Refrigerator Gone Black

Lovely huh?  LOL

See how the paint on the handles would wear off?

 

Pulled it out so you could see sides ... this did not show.

Back 10 years ago (OMG I cannot believe its been that long ago) when we were getting ready to build the house we are in now, I had all white appliances.  Well we knew we were leaving most of the appliances in that home when we sold it BUT because our main refrigerator (we have almost always had 2 ... one in the kitchen and one in the garage ... I don't know how anyone lives with only ONE fridge) ... anyway, we planned to take it with us since it was only 4 years old my hubby wouldn't let me have a new one.  Nevermind the fact that we had chosen all stainless steel/black appliances for the new house ... oh no ... we would take the almost new side by side to the new house.  I was NOT happy about that!!! 

There was no way I was putting a stark white side by side fridge in my new kitchen ... in my new house .... along side all the stainless steel and black soooooo ... I decided to paint it.  "Yep they make appliance paint now" I thought so dangit I was gonna have me a black refrigerator.  At the time the only appliance paint available in home improvement stores was the spray paint kind ... NOW (of course) there is all kinds including paint on with a brush kind!!!!

"Hmmmm" I thought "how am I gonna paint it when it is full of refrigerator and freezer stuff?" Well I couldn't see moving it out of the kitchen and into the garage just to paint it ... way too much trouble.  So what did I do?

While Scott's away on a business trip I run to the home improvement store (Home Depot, of course) and buy black appliance spray paint, blue painters tape and heavy duty plastic sheeting.  Doggone it ... I would paint it right there in my kitchen!!!

I carefully tape up the plastic sheeting all around the fridge leaving an opening to get in and out, of course, well duh!!!  I even taped it up to the ceiling cause duh I knew the spray paint would float up there ... didn't want a black ceiling ya'll. And then I carefully placed painters tape all over the parts of the fridge that couldn't be painted (the tiny stainless steel name plate "Amana" and the ice/water dispenser buttons on the door) ... I was careful ... I had it all planned out perfectly!!!   Ya'll can see where this is going right?

I get on my old painting clothes and remain barefoot ... I like painting barefoot ... don't ask me why LOL and climb up underneath the plastic sheeting and begin painting my stark white side by side fridge ... "oh this is gonna be so pretty" ... I was so proud of myself taking on this project!!!

Well guess what I forgot?  The aspirator thingy ... I forgot I had to breathe while spray painting underneath all that plastic sheeting ... I did, however, poke my head out once in a while to breathe.  BUT heck I didn't even have on a face mask .... STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!!!  So halfway through, I take a quick bathroom break, check myself out in the mirror and OMG my face is black, my hair is black and I have black paint all up my nose (thank goodness for nose hair or else my brain would have been painted black as well) ... even my feet were black and blackest yet on the bottom (remember, I'm barefoot)!!!

Well ya'll that was the least of my worries!  As I finish up with all the paint, realizing I need more, I decide to stop for the day, clean up and make a run to Home Depot.  I come out from underneath all that plastic sheeting and find .... OMG the freaking linoleum floor, which used to be white, is now BLACK ... my white countertops ... BLACK  ... thankfully its just the horizontal surfaces ... but hell ... they are supposed to be WHITE. 

Lord ya'll I'm thinking "OMG what am I gonna do ... Scott is gonna kill me".  You see we were getting the house ready to go on the market and we really didn't want to put more money into it ... we'd already finished the basement and found out finishing a basement does not add value to your home ... just incentive for a prospective buyer to buy ... so no more money needed to go into this home!!!

About this time, Alayna gets home from school and finds me in complete meltdown mode ... tears tears tears!!!!  She's like "oh Mom we can clean this up ... I'll help" so we proceed to try wiping up the floor and counter tops ... nothing is working ...nothing ya'll!!!  The whole time I'm crying saying to Alayna "Dad is gonna kill me we gotta get this up before he gets home".  Finally I try Soft Scrub with Bleach ... and oh yes it works ... along with a Scotch Brite sponge (the rough side) and I'm down on my hands and knees scrubbing and scrubbing with Alayna at my side scrubbing and scrubbing ... YES ... we manage to get it all cleaned up ... floors and counter tops are all white again ... can't even tell I'd had a disaster!!!!  Thank goodness!!!!

Okay so back to my project ... even though I didn't have enough paint to finish painting the sides ... I did have the doors and top completely covered so I take down the plastic sheeting to get a good look at my work.  You know the rubber thingys on the doors that make the refrigerator stay completely air tight while closed ... you know, those accordion looking thingys?  Well those I couldn't paint those so they had been covered with painter's tape so I pull it off along with the painter's tape from the ice/water dispenser ... it looks ridiculous ....like a stark white side by side that's been painted black by an ametuer!!!!  Hideous!!!  What have I done????  Oh and the handles ... well they're plastic and they didn't take the paint well ... by the next day, when I thought it was safe to touch the damn thing again ... just touching the handles caused paint to come off onto your hands!  Oh yes!  I have a HUGE mess on my hands ... literally!!!!

I'm thinking "maybe hubby will get us a new fridge since I ruined this one" ... yeah right!  When he got home and found what I had done he was like ... "you still ain't getting a new one this is only 4 years old"!!!!! 

So long story short (I know it was a long read) I've had to live with this refrigerator and Scott and the kids all telling the story of my painting project gone wrong for a long time now ... its been the ONLY project of mine that EVERYONE seems to want to talk about ... the one that went way wrong!!!!

Yes we are still using that ugly assed refrigerator in our beautiful stainless steel appliance, granite counter top, mahogany finished custom cabinets and hardwood floors chef's kitchen!!!!  Yea we still have partially white handles on it BUT on the bright side ... we have discovered that black Sharpies do a great job of covering up the black chipped off paint spots LOL ... much better than the black refrigerator touch up paint ... heck I even noticed on a recent trip to Home Depot that Sharpie actually makes a fat touch up marker for just such projects LOL ... seriously!!!!

Ya'll I've been hoping for years and years ... that the dangum thing would just DIE!!!  No such luck ...

BUT ... 10 years later ... ya'll guess what I got for Christmas ... and I am tickled to death ... yep, over a fridge!!!!