Back 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:
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!
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.)
Above: 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.
Companies that existed back in the day and which may have had glitter laminates:
- Formica
- Wilson Art (now Wilsonart)
- Textolite
- Micarta (the brand of Westinghouse, which in 1979 was still expanding production)
- Consoweld
- Pionite
- Nevamar
- Panelyte
- Arborite (Canadian company, I think)
- … there may be more.
- See this story for the names of all companies selling laminates in the U.S. today.
Good news: Where to buy glitter laminate now being made again:
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:
Wilsonart’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:
- Aqua glitter laminate
- Beige glitter laminate
- Charcoal glitter laminate
- Cocoa glitter laminate
- Coppertone glitter laminate
- Flame glitter laminate
- Frosty pink glitter laminate
- Powder blue glitter laminate
- Pumpkin glitter laminate
- Red glitter laminate
- Wintergreen glitter laminate
Textolite’s Gold came in… how many colors?
- 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 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:
- White Spindrift
- 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:
- Beige gold satellite laminate
- Aqua gold satellite laminate
- Frosty pink gold satellite laminate
- Powder blue satellite laminate
- Primrose gold satellite laminate
- 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:
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:
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.”
- Textolite Golden Beige Twilight laminate features two shades of beige veining with gold glitter on top.
- Textolite Silver Gray Twilight laminate features two shades of gray veining with silver glitter.
- Textolite Primrose Twilight laminate, two shades of yellow, gold glitter.
- Textolite Dusty Pink Twilight laminate, two shades of pink, gold glitter.
- Textolight Aqua Twilight laminate, Aqua and green veining, silver glitter.
- 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!”?
mike says
Absolutely delicious!!
On a related mote, I have a 5 foot x 5 foot piece of brand new Formica Boomerang Aqua left over from a project I need to sell. I’d rather see it go to a RetroRenovator than to end up in the wrong hands. Do you have a “for sale” forum?
pam kueber says
https://retrorenovation.com/forums/
Rieca Tift says
I am very (!!) interested in contacting the person named Mike who wants to sell his leftover piece of Aqua Boomerang. My husband and I are renovating several older Silver Streak travel trailers and are looking to buy some. Could you connect us somehow. Please, please,
(with a cherry on top) Thanks so much.
mike says
Rieca, my Formica was also used in a camp trailer!
(five three zero five seven five eight eight two zero)
Mike
Cheryl says
I am very interested in the formica….is it sold?
Thanks
Cher
Frances says
And there it is… Formica White Sequin! We have a winner! My (1960s) kitchen counters and backsplash are all done in that with golden oak cabinets and a flecked linoleum floor. If only they would start reproducing the old glitters… our countertops sadly are victims to a few burns and cracks.
Mary Elizabeth says
I definitely recognize the Wilsonart White Glitter as the one that was on my 1959 ranch countertops when I moved in. My favorites in this group are all the aquas!
Funny note–when I opened this story, Google or some misled computer program gave me a pop-up advertisement for GRANITE countertops! Isn’t that a hoot? Like someone searching this site would be a prime potential customer for granite countertops. 🙂
pam kueber says
ugh. yes, i get them too, sometimes!
Roundhouse Sarah says
Textolite’s lavender twilight!! Swoon!!
Debbie says
Oh, Pam….why do you and Kate torture us so? All of this beauty, all of these fabulous colors and ooooh the sparkles….and we can’t have them. Somebody built me a time machine, stat! I’ve never seen Textolite Twilight before, but now I need Aqua Twilight in my kitchen.
Kathy Merchant says
Just goes to show this is still the land of opportunity if someone could find a way to make & sell some kind of reproduction of gold glitter countertops. The world is waiting…..
Callie says
We have a 1968 brick ranch with a beautiful soft pink tile bathroom (save the pink bathrooms!) and I’m pretty sure we have either the Textolite White Gold or the Formica White Sequin for countertops. It’s in beautiful shape and seeing this article makes me want to keep it even more!
Cynthia says
Fantastic article. Every one of them a winner, in its own way. My favorites are the light aqua sequin and spindrift. Imagine how cheerful and cheering these patterns and colors would be in the kitchen or bathroom!
Robin, NV says
I so wish the laminate companies would add these to their product lines again. I’m more than a little tired of the faux stone look.
Of the samples shown, I LOVE the Textolite Twilight series. Also love the Wilsonart Charcoal Glitter – so sophisticated looking!
René says
Seriously. You can’t tell me that all sorts of “regular” people wouldn’t love that charcoal glitter right now.
Diane says
Absolutely! I’d use either the Cocoa or Charcoal Glitter in a heartbeat!
Jay says
My beige faux granite counters look like the Beige Glitter minus the glitter so I’ll pretend it just wore off. I wish I had taken the kitchen cart from my last house – white w/vintage chrome hardware and fold-down shelf covered in aqua glitter ( I just don’t know which pattern though).
I will surely be seeing glitter in my sleep tonight. Thanks!
ElectraChime says
GE wins for best logo treatment!
ElectraChime says
Those key chains are inspired!
And I am uber impressed with the quality of the scans and photography of the samples in this post. Such a pleasure to look at even if I can’t have the real stuff on my countertops!