Should be fairly easy to match a strip or panel of iron-on veneer at the big box hardware stores.

Andrew, Buy Restor A Finish by Howard. All you do is open the can and put a little on a towel and rub in. Works wonderfully; I use it on everything wood in my house and even on my fake wood kitchen cabinets. I have 3 kids who leave scratches and ring marks and it works amazingly. I bought mine at an antique store and they use it on everything there. I saw it recently on amazon.com and mine is ebony finish but there are other options. Find a finish with a little red in it. Just use soft cloth to apply and rub in, however dont get on you freshly painted walls. Joanne

First and foremost: this is not your problem, it is the painter's problem. Was this a professional company? Then go straight to the management! They should pay for the repair. If you get no satisfaction, report them to the BBB. Then, get a matching Pantone marker and do it yourself. Good luck!!

This will never look alright. To make up for destroying your cabinets by using the wrong tape, these painters should paint now paint them. white or light gray.

I agree with Ikla. If you hired professional painters, they should not have damaged your home. Your first step should be to contact them and ask them to fix the problem, free of charge. One of the reasons people hire pros is that they are expected to do the job better than an amateur--that includes not damaging anything. Haul out your contract and see what it says about damages.

I'd only move on to DIY fixes after you have tried to get the painting company to fix things and have not succeeded.

I agree with others; the painting company need to be held accountable for damaging your home.

Hmmm....seems to me no painter's tape would do that kind of damage. What the heck did they put on there??? I agree that the painters are responsible.

As for solutions:

1) As someone suggested, painting the cabinets would be one way to go.

2) If you want the veneer fixed, you will probably need to veneer over the entire end of the cabinet. Meaning you will need to find a veneer with the same grain, glue/iron it on the cabinet end, then match the stain and the finish. I would have a cabinetmaker do this procedure rather than the painters.

3) For a superficial fix you could stain over the exposed particle board. It would still be damaged but not nearly as noticeable.

So sorry. You must be furious!

The painters should be responsible for the cost of the repair, but I would suggest you repair it yourself to be sure it's done to your satisfaction. You can purchase replacement end-panels for your cabinets in a matching wood finish at any big box store. Get a price for however many you need, and contact the painting company for reimbursement. If they refuse, take them to small claims court and report them to the BBB.

If you know the brand of your cabinets and the color/finish you should contact the manufacturer or the place you bought them for a filler pencil, or crayon. I had a very similar issue on my Aristokraft Avalon Maple Rouge cabinets and the corresponding MARKER from the company camouflaged everything like magic - I do not recommend trying a generic from Home Depot because the one from the company is made specifically to match and create a shine that reflects as if it is wood grain (not just flat brown). The spots I had missing were roughly the same size as yours, too. As the owner, you'll probably notice/know its there, but absolutely nobody else will and it was cheap! Good luck! Way easier than painting all the cabinets or re-laminating. I hope this helps you out.

i think i would paint your cabinets & brighten it up. but see if you can get the painters to cover the cost.

How the heck did they do that ? Was the veneer already coming off a bit ?
Definitely go with the marker or buy a trim piece from the manufacturer. The damage may be in a narrow enough area that a molding style piece would work.

I can't stand it when workers ( craftsmen ? ) walk away from a problem like that.
~ C

First you have got to establish the same texture as the neighbouring veneer which will require some kind of filler material and then it must be sealed. That seems to me to be the hard part. Experimenting with the right shades of paint and gloss to approximate the intact veneer seems very doable for me but maybe not for you. A decorative painter (eventually paid for by the painting company) would be the way to go and the job might have to entail the entire side of the cabinet for the sake of uniformity, but look on the bright side - at least it was the side of the cabinet!

I would try to buy matching, smooth wood trim and use it to cover the damage, pretending it was built like that! Then touch up anything not covered. I have some on my cabinets to cover gaps between the cabinets and the not straight wall. You can get it pre-finished from lots of places.

To really repair, you would need somebody to re-laminate the entire end.

