Can you give your fridge a makeover? Can you paint it? Does it work? The answer is yes. I've been thinking about painting my fridge for absolutely ages, but I wasn't sure what paint to use or if it would turn out well. I've had my fridge for years now, I bought the cheapest thing going when I first moved out of my parents four years ago and it's still going strong. I could buy a new one, but why bother when it's still in perfect working order? It's just a fridge... albeit a little ugly and bland looking. I thought that I'd wait until I was happy to completely replace it if painting it went wrong... until I saw Jade Doutch over on instagram completely revamp hers. It looked so easy to do and the colour she used was absolutely gorgeous, so I was completely inspired and ordered the exact same paint and colour straight away. I can't believe what a difference it's made to be honest, my fridge is quite a chunk of my small kitchen and I'm thrilled that it's now so pretty to look at, just from buying a simple tin of paint.
If you're interested in giving your fridge a makeover, here's how simple it is to do...
the before
I'd already started before remembering to take some before shots but as you can see above, my fridge was a cool white, not pretty looking at all. It didn't fit in with the warmth of my kitchen cupboards, and I spent many days lusting after a lovely smeg fridge to add a pop of colour! However, for the cost of just under £27, I've managed to add the colour without spending thousands. I'll have a smeg fridge some day, but for now this one is making me very happy.
the colour
The colour I used is wise old sage by french chic. I got mine on Amazon here for less than £27, it's a 750ml tin and I used less than half a tin to paint the fridge. It covers so well and I didn't need to use any primer beforehand, it went on like a dream! It's water based and it dries really quickly which is what you want when you're painting something that's used often like a fridge. I did three coats in total but could have easily got away with just two. I decided to slap a third coat on just to give it that extra coverage and make it a bit more hardwearing since it's something that's touched everyday.
the process
The process was really simple, I used no primer and just went straight in with the paint. I used a mini foam roller and roller tray that I picked up from B&Q as a set, but in hindsight I probably would have used a microfibre roller instead for a better finish. I just used what I already had in the house rather than going out to buy new. I used a paint brush for the tricky parts like the handles and sides of the door, to get into all those little nooks, and then went over them with the roller afterwards. As I mentioned above, it was covered after two coats but I did three so it was a bit more hardwearing. The first coat is always the hardest getting that coverage, the two after take all of a few minutes to do. It's probably the easiest thing I've ever painted actually! I didn't bother painting the roof of the fridge as I didn't see the point, nobody can or will ever see it. I'm also yet to finish the right hand side as I just painted down to the work top as it was too heavy for me to pull out on my own. I'll probably do the bottom half another day when Jake is here to help me.
And that is literally how easy it was to paint my fridge! I finished it off with my 'what's for dinner?' mountra that I bought a while ago from oh sighh and a couple of photobooth strips that have some of my favourite photos of Ru and I on from Photobox. I think they just added a nice homely, decorative touch rather than leaving it plain as it has no branding or anything on since they were painted over. I've also got my magnetic notepad and pen from Busy B on there to jot down weekly food shop lists on.
Have you ever thought about painting your fridge as a cheap & easy way to give it a makeover?