A volume-to-volume interaction-based Finite Element framework is developed for large deformation planar adhesive contacts. A three-fold scheme consisting of a careful selection of cut-off radius, k-d tree-based fast selection of contact pairs and ultra-fine graded mesh generation technique for interaction calculations is designed and used to reduce the huge computation cost of the volume-to-volume interaction-based models. An arc-length solver is specially designed to tackle the intrinsic ‘snap-back’ and ‘snap-through’ instabilities associated with the adhesive contact problems. The efficacy of the newly developed framework is shown with two numerical examples consisting of adhesive contacts of two planar elastic bodies interacting through 6–12 Lennard-Jones interaction potential. Realistic material and interaction parameters are used for the demonstrations. This new framework will be useful in simulating adhesive contact behaviors of various mechanical, micro-electro-mechanical and biological systems.