How do you cover kitchen cabinets with out painting?

the cabinets are not real wood/in a rental

Looks like you have to live with it.
Re-laminate. If you are the renter, it's not worth it. Ask the landlord to do it.
I have to assume youve got the cabinets but there are no doors. I did something for a friend that was easy and worked out very cute. I made very simple little "curtains" for the cabinets and used long springs to hold them at the top and the bottom, instead of clunky curtain rods, it was a good match with her kitchen ..and i made her a matching table cloth..its darling!
Paint's cheaper than re-surfacing the laminate finish. I have seen Con-Tac paper on the outsides of cabinets before. Kind of a funky look. But it won't hold up to the inevitable bumps and nicks kitchen cabinets get.
If you've got those flat white melamine cabinet doors you can actually use stainless steel contact paper on them to give them a modern/industrial look.....if not then try buying woven bamboo sheets from a home depot or lowes, then cut out sheets approximately 1/2" smaller than the doors. Then hot glue gun the sheets to the door. You can frame it out with any type of molding you want using either caulking or a hot glue gun to attach. You'll have a tropical kind of style. And this way it's not permanent!!! Good Luck with your project!
you can use a shelf liner and line the cabinets with shelf liner or contact paper or you could also if they are for your use take the doors off and use a small tention rod and hang material like a curtin on them good luck hope these ideas help