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Polka Dotted Mini Fridge

OUR 2nd HOUSE

Growing up, I dreamt of having a fridge built into my nightstand.  I was kinda obsessed with the idea of having ice cream in bed whenever I wanted and access to cold drinks.  I was also fairly certain a Subway footlong would be in there at all times.  I was like the girl version of Joey Tribbiani…except I was a far way off from a man-inizer.  That’s a technical term for Megan Fox.

So you can imagine my elation when my dad was getting rid of this brown mini fridge and offered it to me.  I told him that I would be happy to take it off his hands.  But I wasn’t diggin’ the current look.  And I knew I couldn’t use it as a nightstand (it was way too tall).  So before I embarked on this mini makeover, I really brainstormed how I would use this fridge in the future and came up with two things…I wanted it short term for our little sitting area…and long term, I wanted it for the kids to use in a play area.

Okay – so here’s where the makeover begins…we first cleaned it up to remove any grease and dirt.

Oh speaking of my dad…there he is…in all his concerned scowling glory.  He was watching the Direct TV guy on our roof…which is like oh-em-gee-cover-your-eyes scary.

After it was all clean, we taped it up with cardboard, paper and FrogTape.  Did I mention that this post is my FrogTape Friday post…coming to you a few days late?  Dang that server transition…it got me all a mess…

We also taped up the back of the door.  And then we dragged it all outside.

We went with the Rustoleum Appliance Epoxy for the primary coats.  It works great for these kinda projects because it’s specially formulated to withstand the cold of the fridge.

Oh yeah…I’m that big ole chunky monkey.  This is me – one week overdue.  And yes, I am outside with my innappropriate use of leggings and sneakers and my swollen cankles and barely visible kneecaps to spraypaint.  It’s how I roll people.

Some folks ask how to safely paint while pregnant.  There is no guaranteed way.  I don’t recommend it.  But if you absolutely must and throw caution to the wind, please please please invest in a good mask.  Those flimsy paper ones don’t block fumes like you would want and make sure you do it in a well ventilated area.  And see if you can use no or low VOC paint whenever possible.  yourbabyandIthankyou.

Then came the fun part…the dots.

I used my Xacto knife to cut circles out and stick them in a pattern on the door of the fridge.

I love the different shapes and relatively similar size.  They are perfectly imperfect.  Just the right amount of whimsy and care free ness 🙂

After two coats of Oil Rubbed Bronze, I had a high contrast door that was ready for peel time.

And then afterward, it was perfect for the kids.

Will likes counting the spots and putting the letters on them.  Here he is making a “wetter twain”.  ten thousand points to those of you who said this outloud and figured it out 🙂

Here is Will giving his best impersonation of Rob Pattinson.  Why bella why!?

So that’s it…our kid friendly polka dotted mini fridge….

So that’s what we’ve been up to…how bout you?  Any appliance makeovers you wanna share?  Or perhaps you just like talking about Edward Cullen…still?  Or maybe it’s a crazy dream you had like my nighstand fridge (which I dare say is still something I want!)  that you wanna tell me about?  Tell me…all the cool kids like fridgestands 🙂

p.s.  This is a sponsored post brought to you by FrogTape for Bower Power’s Frog Tape Fridays. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.

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Comments

  1. That is really cute…and yes, the idea of leaning over and pulling out an ice cold coke, just whenever I want to. Pure nightstand heaven.

  2. I don’t know about the fridge nightstand dream Katie… fridges are noisy little things! I remember that from my first tiny studio apartment where the variations on humming and plonking would keep me up all night! That all the light from the microwave time display.
    Typing this now I realize why I sleep with earplugs in a pitch dark room, preferably with my boyfriend snoozing in the bedroom next door. I may have some kind of sleep issue?

  3. i have pretty much the same mini fridge sitting in my garage unused..except mine is covered with some ugly old stickers on top of the ugly “wood” print. (joys of hand me downs…lol). But i would have NEVER thought to spray it!!! Im totally going to do this in the spring!! Maybe then ill stop cringing everytime i pull into the garage lol.

  4. You are totally nuts! I can’t believe you did this while being that preggo! Very cute however…

  6. Wow! I absolutely love it! I have a similar looking fridge in my office that makes me die inside a little every time I see it.

