-and-convenientpower-announce-wireless-charging-countertops/

 

[Kaido]

hmm. will it heat up your utensils too? and eventually erase your credit cards if you keep putting your wallet on the counter?

I'd imagine it works off Qi wireless charging, which means it only activates if there's a compatible device detected.

Would be a cool way to skip the warming drawer though...stick your plates on top of the counter to get them nice & warm for serving

 

[Paperdoc]

Over 25 years ago now, I worked with a bathroom renovation contractor who had developed a way to make seamless tub surrounds out of oversized sheets of Formica or something like it - not really sure it was Formica brand. They had perfected three particular components of their system, and were in process of setting up franchises. First, they had a machine they used to bend the flat sheet of Formica (or whichever) to precisely the right shape. Secondly, they had developed the procedures to measure the tub space exactly so the the new bent piece fit perfectly, no matter what size and whether the walls were off-square (almost all are!). And finally, they had the right methods and materials to install the formed sheet and render the entire result waterproof around edges. With that system, you could have a custom tub surround installed with any pattern available in the large sheets, MUCH cheaper than real marble tiles, etc., and with no grout to degrade.