Here’s another vintage countertop laminate brand to add to our research: Panelyte laminate, made the St. Regis Paper Co. Thanks to reader Scott, who is proud owner of hundreds of vintage laminate samples. He suspected — correctly — that we had never seen Panelyte laminate before and kindly sent these photos to share. Above: The Panelyte Princess pattern in Cerulean Blue and White. (And yes, that’s a Wilsonart Betty laminate (a laminate available today) countertop the Panelyte samples are sitting on — a story on Scott’s wonderful retro kitchen project coming in the new year!) Let’s look at some more of these Panelyte samples >>
Above: More Panelyte Princess — in pink and black fields. Wow, a black Panelyte Princess countertop must have been something to see!
Thanks to Scott for sharing these photos with us. He wrote:
I know you like old laminate samples. My father-in-law built cabinets in the 1950’s and 1960’s, and we still have his shop. He saved everything, so we have several hundred laminate samples from Wilsonart, Textolite and Formica, which you have featured before. However, we found some from St. Regis called Panelyte that have some very interesting designs that might be different than what you have seen before.
Our growing list of companies that made countertop laminates in the mid century era
You’re right, Scott! Panelyte was not on my radar as a laminate maker back in the day. Thanks for adding this to our knowledge base. So far the list of companies that made laminates after World War II — when they boomed in popularity — includes:
- Formica
- Wilson Art (now Wilsonart)
- Textolite
- Micarta (the brand of Westinghouse, which in 1979 was still expanding production)
- Consoweld
- Pionite
- Nevamar
- Panelyte
- Arborite (Wilsonart’s Canadian brand)
- … and I am sure there are more.
- (See this story for the names of companies selling countertop laminates in the U.S. today.)
Above: The Panelyte Myth pattern on a black field also is quite striking.
- Nevamar introduced a scratchy-two-way “Kinetic” pattern kinda sorta like this (but not in black) this year, check it out. Other makers today have weave-like patterns as well.
Above: Panelyte also was right there with its own versions of the most popular designs of the era — glitter laminate, linen weaves, and Mother of Pearl aka cracked ice.
Pretty Panelyte! I’d sure love to see some Princess and Myth kitchen or bathroom countertops in the wild!
Thank you again, Scott!
I was a supervisor at St. Regis Panelyte in Kalamazoo in the If 60’s while attending college.
Any idea wheer we can source these now? K
Hi Kerrie, I don’t know the answer to this one.
Totally swank. The black Princess would look striking with the white Marble. And the cerulean Princess, that would look so nice with medium tone wood!
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What a shame these are no longer mainstream colors and styles.
We have the ugliest original laminate in our house which basically just makes me think of oatmeal. How I wish we’d had some kind of fancy patterns like this!
Panelyte was made in Australia in Australia for a number of years in a Queensland factory by Charles Hope P/L which had the licence from St Regis Paper they were eventually bought out by either Formica or Laminex
I saw it was made and sold in Australia, too – there are some ads online! Thanks for adding this info, I should have mentioned it!
These are Great!
I want the Green Irish Linen.
Or the Light Gray Mother of Pearl.
Or the Green Crystal.
Have no use for them, but I want ’em.
Neil