Everyone likes to have their furniture made of wood to give their home an elegant and sophisticated look. But then, no one wants to go through the hassles of taking care of it.
The good news is that we have an effective solution today in the form of wood laminates. They look and feel like wood, but they are not. This means moisture and other weather conditions will not cause changes on the surface.
In short, it is much easier to maintain. There you are. If you are convinced, this article is all about where and how to go about with wood laminates in India. Read on for all the ideas you need to beautify your house conveniently with wood laminates.
The benefits of wooden laminates
These laminates come by stacking sheets together and, ultimately, covering it all with a solid exterior layer. What you have inside are thin layers of wood, which is more like paper. This is often mixed with thin layers of resin. What covers it all on the outside is a fiberboard of high density to form a strong and protective core.
They are ideal for use in furniture, flooring, and even walls. Wooden laminates can be used almost anywhere, from kitchen cabinets and bedroom closets to counters and bathroom tiles. Since they are heat resistant, they can be used on almost any durable laminate surfaces, including windows and garden patios.
They are easy to install, maintain, and clean and cost less than many other materials out there. You only need to dust or wipe the surface with a wet cloth to keep it clean.
Let’s not forget that you can experiment much more here with colours, designs, and tones to get creative in a way that you wouldn’t with normal wooden interiors.
That said, read on for a few ideas on using wooden laminates in your home.
Wooden laminates for your floors
We all love wooden flooring, but not everyone can afford the cost of maintenance that comes with it, economically and otherwise. Wooden laminates give the impression of walking on floors made of wood, yet without the hassles that come with it.
Since they are more durable than wood, they will not be affected by high floor traffic. This makes it a good choice for houses that bear large families or throw many parties at home.
And they come in various designs too, so you can choose the wood you want. You have commercial-grade laminates designed to look like maple, oak, and various other kinds of wood, so you can pick the wood you want to see on your home floors.
Wooden laminates for your kitchen
One of the first things that determine the look of your kitchen, besides the flooring and the cabinets, are the counters. The counters can make or break the look of your entire kitchen. And it doesn’t take much to make them beautiful now that you have wooden laminates to make your kitchen appear warm and inviting.
Besides being aesthetic and making your kitchen look elegant, they also serve many practical purposes. For one, they resist stains and hence will not create a fuss over those small and even big spills.
What’s better is that they are also highly resistant to scratches, which is just what you want for your kitchen counters, considering all the rough use that one tends to put them through. What’s more, now that you have so many designs to choose from, you can even choose wooden laminates that match the look of your kitchen cabinet to create a more uniform look.
That said, let’s come to the cabinets. One of the biggest benefits of wooden laminates here is their flexibility. This means you can use them to create any look, from rustic and traditional to modern and contemporary.
Cabinets are always challenging to maintain, with all the durability issues and the cleaning that one has to do with them. But you can make all this much easier with wardrobes made of wooden laminates. The good part is that here, it can easily be shaped and trimmed to suit the size and style of your cabinet.
Wooden laminates for your bathroom
You earlier saw the benefits of wooden laminates for your kitchen cabinets. The same applies to the cabinets in your bathroom. Wooden laminates are the best choice when creating vanity cabinets in your bathroom.
Moreover, wooden laminates also resist moisture, which can go a long way in giving you a cleaner and more hygienic bathroom. That is what you want. Besides this, the antibacterial properties that they come with make them just the kind of material that you would want to introduce into your bathroom.
Getting wood laminates in India
In India, it is commonly known as sun mica or mica, so this is the word that you would want to use when you buy one from a store near you.
Though this mainly gets its place from a popular brand of laminates, it soon became a term for all wood laminates.
The cost can vary from ₹200 for a square foot to ₹2,000. It depends on the kind of laminate you want, according to its texture and style.
The thickness
One of the first things you need to do when choosing a wood laminate is to check the thickness of the sheet. A thicker sheet gives you a greater impression of real wood. And it will also remain firm.
Wooden laminate sheets come in varying thickness, ranging from 6 to 12 millimetres. While thin laminates are fine for things like closets and kitchen cabinets, it is advisable to go for thick laminates for things like floors and kitchen countertops.
The colour
Often, a mistake one can make when choosing the colour of your wooden laminate is simply assuming that a certain colour would go with your home decor.
However, the wiser way out would be to try different colour samples where you want them installed. Sometimes, what looks nice in the store may give a different feel when installed in your home.
Then, there are also the colour coordination and patterns you need to consider in case you consider multiple wooden laminate sheets in your home interiors.
Research
Taking the time out to experiment and research will help you arrive at the right choices and prevent you from unnecessarily drawing a hole in your wallet. For in the end, you wouldn’t want that, would you?
So, decide only if you have browsed through as many categories and sought advice from as many experts as you come across until, in the end, you are sure of the kind of wooden laminates you want to see in your home. And it is for all these reasons that wooden laminates are becoming more and more popular in the world of interior design today. They go easy on your wallets and do not give you any regrets. Rather, they make your life easy in your kitchen, bathroom, and even when you hide out in your bedroom.
In other words, they are affordable, beautiful, last for a long time, and, most importantly, very easy to maintain. And this is what you want when it comes to the things you see around you in your home, don’t you?