Last year when my refrigerator starting making funny noises I thought I would have to replace it. At the time, it seemed like all of my 20 year old appliances had suddenly decided to fail simultaneously.
But, as luck would have, my fridge has continued to perform spectacularly. It’s a bit noisy, with gurgles, popping and fan motors, but I’m used to how it sounds now.
But man, is it ugly. It’s an old white Kenmore fridge installed when the house was built in 1999. The handle has faded to a sickly yellow. After having owned two entire kitchens of new stainless steel appliances (including French door fridges), this one is an eyesore.
Nonetheless, I am so grateful that I have a real fridge vs. the tiny camper fridge I had when I lived on the road. And since it works well, my thinking is I won’t replace it until it stops working and a repair costs more than 1/2 the price of a new fridge.
Recently, I was admiring my kitchen cabinets that I refinished, distressed and stained. I wished I could refinish my fridge like I did the cabinets.
But you can’t refinish a fridge like you can cabinets, I thought. Nobody does that.
However, it got me thinking and googling. I learned that you can paint a fridge. Although I’d never heard of this, the internet was full of sites detailing fridge painting projects.
Three days later, I painted my fridge.
It cost me $20 in paint and about 3 hours stretched across 3 days to allow for during time in between coatings.
I cannot believe how good it turned out and how much I like it. Now every time I look at my fridge, I think “sweet!”
It almost matches the cabinets perfectly. It mimics the distressed wood look and it has saved me at least $650 vs. buying a new fridge.
All of my life, I really liked having a freshly painted house. Whenever we could afford to, we would have our house painted by professionals either before move in day or later down the road. A fresh coat of paint makes everything seem clean, shiny and new. It is a constant daily visual reminder.
My current house was painted shortly before I moved in. The walls are pale gray and stunning. When I replaced the floors, I had the baseboards painted white. Then I stained and refinished the bathroom and kitchen cabinets myself. I also painted and stained my bed, office table, and end tables.
After that, I painted my garage where I workout – replacing the 20 year old unfinished, roughed in drywall look with a pale gray tone.
I love the results of each of these projects. My DIY efforts cost me for supplies, time and energy but saved me thousands vs paying professionals.
Even more valuable is the pride I feel when I admit the work and think, “I did that – and I didn’t even know how to.”
Last week, I added one more to that list.
