Designing Kitchens and Bathrooms - How to remove melamine from Kitchen Cabinents?

What is the best way to remove the melamine finish on Kitchen Cabinents? Our goal is to paint in satin lacquer then glaze, and finish in clear satin lacquer. However the contractor will not warranty his work if he has to paint over the melamine finish. Thanks!

However you do it - it will be a mess.

The melamine finish is just lamiante (formica) verticle grade or thinner depending on when your cabinets were built.

The melamine was applied with adhesive, no telling what kind.

Carefully "peel" a corner of the melamine and use a pour some solvent between the melamine and the door/drawer panel The melamine may just eel off with more solvent and more time. You may get lucky, but don't count on it.

Even after it is off, you will still have to clean up glue residue, and then the substraite will need to be sanded thoroughly before painting.

You may elect to rough up (sand) the melamine surface
and take your chances with the paint job.

Frankly, I would save up for a new kitchen before I attempted either one of these "bound to be a problem in the future" fixes.

sorry, thats probably not what you wanted to hear.

You might have luck with a heat gun and putty knife. As indicated, you will not like what you find beneath the melamine. Adhesive removal will be an issue.

Assuming you're only doing this on exposed ends, if the cabs are built with reveal type stiles, you could just cover the ends with 1/8" plywood skins to match the cabinets, then seal and paint. The plywood will set in behind the extended stiles. Good luck.