My Cabinet Veneer Is Peeling by the Dishwasher

Unscrew the hinges from the cabinets and remove the doors. Take the hinges off the doors and place the hinges and screws into a plastic baggie to keep them together.

Pull out drawers in the cabinetry as far as they go and lift the drawers at a roughly 30 degree angle to slide them off the tracks. Cover each drawer with a piece of fabric or plastic sheeting to keep the items inside from gathering dust as you work.

Put on heavy gloves and brush your hands over the faces of the cabinets where the veneer is loose to wipe off as many pieces of the peeling veneer as possible. Use a sanding sponge on burrs or hard-to-remove pieces of veneer.

Mix epoxy putty, using the method described on the packaging, in a disposable container. Press the epoxy putty into holes or dents in the cabinetry, making the putty as flat as you can on the surface. Once the putty dries, go over the spots with a sanding sponge until they sit even with the cabinets.

Sand the rest of the cabinets with the sanding sponge, getting everywhere you want to replace veneer. Wipe the cabinets down with a wet cloth or tack cloth.

Measure each section of the cabinet that you want to recover. Transfer each measurement to a piece of replacement veneer and cut the piece from the veneer with scissors. Rockler Woodworking and Hardware recommends adding ½ inch to the width and 2 inches to length of each veneer strip that you cut.

Peel roughly 2 inches of the backing off one end of a veneer strip and line it up with the end of the section of the cabinet along which you want to lay the veneer. Press the veneer against the cabinet surface until it sticks and remove the rest of the backing and press the veneer into place along the cabinet. Press a flat, heavy object against the veneer, sliding it along the length until the whole strip holds in place.

Reface the cabinet doors and drawers using the same technique as for the built-in cabinetry sections. Apply shellac to all cabinets, doors and drawers with a paintbrush to waterproof them and prevent future peeling due to the dishwasher. Since shellac produces a shiny appearance on the veneer, paint all the surfaces to get a uniform look and not just those that the dishwasher affects directly.