As granite countertops have surged in popularity in recent years, the various laminate manufacturers have responded with materials that mimic the granite look.

The generic "formica" that we've known for many, many years is still essentially the same product -- a photograph-like graphic design embedded in a thin acrylic resin surface, bonded to a thin compressed resin/paper backer.

Creators of granite-look laminate have used various of these techniques -- offer laminates that "picture" granite looks, add embossed stone-imitating textures, introduce tiny reflective surface components to imitate the reflective mica chips, etc. commonly seen in granite.

SITK uses a lot of the Wilsonart HD series granite-look laminate.  And we are impressed with the latest formica offering, the FX 180 series, which uses very large images (seven-foot pattern repeat) to re-create the scale of "movement"-type granites. To get the true sense of these looks, it's important to view quite large samples, which we have, of course, in our SITK design showroom.