I will be watching your answers -- we have 1980's melamine cabs too (except ours are slab-front with no oak trim). I don't think there is a good way to alter the melamine short of refacing or replacing, from everything I've read; I'll be interested to see if anyone has any other ideas for you. I think you will see a big difference if you take down the wallpaper and paint the walls and perhaps try a different window treatment. Your countertops look as though they are still in good shape (true?) -- are they pink or is that just the light?

I saw an incredible idea on the Design to Sell show with a $2000 budget for the ENTIRE house (and they include accessories in that budget).

When they first showed the kitchen I thought, OK they have met the impossible, what can they do for those cabinets (just like yours) that will entice buyers.

They added a thin 2"(?) wide strip of wood and outlined the cabinet doors and drawers making them into a shaker style cabinet. There are lots of ideas for priming the laminate so the new wood and laminate match. I've noticed knobs and pulls (contractor pack) pulls your eye away from slight inperfections if you do this. I didn't see the end but it looked like it was going to do the trick. Shaker cabinets are in style now and this should work.

Hopefully you have some additional money for countertops, but if not put some beautiful things out to draw your eye to those items instead of the countertops.

aloha2009 I'm in the Midwest stuck in the snow storm, just the aloha makes me miss the Island......I watch HGTV 24/7 and I to have seen them do the wood aroung the edge. I like the ideal, and thanks for the response.
northcarolina, I think the wallpaper will have to stay for now because I have 2 bathroom I'm working on getting wallpaper down, and the last layer of paper is not wanting to come off..My husband and I can tile the counter tops, yes they are pink or as they call it in the 80's mauve...

Speaking of HGTV's Design to Sell (one of my faves), I saw an episode recently where they addressed cabinets like yours, roxyh. They removed the doors, painted the cabinet frame the same color as the face of the doors, and also painted the oak strip on the doors to match. End product looked like white painted cabinets and much better than before. It would be an easy fix on a tight budget and would look lovely with your new oak floors.

Usually borders are easy to take down, so I think that would help in the meantime until you can get the wallpaper down. Although, I've seen HGTV programs where they paint over wallpaper.

Good luck, and I'll be looking for pictures when you get things the way you want them.

You could proceed as Aloha suggested and add bead board to the center panel if you want a cottage look. Then paint the frames and cabinets the same color.

It is a vacation condo - do you have many cabinets?

Also Lowes and Home Depot have some really pretty laminate counters in stock here, they might not be too expensive to replace.

gmp3, yes this is a vacation condo. I'm going to check into adding the bead board. Thx for your response