Chalkboard Painted Refrigerator Tutorial

Oh my gosh I feel like our crazy project is done.  Finally. We painted our refrigerator with chalkboard paint. Crazy I know, but I wanted to try something fun and different so I stopped being scared of painting our refrigerator and we just did it.  (Actually, Justin did it, but I kept the kids corralled and happy.)

Okay so here is our refrigerator before

Not bad, but there were all kinds of scuffs on it and dings since we had bought it used.

I googled the Internet for different ideas on how to go about painting our refrigerator, and decided to do a combination of tips that I found.  One tutorial said to sand the whole refrigerator before painting, and I was like "Hecks to the NO!" So I decided we should just prime it and then paint it.

I taped off the handles and the ice/water dispenser using Scotch Blue Multi-purpose Painter's Tape. Then we primed the whole refrigerator using Rust-oleum's Magnetic Primer. We just rolled it on with a sponge roller. And cut in using a 1" Purdy paint brush.

Rust-oleum's Magnetic Primer

Purdy 1" Brush

This is our refrigerator after it has been primed with the the magnetic primer. We followed the instructions and did 3 light coats of primer.

The Rust-oleum Magnetic Primer paint on our refrigerator, still drying.

We waited 4 hours before adding the first coat of the Rust-oleum's Tintable ChalkBoard Paint. And then after another 4 hours we added the second coat. (By the way, I found the Magnetic Primer at Home Depot for $20-$21, and the tintable Chalk Board Paint at Home Depot for $11-$12.)

Rust-oleum's Tintable Chalkboard Paint



Our refrigerator painted with Rust-oleum's tintable ChalkBoard Paint. Still drying.



excuse the nerdy husband, he was really happy to be finished. :)



After we let the refrigerator dry I pulled off all the tape and decided I now hated the handles.

In these pictures they really don't look bad...ugh now I am wondering if I should have changed them after all...??

Anyway, I decided I didn't like the refrigerator handles and asked Justin if he could take them off.  He did, but probably thought I was crazy and that this project was taking a lot longer than I had originally said it would.  I also didn't like the ice and water dispenser now either, but haven't quite figured out how I want to make it more discreet. (Any suggestions???)



Refrigerator without handles

  

I filled in the holes with wood filler. It was what I had on hand.

Then I started searching on google for refrigerator handles. Um yeah, bad idea. I found some awesome ones that cost anywhere from $50-$120 per handle. There is no way in heck we could afford that so I put my thinking cap on and came up with another crazy idea.

I asked Justin what he thought about using towel bars for refrigerator handles.  I showed him some pictures of some towel bars online and we both decided it would be worth a shot.

We headed to Lowe's to to look at their towel bars and see if there was anything we thought might work.  We ended up buying two 24" dark oil rubbed bronze towel bars for about $19-$20 a piece. 

We, and by we I mean Justin, had to drill small holes in the refrigerator doors where the screw plates would go, and then he attached the handles like the instructions showed.

ChalkBoard Painted Refrigerator with Towel Bar Handles

Honestly, I don't know if it was a mistake to take off the handles and add these things or not. I always second guess myself when it comes to crafts or projects.  But I think they look really good in real life, or off camera.

We followed the chalkboard paint instructions and waited 3 freakin' days before conditioning the refrigerator with chalk so that we could use it. (To condition it you basically rub chalk all over it and then wipe it away. Ugh and get your vacuum ready because it's a really, really dusty process.)

Conditioning the chalkboard painted refrigerator

Then after you rub the chalk all over you get the fun task of wiping it off. Yeah, not fun. Not fun at all.



Conditioned and ready to use Chalkboard painted refrigerator





Once the whole process was done, it was time to draw!

It's really fun drawing on it, don't let Levi's expression fool you. :)



My new favorite question to ask myself.

Okay, so that's my whole paint your refrigerator with chalkboard paint tutorial, and change the existing handles to towel bars. Haha.

Hope you guys at least found it interesting.   And you can let me know what you think, I know it's not for everyone, but I'm okay with that.


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