Why I Chose Laminate for Countertops Again

My goal has been to make my kitchen brighter. There is nothing wrong with my present kitchen as designed 30 years ago. It was beautiful. It's just not my taste. 

Here is my taste from a kitchen I designed at my old house, a 1914 Foursquare house.  Those floors need replacing! This is a picture I snagged from an online realtor's page.  The floors need remanding or replacing.  The kitchen floors were originally under a layer of mastic and linoleum tile. 

That was a very small kitchen. I spent months and months with graph paper, trying to figure out the best use of the space so it didn't feel like a cave. 

The darkness of my present kitchen is what I want to change. The black laminate was sucking all the light out of the space. We live in Maine, where winter is long and light is scarce. I tried to counteract the black countertops and dark cabinets with screaming yellow.  

It didn't work. 

Originally, I had thought I would put quartz countertops on the old cabinets.  

But they are not worth capping off with stone. I did not want to live through a major kitchen remodel.  Having strangers working in the house is stressful for my autistic son and me! 

I wanted to make the biggest amount of change for the least amount of disruption. I wanted to leave the option open for a future major kitchen gut job.  So I chose to replace laminate with laminate. Here is the original Quartz sample with the laminate I actually went with.  

Pretty close, huh? 

I had gotten a lot of samples of the Formica Elemental Concrete, but was still surprised at the variation in the pattern based on the samples I got.  A the samples did not have the larger darker patches in it.  If I were going to do it again I would buy several of the larger samples, or a larger two foot piece through the local kitchen store. 

But I would still choose it.  

Now the countertop is in and the nice carpenter is gone (thank you!).  Here's a before and during photo.  

I finally decided on a color.  So now it is just a process of hard work, fit in around the needs of my family.  (it's soccer season!). I could pay someone to get this done more quickly.  But it is easier to do it myself than have extra people in the house. 

I am painting...still...