How to Paint a Refrigerator

Do you have an ugly refrigerator? I have to admit I have more than one around here! Our house was built in 1998 and we have yet to invest in a kitchen update.

I am planning on painting our refrigerator inside our home in the future, but I thought I would start with the one in my garage. After all, I spend more time in there than I do in the kitchen! As you can see here, we have a plain, white, BORING refrigerator right here.

Dixie Belle Paint Products:

• White Lightning Cleaner
• Slick Stick
• The Gulf 
• Black Best Dang Wax
• Clear Coat in Satin 
• Wondrous Floral Transfer
• Beautifully Native Transfer
• Sand Sponge
• Blue Sponge
• Gator Hide

How To:

The first thing I did was empty it and remove the handles. Then, I cleaned the entire thing with White Lightning Cleaner. I used a green scrubby pad to get all the gunk off of the outside. I did not sand it.

I rinsed the whole thing with clean water. Once it was clean and dry it was time to prime. I used the best primer I have found for metal, Slick Stick.

This is a specific primer made to use before painting metal, glass, plastic, and even Formica countertops like I did here! I like to apply this with a foam roller— it’s so much easier to apply with a roller as opposed to a brush on flat surfaces like a refrigerator. The refrigerator has a little bit of texture to it, so it took 2 coats to get full coverage.

Then, I went in with The Gulf from Dixie Belle! It’s a very pretty true teal color. I wanted to keep the design simple, so I applied it with the foam roller the same way I did the primer. It took 2 coats to cover, and about 16 ounces of paint.

Now I wanted to jazz this refrigerator up a bit! Have you ever used furniture transfers? Well, I decided it would be a good idea to try them on this!

After this, I added a touch of black wax from Dixie Belle on all the corners. Usually, you would use wax last because most waxes are oil-based and don’t react well with water-based sealers. But! Dixie Belle’s waxes are water-based and work well underneath their topcoats! To read more about this painted fridge from Leah Noell Design Co. click here!