Question: We have a cherished kitchen table from the 1950s. The top is bright yellow Formica with a delicate pattern resembling stone. It is funny and sad, but we made a votive candle from half the rind of a mandarin orange. We set the candle on the table, where the flame burned through and scarred the plastic tabletop. Is there a way to patch it? Or can we replace the Formica with the same pattern?
— Bethesda
Answer: Dave Swenson, a Formica engineer who answers technical questions for the company, said there's no perfect way to repair damaged laminate. His first recommendation when someone asks for a solution is to use a router to cut a recess around the damaged area and then fill that with a thin cutting board, such as the Surface Saver tempered glass type made by Vance Industries (www.vanceind.com). But this wouldn't exactly enhance the period look of a 1950s table.
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For your situation, Swenson said, a better solution might be to drill out the damaged area, going slightly into the particleboard under the laminate, to create a round hole with crisp edges. Then you could fill the hole with seam filler, sold as Seamfil. Kampel Industries, the manufacturer, shows the colors available on its Web site, www.kampelent.com. Kampel recommends specific colors of the filler to use with specific designs by major laminate manufacturers. But that's not much help with a vintage design. So you might want to buy not only Primary Yellow but also Maple or Orange so you can mix to get as exact a match as you can. A one-ounce tube costs $5.15 through www.americantechnologyinc.com, the online retailer recommended by Kempel. Companies that sell laminate often also sell this product.
You might also be able to make an adequate patch with materials you already have on hand. Because your table is bright yellow and the hole isn’t very big, try holding a lighted match to one end of a yellow crayon and dripping the wax into the hole. Let the wax cool and harden, then trim it even with the tabletop by slicing off the excess with a razor blade held at a low angle. Since the patch is near the center of the table, it probably won’t be subject to a lot of wear and tear. And if the wax does wear down, you can easily top it off by repeating the process.
If you decide to replace the entire tabletop, there are modern laminate designs made specifically to evoke a 1950s vintage look. Wilsonart has a retro collection with a 1950s-style boomerang design in Yellow Glacier and Retro Butterscotch. Both incorporate yellow, but much more sparingly than on your sunny tabletop.
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For an exact match, check out Formica's Envision line. Launched in 2013, this product is made using digital pictures that customers upload. You can order as little as one sheet (three or four feet wide and eight, 10 or 12 feet long) for $11 to $12 a square foot. The company lists specifications for the artwork on its Web site, www.formica.com. After a graphic artist checks the image, the company will send you an 18-by 20-inch sample, said Cheryl Parker, a Formica account specialist. Assuming you like it, you would place an order through A&M Supply (marketing.a-msupply.com), the regional Formica dealer, which has a distribution warehouse in Upper Marlboro. Formica would then need about three weeks to make your piece.
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