Surface materials are ideal for creating beautifully seamless countertops, full-height backsplashes, and interior cladding. They offer many benefits, including durability, hygienic maintenance, and design flexibility.
Unlike natural stone, acrylic-based solid surfaces can be thermoformed to bend into curves and unique shapes. Fabricators can also add dramatic translucency to acrylic-based surfaces with backlighting.
Mirror Cuts
Solid surfaces have long been famous for countertops because of their durability, non-porous material, and minimal seams. But it’s also an excellent option for other spaces like shower walls, waterfall counters, and even curved and unique shapes because it can be thermoformed.
Mirror cuts are an innovative way to cut mirrored pattern pieces for a seamless countertop installation, allowing you to create a countertop with no visible seams. Before starting, it’s essential to ensure your work area is clean and all tools are prepped. Laying a sheet of fabric or newspaper on your workspace is also recommended to protect it from scratches or broken glass.
Ultra Compact Surfaces
While solid surfaces have long been a popular countertop material, more and more homeowners are opting to use ultra-compact surfaces for their new countertops. These revolutionary materials, known as sintered stone, are produced through glass, porcelain, and quartz under extreme pressure and heat. They offer incredible durability and superior resistance to scratches, etching, staining, extreme heat or cold, and UV radiation.
Like solid surfaces, these can be used in various applications, from bathroom vanity tops to surface cladding. They are manufactured in sheet form to be fabricated into seamless counters, but they differ in that they are non-porous and offer incredible color stability.
Aside from their superior strength, they are highly hygienic because bacteria can’t absorb the material. They also resist impact, scratches, abrasions, and thermal shock.
Bookmatching
This layout option is an innovative way to elevate your solid surface countertop design. It combines the beauty of natural stone with the functionality of a seamless layout. This symmetrical look is often used in hallways and along staircases, as it offers a welcoming first impression that carries throughout your home.
Bookmatching is achieved by utilizing slabs that are polished on opposite sides. These slabs mirror each other when paired together, like the pages of an open book, creating a beautiful kaleidoscopic effect. This process adds to the cost of your project as it requires extra work and time, but the outcome is a jaw-dropping statement that will surely impress.
The use of bookmatched porcelain can take your kitchen to the next level. With stunning patterns and various colors and styles, this material is perfect for backsplashes, splashbacks, vanity tops, and flooring. The mirrored movement of this stone can carry from your benchtop right through to the splashback, tying your design together seamlessly.
Light Tape
Solid surface manufacturers create their products by combining acrylic, polyester, or a combination of both resins with filler and color pigments. This mixture is extruded or poured into sheets and can be cut, scribed, sanded, molded, and formed to become countertops, sinks, shower walls, cladding for buildings, and more. Non-porous, hygienic, and easy to clean, these products resist stains, bacteria, mold, moisture, and other elements that degrade other countertop materials over time.
While white and gray have maintained a stronghold on the market, many homeowners are starting to choose colors with warmer undertones. Manufacturers are also responding by offering more earthy visuals and patterns.
