Floform Countertops, a Winnipeg, Manitoba-based manufacturer, dealer, and installer of countertops, has opened a 6,000-square-foot showroom in Spokane Valley.

The facility, at 5320 E. Sprague, features displays of a range of countertop materials, including laminate, solid-surface, granite, and manufactured stone, says Charmaine Devaney, Floform's showroom manager here.

Devaney says Floform measures, fabricates, and installs countertops for residential remodels, new construction, and commercial applications. The company employs 16 people at its Valley outlet.

Floform says the facility here, with its fireplace and Internet work station, is intended to create the atmosphere of a coffee shop and reduce the stresses associated with remodeling.

In addition to the new Spokane showroom, the company operates Pacific Northwest outlets in the Seattle and Portland areas as well as eight outlets in western Canada. The company was founded in 1961 in Winnipeg.