If you are in the market for a new countertop in your kitchen, bathroom or garage you may not have heard of postformed laminate. Most homeowners turn to solid granite or manmade quartz for the look of natural stone and regard laminated wood as a cheap, inferior substitute. Today we’re going to show you some of the most beautiful laminate countertops you’ve ever seen. Forget the laminate countertop of your past with their peeling edges and fake look, postformed laminate combines the appeal of a seamless front edge with the look and textured feel of natural or engineered stone.

What Is Postformed Laminate?

‘Postformed’ means that the sheet of laminate has been heated and then bent around a particleboard slab. This produces a seamless front edge to the countertop so there are so crevices to collect dirt, germs or water that causes normal laminate to peel over time.

1. Hyper-Real Yet Maintenance Free

As postformed laminate is constructed from one seamless sheet, it gives a hyper-realistic appearance and closely resembles the look and feel of real granite, quartz or other solid surfaces. Unlike standard laminate with telltale seams along the edges, postformed laminate gives a good level of realism. This gives you the appearance of stone from a product that doesn’t need sealing or the same level of care as real stone does. Real stone such as granite requires periodic resealing and can be easily chipped or scratched. While chipped granite is easier to repair than chipped quartz, it is porous and will readily stain or dull unless you maintain it and keep it free from moisture.

2. Versatile Enough For Any Area Of Your Home

You really need to see postformed laminate up close to appreciate how beautiful it can be. It is suitable for kitchens as workbenches alike as its surface is scratch resistant and non-porous. You’d think twice about installing granite in a bathroom or as a workbench as anything oily or acidic will so easily be absorbed. Absorbed liquids will stain real stone unless they are immediately wiped off. Postformed laminate gives you a high level of scratch resistance, suitable even for commercial situations such as hospitals and in public bathrooms. It will hold up well in any room in your home.

3. Huge Cost Savings

You can get postformed laminate that looks and feels like granite, engineered stone, solid surfaces and even metal for a mere fraction of the price of the real material. Some people order natural stone countertops and end up dissatisfied as, being a natural material, texture and color variations mean that the stone doesn’t look exactly as they imagined. Postformed laminate looks exactly like the sample and, being so cheap, who cares if it scratches? While the cost of stone obliges you to invest in expensive re-sealing, cleaning and polishing, laminate is cheap enough to consider replacement after 5 or 10 years.

Conclusion

If you want the real thing then nothing will divert you attention from real stone but postformed laminate can achieve the look and feel of solid surfaces with the price and practicality of laminate. If you are thinking about investing in a new countertop, make sure you get a few samples of postformed laminate to try for yourself.