Go Ahead, Write on the Fridge

When we signed the lease on our place the landlord graciously told us he'd be removing the nasty fridge the previous tenants left.  This was GOOD because I wasn't about to stick even a gloved hand in that fridge to clean up the mysterious green gelatinous puddle living in the bottom, BAD because that left us fridge-less.  Luckily, my parents were looking to get rid of their extra fridge in the basement. Turns out it was a hand-me-down they'd acquired when my grandparents got their new fridge years and years ago.  I'm sure this fridge was a beauty in its youth, but by the time it was passed on to us, it was quite rusty on the front.  Good news though, the inside is nearly perfect, except for the interior light that doesn't turn on.  Needless to say we took the fridge with open arms.

P.S. having to look for food in a dark fridge is a surprisingly good dieting trick.  If you are anything like us and have containers and produce stacked in a delicate Jenga-like balance, you really don’t want to put your hand into the darkness and risk falling food just for a snack.

Here are some before shots:


Since most of the other kitchen appliances are black, remember the pictures from when we moved in, I persuaded the BF to let me paint our new old friend with chalkboard paint. Here's what I used and how I did it. To start I cleaned the outside of the doors with CLR, using gloves of course, then taped off the door seals and all the chrome details.  Using a foam roller, I put a coat of Trimclad rust primer in gray on the front and sides of the doors.
After letting the primer dry for a few hours I used fresh roller to apply some Rust-olium Chalkboard Paint.  To be exact, 3 coats with a few hours of drying between each coat.
And that's it. Now just write, scribble, draw your heart out, then erase it and start again.   Seriously I love this fridge! It's so handy and looks great!  If I'm not mistaken, every person who has seen our kitchen has commented on the fridge.  How many fridge compliments have you got? I bet none. That's what I thought.
As you can see, we like using the fridge to make TO DO lists, grocery lists, for reminders, and to keep track of cooking times.  If I ever find where I packed the magnetic bottle cap calendar I made last year I think I might stick it to the fridge and we circle important dates and write messages or appointments.   Nellie the dog, however, is not as big a fan of the chalkboard fridge.  If you write within her reach, she'll lick the letters off.  She's more of a minimalist.   The cats couldn't care less.

I still have about 1/2 of the can left, so I foresee more chalkboards in the future. Is anybody else obsessed with chalkboard paint?  Or maybe you've made over a hand-me-down that everyone who sees it falls in love with, tell me, tell me.