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  • Home » Kitchen Help Category » countertops » 42 historic designs of glitter laminate — from Formica, Textolite, Wilsonart, Nevamar, and more

    42 historic designs of glitter laminate — from Formica, Textolite, Wilsonart, Nevamar, and more

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    Posted by: pam kueber • March 11, 2015

    glitter laminateBack in the day, many manufacturers made and sold versions of glitter laminate. Materials historian Grace Jeffers says that the design was pioneered by Formica — they launched the industry’s first glitter-embedded laminate, “White Sequin,” in 1957. Other laminate companies jumped on the bandwagon and soon enough, versatile and pleasing real-glitter sparkles were covering millions (surely) of countertops across America. Today — a look at a boatload of samples of glitter laminate from personal collection and from our Retro Renovation archives, which together comprise our new “catalog” of the various names for this design… and which includes glitter on plain white and colored papers and later, glitter inclusions applied onto more complex paper designs for even more atomic effects. So far we have found 40 42 examples from companies including Formica, Wilsonart, Textolite and Nevamar. 

    The names for basic glitter laminate on white:

    glitter formicaglitter laminate

    Formica called it White Sequin — The first sample shown above is a paper reproduction; the ‘glitter’ is ink — not the real deal, a cheaper way to show samples, I presume. I included it to show the graphics and the name — we can guess it’s from 1960 because of the “1-60” printed on the sample. This was just three years after introduction. The second sample is the real melamine-topped Formica White Glitter as it would have been installed on a countertop — you can see the real glitter shining through. Oopsy, my melamine chip originally had printing on it — the logo and pattern name. I made the mistake of aggressively cleaning it with a vintage cleaner I bought on ebay — without testing first — and the cleaner took the inky text right off. You can see the shadowy remainder of a different, later-era (1990s, I believe) Formica logo. Drats. The chip seems otherwise fine, though… Hereforeto — no more cleaning of my vintage laminate hoard, except for soft dusting.

    Thank you, Robert, of ElectraChime — he sent me a bunch of these Formica samples — including all the paper samples I show here — for the permanent Retro Renovation collection! I greatly appreciate it!

    glitter laminate

    Above: Textolite called it “White Gold”. Textolite was a General Electric (GE) brand.

    Missing from our archive: Wilsonart called it “White Glitter.” Grace Jeffers says that Wilsonart later named it “Lamé.” I am sure they must have had one (see below, when I show all their Glitter on colored papers.)
    glitter laminate

    glitter laminateAbove: Arborite called it G.G. on Snow White. I don’t know what G.G. stands for. Grace Jeffers confirmed that G.G. stood for Golden Glitter. Arborite — a Canadian company now owned by Pionite correction: Wilsonart — was the last company to offer glitter laminate — I believe they offered it into the early 2000s — that’s when I obtained this sample from a local store.

    Other companies that existed back in the day and which may have had glitter laminates:

    • Micarta (the brand of Westinghouse, which in 1979 was still expanding production)
    • Consoweld
    • Pionite
    • Nevamar
    • … there may be more.
    • See this story for the names of all companies selling laminates in the U.S. today. No glitter, though!

    Now, let’s look at the different “simple glitter” collections and some of their color options. Again, this is not necessarily a complete list — these are just the samples I have in my personal collection and from a big story in 2012.

    Formica Sequin in at least four colors:

    I have Formica Sequin paper samples in four colors:

    glitter formicaglitter laminateglitter laminate glitter laminateWilsonart’s Glitter laminate in at least 12 colors:

    Not from my collection, but from this story we did in 2013 showing a supernova constellation of Wilsonart Glitter colors… They were being sold as key chains for $10 each, and as soon as I published the story, readers snapped ’em up:

    vintage-wilsonart-aqua-glitter

    • Aqua glitter laminatevintage-wilsonart-beige-glitter
    • Beige glitter laminate

    vintage-wilsonart-charcoal-glitter

    • Charcoal glitter laminatevintage-wilsonart-cocoa-glitter
    • Cocoa glitter laminatevintage-wilsonart-coppertone-glitter
    • Coppertone glitter laminatevintage-wilsonart-flame-glitter
    • Flame glitter laminatevintage-wilsonart-frosty-pink-glitter
    • Frosty pink glitter laminatevintage-wilsonart-powder-blue-glitter
    • Powder blue glitter laminatevintage-wilsonart-pumpkin-glitter
    • Pumpkin glitter laminatevintage-wilsonart-red-glitter
    • Red glitter laminatevintage-wilsonart-wintergreen-glitter
    • Wintergreen glitter laminate

    Textolite’s Gold came in… how many colors?

    glitter laminate

    • Surely Textolite must have offered this laminate in more than just the plain White Gold. Alas, my sample collection only includes this one colorway.

