Is it only the drawers and doors? You could remove them and use a chemical paint stripper, according to the manufacturer directions, then repaint.

Those thermo-foil cabinets were known to have this issue. You can take a heat gun and heat up the face and peel the rest of the film off as it gets soft from the heat. Just do not burn yourself or the cabinet. Once done, lightly sand and use a good quality paint with foam roller to refinish. Not much more that you can do. Paint stripper will not really work well with this if its a plastic thermo-foil finish. As its not really paint that your dealing with. Its more like a contact paper finish.

Woodbridge gave very good advice, Deborah. This was a problem with my mom's cabinets. We removed the hardware and the sheeting, (which Woodbridge refers to as themo-foil) came off very easy. We then sanded and painted. After the first coat, we did a light sanding before putting on the second coat. In all we put on 3 coats of paint. It looks great all around. I say "go for the paint".

I repainted my cabinets many years ago. After you get the finish off, use "denatured alcohol" to make sure all of the real fine wood residue comes off. Believe it or not I simply used cans of Krylon Spray pain in real light coats. Inbetween, I used very fine sand paper and lightly sanded. Voila, new repurposed cabinets that the previous owners burnt. The world of luck to you, this is a huge undertaking.

Deborah, you have what is called thermo foil. Not laminate. Laminate does not peel as your showing us. Its very brittle. Thermo foil is more of a plastic coating, which is why it peels.

Please be careful with the heat gun. It will burn you and the wood. Go slow be patient and keep the gun moving slowly back and forth. You can use any good quality cabinet paint. I often use Varenthane Satin Floor Finish to finish off my painted furniture. I would highly recommend that product for your cabinets. Bear in mind also - any paint can take up to 30 days to fully cure. Try not to use the cabinets for as long as possible.

Deborah, is the cabinet face under the sink the only place that's peeling? It's common for this area to show weakness.

Charles

I don't know what tea staining is.

Nice. Glad it is working out for you.

Way to go Deborah.

Definitely an improvement. Great job.

Wait!!! I have these freaking cabinets too! How did you get the Thermo foil off? I hate them and would love to be able to redo them without having the expense of buying new cabinets.