It started popping up in recent years as a popular wallpaper on web pages (especially those that have a pop culture theme). Just the sight of it made Baby Boomers all nostalgic and asking “What is that design? I know I’ve seen it before…” Where you saw it was probably in your parents’ bathroom or on your grandma’s old kitchen table.

It was originally called “Skylark,” but most folks refer to it as the “boomerang” pattern, and its recent surge in popularity surprises Formica, the designers of the kitschy laminate. Formica got its start in 1912 when the company’s founders developed a way to coat mica with resin, cure it, and then press it flat. The product was used as an insulator for automobile components, radio parts and other industrial gizmos. When Westinghouse began marketing a similar type of insulation, Formica decided to find another niche.

It came in the form of the post-WWII housing boom. Formica patented a rotogravure printing process that produced decorative designs on sheet laminate that could be used on tables and counter tops. In the early 1950s, Milwaukee designer Brooks Stevens came up with a pattern of interlocking “boomerangs” in blue, pink and yellow against a gray background. Skylark, as it was named, appeared in restaurants and on passenger trains and soon became one of Formica’s most popular patterns.

As times and tastes changed, Formica dropped Skylark from its product line and added more subtle, earthy colors and designs instead. In 1988, the company re-released Skylark in updated “punk” colors, but it quickly became clear that customers were clamoring for the original. As of 2005, the original Skylark returned in all its aqua and charcoal-gray glory.