spotlight series: midcentury materials, brands & accoutrement

chapter 2 – formica

In 1967, my parents decided their growing family needed more space, and they purchased a building lot in Lincoln Woods, a brand new subdivision in Sylvania, Ohio.  Over the next year, my 5-6 year old self embarked on a crazy journey with my mom to source the perfect materials for our new custom built home.  We went to countless fabric stores for upholstery & drapery material,  brick yards to find the perfect shade of brown brick (not too pink, not too black), a super cool Toledo store called Color Haven to choose the best stain for the rough sawn cedar (Sagebrush Gray – which was more of a sage green – the name confuses me to this day), the lighting and doorbell stores, warm with incandescent glow and the cheery and ever present logo of Reddy Kilowatt telling us how we can ‘live better electrically.’

the barber family home, completed in 1968 on our newly paved street. that’s me and my older brother against the front window. our mom is sitting on the sidewalk, 8 mos pregnant with my little brother. the house to the left would be built a few years later.

We made frequent evening trips to the build site for my parents to see the day’s progress, while my brother and I climbed on the “steam shovel” that looked just like Mary Ann and imagined which rooms in the maze of two by fours would be ours.  The street had not even been paved at that point.  It was hard to imagine how it would all come together, but I was in it 100% and the building process became part of my DNA. Fast forward 55 years (and another brother later) and my parents are still in this house, the sole survivors in a neighborhood larger than any of us could ever have imagined, in a little town now bustling with brew pubs and other trendy eateries in the revitalized DORA district downtown.

Perhaps my most memorable part of the building process was playing with the endless loop of Formica laminate sample chips on the ball chain.  The colors!  The patterns!  The possibilities!  The groovy hippy dippy trippy late 60’s era was ripe with bold colors and patterns and what kid would not be excited at the potential?  Is this where my love of color originated?  My mom chose “ice white” for her kitchen countertops.  Boring, yes.  Are they still there?  You bet!  She went a little more out there with some classic avocado green counters in her sewing room.  And used a super daring faux marble with gray & pink veining in their bathroom.  Formica was then and still is the gold standard of carefree surfacing.  I get a charge of exhilaration every time I walk through the kitchen display at Lowes or Enriching Spaces and can’t help but slip a couple of Formica samples into my pocket and dream about the possibilities.

I thought I had died and gone to heaven when we bought a house in Springfield Township several years ago that was built in 1956 by Stuart Faber, son of Herbert Faber the inventor of Formica. Faber (the builder) was known for his extensive use of Formica built ins in his home projects and this one was no exception.  We even sourced new Formica boomerang counters for the kitchen – much to the dismay of the countertop folks who told us we were crazy for not using granite – after the original ones had been replaced during an unfortunate previous remodel.  To this day is it still my favorite flip project we have worked on, and we were so happy to find appreciative new owners.

Imagine my excitement when the board members from cf3 (Cincinnati Form Follows Function) were invited in June of 2022 to help curate Formica historic laminate pattern designs.  This fun focus group was led by Formica Corporation historians Renee Hytry & Meghan Howell and facilitated by librarian Elizabeth Meyer at the DAAP Library at the University of Cincinnati.  It was surreal and a dream come true to be handling, viewing and discussing a gold mine of samples from midcentury through the 1980’s.  They looked to us as MCM experts (midcentury modern zealots, I believe they called us), and we did not disappoint sharing our opinions and passion for the designs.  The culmination of ideas from this fun evening resulted in the new book just published by Formica Corporation and authored by cf3 board member Shawn Patrick Tubb , “Beyond Boomerang – A Celebration of 110 Years of Formica Patterns.”

some highlights of our pouring through the formica archives of samples:

The book is a fun romp through the history of this material, how it “accidentally” came to be the countertop of choice, the famous designers behind the famous patterns, its deep roots in Cincinnati history, and how Formica was an inadvertent eco friendly material and is poised to go even further into the realm by becoming net carbon neutral by 2030.  It’s also a blast from the past for those of us lucky enough to have been surrounded by it our whole lives.  For us as Realtors, Arlen and I marvel how it has stood the test of time and we always geek out when we find a home with perfectly preserved Formica applications.  Nothing is more rewarding than when we are able to pass one of these treasures on to buyers who see the value in it, too. You only have one chance to preserve what is original and in great condition.   We wish more flippers were sensitive to period materials, but that is a thought for another blog post.

Through the years we have sold many homes with resplendent original Formica installations, including a 1967 riverview masterpiece by architect G. Thomas Taylor with all original baths; the personal residence of a Formica Corporation designer & engineer with amazing custom built-ins throughout; a 1952 Amberley Village home designed by Abrom Dombar  where the kitchen and baths were featured in Formica brochures and magazine ads the year it was built.  We even recently scored a vintage wall mounted shelving system built by a home craftsman in Reading, OH featuring the 1965 “Willow” pattern and installed it in our own house.

Perhaps one of our favorite Formica stories comes from the home we purchased in Spring Grove Village with the intention of becoming an MCM themed Airbnb (now rented to our daughter and her friends).  It had coral “Skylark” (boomerang) counters in great condition, save for a very worn spot next to the sink and a missing end piece.  A stainless Elkay sink with integrated drainboard and a scrap of matching Formica generously donated by MCM enthusiast Ryan Grubish later, and the kitchen is good as new.  Our own home features original 1956 Formica counters in the baths and we would not trade them for anything.

On it’s 110^th anniversary,  I celebrate Formica and all that it represents in my personal history, the artistry it brings to the mundane, and the promise for more easy care surfaces in the future, limited only by your imagination.  I’m even looking forward to some pops of green (Formica) in my some day redesigned kitchen.  Because really, nothing says classic modern like Formica.

my childhood bedroom furniture (still in my room at my parent’s house) is this groovy 1973 set by vaughan. i don’t have good photos of my actual furniture (this top photo was borrowed from a google image search), but the coolest part is that the drawer inserts are reversible – green on one side, yellow on the other! and the tops are formica, too. I really have been surrounded by formica my entire life.

see previous spotlight series blog post: chapter 1 – vitrolite