Just a technical point here. Melamine is a resin applied to a sheet of backing material such as chipboard or MDF using a paper strengthener. Formica is one company out of many making decorative laminates, others include Abet Laminati, Polyrey, Wilsonart, Pfleiderer, etc. However, for tasks such as this MFC (melamine faced chipboard) or MF-MDF (melamine-faced MDF) are generally more than adequate, cost considerably less and are more readily available to boot. They also involve a lot less building effort and you don't need a laminate trimmer to handle the edges. If you get a reasonable quality MFC it will last quite well in medium commercial use providing you add hardwood lippings to protect the edges. My experience, anyway.
Scrit