Where to find speckled gold laminate? Also called “lame” (with an accent on the “e”, as in “lam-ae.”) A typical reader question, like this one:
Hello – I really hope you can help me. I have been searching for weeks with no luck. I have an old trailer from the 50’s and need to replace the countertop and table top. I would love to put in the old style white spunggold or white gold textolite but cant find even close to it. Do you by chance know of a manufacturer that still makes this or something similar.
Thank you so much,
Kelly
Update 2018: A reproduction is now available! See this story.
See all my countertop resources here
sombrerocat says
Gee — I’m getting ready to do a kitchen remodel within the next year and will be getting rid of a speckled countertop and double-bowl enamel sink — all on a 107″ length. Plus I’ve got matching speckled backsplash. I remember the look used to be very widespread, but I just don’t care for it anymore. I wanted to re-do the countertops in a turquoise color (but most laminate today is imitation granite). Gee — one woman’s trash is another woman’s treasure! What can I say?
pam kueber says
sombrerocat, we have identified some manufacturers of turquoise / aqua laminate – take a look at my navigation bar: Find PRODUCTS / Kitchens / Countertops
Googieagog says
That White Gold sample sure brings back memories. My parents renovated their ’53 kitchen in ’62, blowing out the dining room wall to create a huge eat-in kitchen for our growing family. Mom delivered me a few hours after hanging the last of the blond birch cabinets. The kitchen had two built-in desks — one for sewing, the other for paperwork — pink and black plastic wall tile, and gold-fleck white countertops with a custom-built matching dinette table that comfortably seated 10. One of my brothers still has the table, covered in about an acre of that laminate. The floor was finished with some kind of then-newfangled spray-on enamel coating that also had metallic gold flecks.
Joe says
from the barsandbooths.com site:
Laminate Pricing
Full Sheet of Laminate (4 feet by 10 feet) – $450.00
2 or more Full Sheets – $390.00 per sheet
Holy bejesus!!!!! I paid $60 for a sheet of Boomerang from Lowes, the teal one. and that was a 4×8 sheet, it’s still rolled up in my garage, next to my 5×12 sheet of vivvarr white for the kitchen, that was about $200. Shop around people!!!!
pam kueber says
Thanks for the detail research, Joe.
TappanTrailerTami says
Ok gang, thinking outside the box here on the lack of Textolite style sparkle laminate sources……….
What’s to stop someone from getting a chunk of left over solid color laminate (could be white, green, pink, or whatever) from a counter place and:
Getting some low gloss/matte resin (think wood restaurant tables that have high gloss resin tops, sometimes with the menus or items placed in the resin), and trying a thin coat over the laminate and putting your own glitter in? Resins typically wear very well and are usually food safe. I think it’s just a matter of finding something not so high gloss.
Could be the cheap retro look-a-like in the end, at least until Formica/Wisonart/Pionite decide to come to their senses and just make it for us.
It it turned out ok, then you could decide to do your counters. If not, well you only wasted a bit of resin, glitter, a chunk of some shop’s left over laminate, and a little time.
Janice says
Mark, you’re making it very hard to say no to VCT! I have to say I’m intrigued by the Amtico flooring Cindy used and actually found one that closely resembles the VCT floor I picked out originally. I love this blog – it’s a treasure trove of ideas, information and resources. Thanks Pam and fellow mid mod lovers!
Mark says
If you can find something that works and that you like go for it, but in my experience VCT is easy to take care of and like I say, it’s so cheap you could easily change it out if you are not happy with the color or pattern.
I found some extra colors at the habitat for humanity store near me, 30 cents a square foot. How can you go wrong?
Mark says
I just put down VCT in my kitchen, I put down the 5 coats of polish as recommended and so far it’s fine, I mop as usual and it shines like crazy! It did take 5 coats to get a good shine, now if I had a buffer I would think it would have been less but the stuff goes on with a mop, no work at all.
It’s been down for about 3-4 months now. I wouldn’t let waxing stop you, the new polish they have is great.
VCT is about 1/3 the cost of marmoleum and comes in many more colors. It’s really easy to install and at less than $1 a square foot, if you get tired of the color, change it.
pam kueber says
I’m on the lookout for a vintage floor polisher with all the attachments…. yes, that vct sure do shine up purdy! The man who originally put down my 5 coats (I hired someone I found through my dentist’s office) said: wash it only with COLD water with some vinegar in it. He was insistent that hot water would dull the finish, in his experience.
Mark says
I’m looking for a polisher myself, I would like a vintage with the attachments but they do make new ones as well.
If I can’t find a vintage one I think I’ll pick up one of the new models.
bex says
RE: Flooring options. I redid my linoleum cheapy kitchen floor with marmoleum. It looks amazing. I ended up doing the marmoleum sheet floor instead of the tiles. There’s a great array of colors available, and it’s a green product which is an added bonus.
–bex
MrsErinD says
I wish they still made this! My bathroom vanity is covered in the white spungold, just a simple style, nothing super mod, but I really like it, I need to get better pics of it.
Janice says
Speaking of flooring…. I have my “undo” nearly done on my kitchen (removing 80’s -bringing back the 50’s), but I’m really struggling with what to do with my floor. I really, really wanted to use VCT, but after thinking about the maintenance of waxing for the next 20 years, I decided against it. Does anyone have any good suggestions for a modern day vinyl floor that would compliment a 1950’s kitchen? This is all Ieft to do and I don’t want to mess this up!
pam kueber says
Janice, look in my Flooring recs, I like the Armstrong white brick vinyl. There are other manufacturers called out, as well, take a look…
Rebecca, can you post your finds?
pam kueber says
Here’s the stuff Rebecca found: Armstrong / Impressions: from the little chips online (I haven’t seen this stuff in person) some of this looks like (1) linoleum or (2) pebbly stuff. Worth checking out. I need to go to my tile store to see it…
link: http://www.armstrong.com/flooring/vinyl-sheet/cushionstep-collection.asp
Alex Colvin says
Your thinking of CVT (Composite Vinyl Tile) I worked as a floor tech. Its standard industrial-strength tile used in office buildings in many settings. Holds up a long time and looks great. Care is actually rather simple. Today, it comes in an array of colors and styles, but it needs knowledgeable installation — that’s the key. Not really a good DIY candidate. But upkeep is very easy, which is why so many companies use it. Its heavy-duty but installed correctly it can be quite nice.
pam kueber says
Yes, we recommend this often here. I have Azrock Cortina Autumn Haze in my kitchen – and love it. I agree re installation: Use a pro.
Uncle Atom says
It would be great if there was enough of a collective groundswell to get manufacturers to find a way to make this variety again. We have the mint green speckled gold counter tops in our original 1958 kitchen, but they are in bad shape. I’m toying with trying to salvage enough to use in our 1962 Shasta camper (it had the white variety as shown in your sample image above.)