    Formica’s Silversnow Laminate came in at least four colorways:

    Oooh, in 1960 — again, just three years after Formica introduced its gold-flecked “Sequin”, it also had introduced a glitter design with denser, smaller, silver flecks — they called it Silversnow. Perhaps the inclusions are mica, rather than glitter? I have four paper sample chips:

    glitter laminate

    • Red Silversnowglitter laminate
    • Green Silversnowglitter laminate
    • Cocoa Silversnowglitter laminate
    • Black Silversnow

    Glitter Laminates with deco paper with designs

    Formica’s Spindrift came in at least two colors:

    Formica’s Spindrift also was in my batch of samples that I date to 1960. It features two additional elements printed on the paper underneath — smudgy-veining + whisperthin cracking-veining. From my paper collection:

    glitter laminate

    • White Spindriftglitter laminate
    • Light Aqua Spindrift

    Wilsonart’s Satellite laminate came in at least six colors:

    Wilsonart’s Satellite was glitter over paper with one additional element, subtle smudgy-veining:

    vintage-wilsonart-beige-gold-sattelite

    • Beige gold satellite laminatevintage-wilsonart-aqua-gold-satellite
    • Aqua gold satellite laminatevintage-wilsonart-frosty-pink-gold-satellite
    • Frosty pink gold satellite laminatevintage-wilsonart-powder-blue-satellite
    • Powder blue satellite laminatevintage-wilsonart-primrose-gold-satellite
    • Primrose gold satellite laminatevintage-Wilsonart-White-gold-satellite
    • White gold satellite laminate

    Textolite’s Spungold design came in at least two colors:

    The smudgy-veining in my Textolite chips looks strong, more powerful than the Wilsonart’s shown above. I have it in two colorways:

    glitter laminate

    • White Spungoldglitter laminate
    • Beige Spungold

    Textolite’s Nugget came in at least two colorways:

    Glitter on simple starbursts, nom nom. These samples — which came along with all the melamine samples — were on paper. I speculate: Brand-spanking new, so tucked in, pronto, even before pressed samples were available. Only two colorways on my sample chain:

    glitter laminate

    • Textolite Gold Nugget laminateglitter laminate
    • Textolite Champagne Nugget laminate

    Textolite’s Twilight came in at least six colorways:

    Twilight featured gold or silver glitter — the glitter was not real chunky — over paper that was pretty highly veined. However, I would say that the veining was not realistic, it was stylized… abstract, even. As if to say, “We’re only kinda sorta pretending to mimic marble — this is laminate, after all, and we’re not going to pretend otherwise.”

    glitter laminate

    • Textolite Golden Beige Twilight laminate features two shades of beige veining with gold glitter on top.glitter laminate
    • Textolite Silver Gray Twilight laminate features two shades of gray veining with silver glitter.glitter laminate
    • Textolite Primrose Twilight laminate, two shades of yellow, gold glitter.glitter laminate
    • Textolite Dusty Pink Twilight laminate, two shades of pink, gold glitter.glitter laminate
    • Textolight Aqua Twilight laminate, Aqua and green veining, silver glitter.glitter laminate
    • Textolite Lavender Twilight laminate, lavender and taupe veining, silver glitter.

    Nevamar’s Flair came in at least two colorways:

    Above: A pink “Carnation Flair”.

    And above: A more neutral Beige Flair.

    So there you go. Did your eyes pop out of your head? Did your greedy retro-loving hearts cry, “Gimme! Gimme!”?

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    Comments

    1. Stephanie says

      February 8, 2018 at 5:32 pm

      I can’t believe they don’t make these anymore. They would be eaten up in a millisecond by Millennials! What is there not to love? Gold flecks, bright colors, low prices?! Gah, I’m so sad I can’t get my hands on some.

      Reply
    2. Heather Free says

      April 12, 2018 at 12:31 pm

      I’m about 90% sure that we have the Textolite aqua twilight in our half bath! Our house is a brick ranch built in 1965. Unfortunately the original laminate countertops have been removed from the rest of the house, replaced sometime in the 80’s or 90’s :,(
      So what to use in the full bath….?

      Reply
      • Pam Kueber says

        April 12, 2018 at 3:26 pm

        All my countertop research is here: https://retrorenovation.com/category/kitchen/countertops/

        I am a fan of the two Wilsonart document revivals, Compre would be perfect for ’65: https://retrorenovation.com/2014/11/05/1960s-1970s-reproduction-design-laminate-wilsonart-retro/

        Reply
    3. Shirley VanScoyk says

      April 13, 2018 at 9:04 pm

      I’m in the process of restoring my glitter laminate. I am going to use extra fine glitter to match my fiesta ware, and cover it with epoxy resin. I’m so excited I’m trembling!! I figure my counter tops are so worn – I’m sure they are almost sixty years old – that the glitter is mostly gone! I can send you a picture if you like, of this original glitter laminate!

      Reply
    4. Barb Kowalski says

      October 8, 2018 at 10:08 am

      Our glitter countertop from the sixties now seems to have tarnish .

      Reply
      • Pam Kueber says

        October 8, 2018 at 10:25 am

        This has come up before: I am not an expert but tend to believe the ‘glitter’ has oxidized — assuming that’s what you are seeing.

        Reply
    5. Cathy says

      December 31, 2018 at 10:14 am

      What a great retro info site! I just bought a 22.5″ tall TV table (some say it is a child’s play table) on wheels. The laminate top has 6-sided gold flecks (still bright gold) and small shiny strips of what I would call teal, tan, pink and green. Fabulous! Might the gold flecks actually be… gold? And, the top is built of several layers of thin wood boards. Is there a chance there might be asbestos in the boards or any part of the assembly? How could I determine this? I plan to renovate this piece and possibly sell it. I have not idea of value though. Thanks for your help! -Cathy

      Reply
      • Pam Kueber says

        December 31, 2018 at 11:28 am

        Hi Cathy, the only way to know whether there are hazards such as asbestos in old materials is to have them tested. I suggest calling your local building commissioner/inspector/department for recommendations on resources and/or start googling — as I recall, I found a state-licensed lab that could do testing that way.

        Reply
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