The correct tape wasn't used for this job. For that much laminate to have been removed, they must have used an extremely high tack adhesive tape, which is totally unwarranted in painting.
You might try getting artistic and try to recreate the wood pattern with your own painting skills, but even that wouldn't have the correct sheen. You need to get the painters involved or look at small claims court.

Ok, all finger pointing aside, my suggestion is to find a specialty wood supply store in your area or online, Rockler.com is a well known one. You'll want to get some real wood veneer. It is relatively inexpensive and will not look like a hack job when you are done. If your cabinets are cherry you'll want to get cherry veneer. Veneer sheets come unfinished and many have an easy to use adhesive backing.
Simply adhere the veneer to the existing surface, trim to fit using a very sharp blade and a straight edge or a router if you or someone you know has one. finally stain/clear coat and you're done.
*Use a small piece of the veneer sheet to test various applications of stain and clear coat until you find a close matching combination.

After looking at the image again, you will definitely want to cut the veneer to size before adhering it to the cabinet. You may also want to stain and clear coat prior to doing so as well, whatever you are comfortable with.
YOU CAN DO IT!
Good luck!

That looks like the printed paper surface of (no offense meant) cheap laminate. Not veneer, which is super thin sheets of real wood.

Although complaining to the guys who did the job should be your first step, I suspect anybody this careless won't give you satisfaction.

If it were my house, and the painters DON'T fix the problem, I think I'd find someone who can paint-match a faux finish over the torn spots (if you want to stick with your cabinets as they are) OR try to cover the bad spots with a strip of stained real wood OR buy and apply some real wood veneer over the whole end panel. (I used some self-stick kind once purchased online, applied it carefully, sanded down the edges, stained and polyurethaned it -- looked really good!!! But it's not real cheap.)

The damage isn't in a great spot for disguising it, unfortunately. Good luck!

Cabinet suppliers can order an already finished real wood end panel that is used to cover the faux side of the cabinet. When we remodeled our kitchen we ordered a couple of these along with our cabinets to cover the cheap looking exposed sides.

I'm sure there is a fix for this problem, but the painters should bear the cost of the repair and handle the repair itself. Whether the repair costs $1 or $100, they should take care of it. They may already have the necessary supplies and products to fix it. I'd talk to them. If you don't trust them to fix it, they should at least pay fo the repair if you do it. Save your receipts and present them.

I totally agree with everything SherryBinNH said- it defnitely looks like a printed paper laminate which is why it was so easily damaged by the overly sticky tape. The painters should have known better!

Hello Everyone--

I only read Apartment Therapy once a week so I didn't even realize they had posted my "good question." I appreciate everyones helpful suggestions. I work in the arts and live in a very artsy community, so first mistake: I hired two preparators from local galleries to paint the house. I won't be taking them to small claims court, but I have learned my lesson. The amount of money I saved hiring friends will now be spent on fixing their mistakes!

These were a lot of good suggestions. I hadn't thought of adding a matching trim, as gttim suggested. But I can imagine that being one of the easier options. I am going to bring in a carpenter-- NOT A FRIEND!-- to review some of these suggestions too and see which one will work best (and cheapest!) for me.

Thank you again for all of your help.

Best,
Andrew
New Orleans

Hi, I would suggest using 3Mblue tape and make black stripe along the damaged area and along the other three sides of the damaged panel of the cabinet. This would look like a custom trim on the side of the cabinet.

Totally agree with Bo. this is an easy fix for a faux finisher, used to playing with wood fillers/papier mache/veneer and stain/paint. Unless you're intending to slice a larger strip of the veneer away and find an exact match, make sure you, or whoever does the repair, rip the veneer patches with your fingers (as opposed to cutting with a craft knife) and use a very light sandpaper, to blend the jagged edges together, before correcting the colour .. which (in my experience) is better done with a tiny dab of shoe polish than with wood stain (which soaks into porous surfaces, like particle board, in a way that's impossible to correct if you get it too dark !) You need an artist, rather than a carpenter, I think .... So you're, at least, living in the right neighbourhood !