How do you fix badly damaged melamine kitchen cabinets?

bah! The rubber cement that's used to glue the melamine to the particle board is failing and will continue to do so. You can either: paint over and watch as time has that chip and the melamine continue to rise/chip. Replace.

Cabinets to go.com has some excellent prices and their products are very good - I got my kitchen from them. If you've got basic hand tools and help, you could install yourself if you do DIY.

I ordered my handles online from ebay by choosing not only my style but what size for each door and drawer. You need to count carefully but I got all my hardware for about 1/10th it would have cost at home depot!

Don't forget that you'll also need new counter tops. I went directly to a stone and marble slab dealer and walked around in 98* heat and full sun through a maze of upright slabs. BUT - I found a single slab (saves lots of money) in the section he pointed out as being the lowest priced of the granites (my choice). Again, I saved tons of $$ by going this route.

Without it all getting far too involved, use the phone and internet. You can do a basic measurement of what you want in cabinetry and check online. Most places will give you a flat pricing for like an 8x10 kitchen set up.

When we replaced our kitchen cabinets, we went to Lowe's and Home Depot. They did printouts of the layout based on our measurements (they will also come in and measure for you) and gave competitive prices for the same design. By going back and forth we saved enough to pay for our countertops. You can get cabinets refaced if the basic box is good. If the budget is really tight, check out your local Restore which is run by Habitat for Humanity. Stock fluctuates, so chat up the clerks and ask if they can let you know when kitchen cabinets come in. I've seen some gorgeous cabinets in ours, when someone has redone their kitchen and donated their old ones. If you have good counters, and you keep the same configuration, you could probably reuse them.

Having said all that, you can peel the old laminate off, apply contact paper or one of the new kitchen "films", or even paint them. But, they will still be cheap cabinets. It just depends on the amount of effort and money you want to put into them.

https://www.todayshomeowner.com/video/how-to-repair-and-paint-plastic-coated-melamine-cabinets/

All depending on your financial situation you could use a heat gun to remove it off of all the doors and then paint the doors or if it is only coming off of the top ones or bottom. Have the top and bottom different maybe.