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Endsleigh specialise in Home Contents Insurance for people in the UK

Revitalizing ugly appliances

How-To

When we bought our house, the stove and fridge were freebies thrown in with the deal. Which I’m sure was no heartbreaking loss for the sellers, because they’re the ugliest set of appliances you’ll ever see. Ok, maybe not the ugliest – my mother owned an avacado green washing machine. But they’re right up there, all almond and rusted with fake-wood accents.

There’s no room in the budget for a new microwave, let alone a new stove or fridge, but putting our almond beauties back in the revamped kitchen seemed wrong. So while they were all unhooked, I took a few cans of white spray paint to them. Not just any old spray paint, though. For the fridge, I used Rust-Oleum Appliance Epoxy Paint. For the stove, I used a combination of the appliance paint (for the bottom and sides) and High-Heat Paint (good up to 800 degrees) for the stove top.

Clean the surface really well with TSP or another strong cleaner. This is an important step, so take your time on it. After it was clean, I taped off the parts I didn’t want sprayed, and went to town. I don’t recommend spraying indoors like I did – even with good ventilation and a fan, it was pretty awful and extremely messy… but it was pretty chilly outside, so my options were limited.

Here’s the stove before:

And here’s the stove after:

(Click any of the photos for larger images)

The stove top isn’t as shiny as the rest of the stove, which kinda bugs me, but it still looks MUCH better than it used to. And the fridge looks brand new! (Well, until you open it up and find all the brown plastic goodness inside)

I’m not sure how long the paint will hold up, but since we’ll be replacing these appliances at some point anyway I’m not too worried about it.

Comments, Thoughts, and Feedback

StuccoHouse had this to say on 10.20.05:

Very cool. I used the appliance epoxy to redo an old metal cabinets to use in my kitchen and also had good luck with it….but also had a small patch that was not as shiny. I used the spray and wondered if that was paint from the bottom or top of the can?

jenne had this to say on 10.20.05:

Yay! You have pictures again!
I like the oven! I will have to talk my brother in law into trying that…all his appliances are chocolate brown.

Mark had this to say on 10.21.05:

Nice job! Congratulations!

Kristin had this to say on 10.21.05:

We spray-painted our avacado oven door several months ago, and it has held up very well. There’s one tiny chip in the paint on the top corner, but other than that still perfect. And we didn’t even think to use the high-heat stuff. It’s just regular Rustoleum for metal.

Beth had this to say on 10.24.05:

That looks amazing and is almost as good as brand new.
How did the party go? Were you able to stay awake after all the prep?

regina had this to say on 11.01.05:

i am trying to make my ugly stove look new look new it is black please help me

mindy had this to say on 11.02.05:

Regina,

If you can find the spray paint I recommend, it comes in black as well as white. That’s the best way I know of to make appliances look better.

~Mindy

Joe had this to say on 07.17.06:

Hi! I have a really ugly fridge…and I need your votes to prove it! Please vote for my old fridge on SaskPower’s site for the ugliest fridge. I have an old ratty fridge that needs your votes!

Please go to the following website:
http://www.saskpower.com/contests/ufc.nsf/gallery

The fridge to vote for is a 1977 green fridge with the bottom grill showing. (5th row, 5th column)

Voting is open until July 23rd.

Thanks!

We love to hear from you, dear readers.




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