Redoing My Kitchen Peeling Cabinets One at a Time

Gale O'Neal
by Gale O'Neal
2 Materials
$9.95
Our new house (1999) came with a laminate on the front of all kitchen cabinets. Easy to clean, but after a short while (starting by the stove because of heat) started to peel away!
This was the first to go, the one by stove.
Because I was a little nervous about how hard it might be to peel off the plastic coating, I started with the Kitchen Island doors at the bottom.
I took my trusty screwdriver and removed ONE DOOR .
This was the back of the door! (Must remember to clean inside doors more often!) icon
I grabbed at the frayed corner, and just pulled! I was surprised how easily it came off!
Took less that a minute to remove the front plastic. But the back of the door was solid and not peeling. Because it was still on tight, I just took a "magic eraser" and cleaned it up.
There was no residual glue or anything! It was clean and ready to paint. That was a lucky thing for me because I absolutely hate sanding unless it is with my little sander (which for some reason is missing!)icon
Had this paint leftover from abother project and painted the door using a paint brush.
This is after one coat, and I proceeded to do about three to remove (I hoped) the brush strokes. It worked out okay, but I think remaining doors (after I did three) will be using either a roller for large areas and a brush to start in the grooves to make it smoother looking.
The bottom two doors are down, and as you can probably see there is a color difference with the drawers above. But that is only temporary until I finish all of them.
This was the third cabinet I did. It was easy to take down, but needed the help of my tall grandson to put it back in place.
Will update with final outcome of kitchen cabinets when ALL are done!icon
Suggested materials:
  • Screwdriver   (dollar store)
  • Paint   (leftover from another project)
Frequently asked questions
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  2 questions
  • NH09 NH09 on May 04, 2017

    So you did not prime the material before painting? Lovely job you've done. Thanks for posting; I have the same problem and was wondering what to do.

  • Jefferson Jefferson on Feb 22, 2019

    my kitchen doors are wood but the rest is contact paper. what can i do to change the color.

    thanks

Comments
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2 of 22 comments
  • Lois Buchanan Lois Buchanan on Feb 19, 2023

    I answered in 2022. It worked great! I painted all my cabinets a beautiful cream color and they came out great! It was much easier than I thought and got rid of the bubbled, peeling laminate.

  • Mary T Mary T on May 07, 2023

    If the laminate isn’t pealing, you can steam it off easily.

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