Exclusive sneak peek: Jonathan Adler’s new Formica laminate collection — see the 9 designs

Breaking news and first on the interwebs, yay: We discovered today that the new Formica® Laminate Jonathan Adler Collection — nine designs in all — was posted on the Formica website in advance of its official introduction scheduled for Jan. 21 at KBIS. AFTERNOON UPDATE: But whoopsydoodle, Formica published the page accidentally, and it was immediately taken down. So, you had like a one hour window to see all the goods. Didja? Meanwhile, because we were cautious about using images from the website that we … guessed … were not supposed to be live yet … Formica’s PR rep sent us some super special sneak-peek images. We are told this is on the only place on the web where you can see all the designs — woot! Brenda Starr reporting. 🙂

Update: Not sure if all the products on this page from 2015 are still available. I’ll leave this up for the archive, though.

Jonathan Adler designed three patterns — in nine colorways — for Formica

Note: For this special sneak peak we only have the thumbnails, above.

Lacquered Linen:

There are four colorways for Lacquered Linen, the most “useful” of all the designs. Colors are Crème Lacquered Linen, Green Lacquered Linen, Orange Lacquered Linen and Charcoal Lacquered Linen. Likely, they’ll sell a lot of those Creme and Charcoals, but you know us: We are digging that burnt orange and rich avocado big time. Funky and rich retro classiques.

• Note, other companies have introduced linen-pattern laminates over the past few years. See all our laminate research in our Kitchen / Countertops category here. 

Greek Key:

Greek keys are a signature Adler motif. While we’re not big fans of the pattern — too contemporary for us — we do appreciate the relatively small scale. Colors are Orange Greek Key, Blue Greek Key and Charcoal Greek Key.

And, among all the three new Jonathan Adler designs for Formica we also like that he created (1) tone-on-tone prints and (2) made them multi-directional. That is, the pattern runs both horizontally and vertically in the same measure. Faux butcher block notwithstanding, this is what we like to see in a patterned laminate: Tone-on-tone, multi-directional prints — abstract, ideally, because laminate is a man-made material, it does not need to pretend to be something else.

Malachite:

Okay so maybe these aren’t tone-on-tone, well, not in namby pamby way. We like ’em. Cuz we like krazy. Colors are Blue Malachite and Charcoal Malachite.

Nicely done, Formica and Jonathan Adler! In particular, we appreciate the COLOR.

Pricing and where to buy:

Formica PR says this will be available to order and purchase at Big Box stores. The designs are rotagravure-printed — this is the method used for mass production. Which means, I will speculate, that these design will be available at a typical retail price — around $100 or less per sheet, similar to other production laminates. If I’m right, that’s great news. Officially, here is Formica’s estimate of retail pricing, installed:

Samples:

We presume these will be available after official launch Jan. 21.

More information:

Official launch is not until Jan. 21. Here is info from Formica’s October news release:

Formica Corporation, the inventor of laminate, has partnered with iconic potter, designer, and author Jonathan Adler to create nine bold new designs exclusively for Formica’s 2015 Residential Line. The new laminate patterns will be unveiled at the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show (KBIS) in Las Vegas in January 2015.

The collection will include many of Jonathan’s signature patterns in an array of hues ranging from subtle to bold. Perfect for countertops, accent walls, cabinets and more, each style will reflect Jonathan’s spirit of iirreverent luxury and represents a bold update of a classic material.