How Formica® Laminate found its place at the centre of furniture design

Whether you’re looking for commercial or residential furniture, the chances are you’ll quickly discover pieces incorporating Formica^® Laminate. 

Designers searching for great alternatives to stone, marble and solid wood are making more and more use of our products. That’s because our laminates don’t compromise on quality or aesthetic appeal – but they do offer several key benefits, including lighter shipping loads, more cost-effective production and almost unmatched versatility.

Here are some of the main reasons furniture designers are choosing our laminates in ever-increasing numbers.

Different colours offer striking possibilities. Hetch Mobilier’s FLOWA sideboard took full advantage of this with a breathtaking use of ColorCore® by Formica Group “This piece pushes the use of laminate to new and incredibly exciting outcomes,” says Nina Bailey, our European design lead. It also demonstrated perfectly how our laminates can be layered, routered or engraved. Elsewhere, Rachel Clay’s Blobs were another successful example of using colour to bring playfulness into contemporary design.

Different patterns and textures were key for Swedish firm Johanson Design when it designed Speed, a versatile side table available in a range of different Formica® Laminate decors. “Table-tops can look completely different depending on the shape and colour,” says Johanson Design’s Lina Johnsson. “Working with Formica® Laminate has taught us to expect high quality and on-trend design, which works well with the way we incorporate the material into our designs.”

Different grades mean Formica® Laminate is ideal for bonding to a substrate, which is how Eurobib Direct, part of Lammhults Biblioteksdesign AB, produced its creative furniture pieces for children’s libraries. Designed in the shape of elephants, lions, crocodiles, camels, gorillas and more, these pieces combined birch plywood with our laminates to spectacular effect. “The finished product will stand the test of time and the surface won’t easily scratch or get worn,” says Bjarne Hjertevik, marketing director at Lammhults Biblioteksdesign AB.

Postforming offers furniture designers almost unlimited possibility when it comes to working with our laminates. Because of that flexibility, London-based James Burleigh offered his classy Hopper collection with both round or square edges. And with the final product looking absolutely stunning, it’s easy to understand why buyers love his work. “The Formica® brand is insanely popular with our customers due to the premium look and feel of the surfaces,” says James.