    One of my friends has an area in the kitchen with snacks that her kids are allowed to have without asking – it’s lots of fruits and veggies and other healthy snacks. A fridge like this would be perfect!

  7. Here’s my dream: My very own ice cream machine. Like the giant kind that soft-serve comes out of at Dairy Queen. One day. ONE DAY.

  9. I always wanted a mini fridge in my room too! I had no fantasies about subway though, just ice cold water in the middle of the night… My soon to be hubby is moving in and we are moving to the 2nd floor bedroom so I will have to start hinting now!

  10. I always wanted a mini fridge growing up too! But my dad was all “your bedroom is next to the goddamn kitchen, Casey!”

    so needless to say it didnt happen.

    And now I live in a studio apartment so my fridge is literally in the bedroom anyway

  12. Your little man is starting to look so big! You can tell he has moods and opinions and things he does and doesn’t like. So big!

    Oh, and super cute little fridge! 🙂

  14. wow! kudos for you to still be doing projects one week overdue! i officially went on strike from all household chores once i went a week past my due date. i was just.so.exhausted.

    i never knew about the appliance spray. pretty cool. did you hand paint the white dots after spray-painting the rest of the door? and was the original door magnetic or the ORB spray-paint?

  15. I bet Will meant “letter train” 🙂 Cool. Both the inside of the fridge and the outside 🙂

  18. So I actually had a weird dream about two nights ago that I got to meet you and your family. I was so excited…que the awkward weird girl that reads your blog….and you were very cool in my dream. The whole family was fun, and strangely Will was about 4 feet tall. My son is only a few months younger and in my dream I kept thinking, “wow, Will is a giant next to Jack!”

  19. What a great idea. I looks so cute and stylish. I am loving all these “overdue pregnant lady diy” posts. Lol.

    Have you posted the 2nd part to your birth story yet? Did I miss it? You left us with a huge cliff hanger on the first part. I can’t wait to read the rest of your story.

  22. Cute project. I have a small fridge that I want to do this to, but I am nervous. Have you used that appliance expoxy on other appliances? I have seen it, but I think I am leary of it…does it last? Easy to scratch? Does it clean up well? Thanks

  24. Letter train! (right? *starts spreadsheet to track BPB points in hopes of being correct*) haha

    Love the fridge makeover–so cute!

  26. I love Will in the background of the first picture…he’s all – while you guys are doing that I’ll just be over here somersaulting ain’t no thang.

  29. Adorable re-do and totally worth it!! I inherited a similar fridge at work, and had dreams of spray painting it hot pink, but the prospect of lugging it home, painting it, and taking it back to work wasn’t appealing… so I covered it in white contact paper! Now I can draw on it to my heart’s content with dry-erase markers. Anything’s better than the faux-wood look; your re-do really takes the cake, though!

  30. omg this reminds me of the King of Queens episode when Kevin replaces his nightstand with the mini-fridge and it keeps making noises and wakes them up!

  32. How cool is that? I have never considered revamping an old refrigerator. It’s such as great idea and with polka dots. And spraying while pregnant, you are a truly dedicated mom! It’s wonderful how it is just the right size for kids too. Thanks for a great post! Good luck with the birth!

  36. Love the polka dots and the idea of having a fridge in the bedroom! So nice for drinks in the middle of the night and having a place to put pumped milk. We bought the PB Teen Snack Bar and fridge for the same reasons (right before our 2nd boy was born in October) and keep it in our sitting area too. Our 21 month old loves it for his morning milk and snacks too! I’m sure you can DIY a similar piece of furniture to use as a nightstand! 🙂

    http://www.pbteen.com/products/beadboard-snack-bar-console-and-hutch/?pkey=cmedia-storage&cm_src=media-storage||NoFacet-_-NoFacet-_–_-

  40. So far so good. I don’t know that I would go to it with a straightedge razor before it cured…but so far, I’ve cleaned it and it held up well to my Clorox wipe.
    xo – kb

  42. No…the white dots were just covered with the Frog Tape so once I peeled the tape off, it showed through. And the original door was magnetic 🙂
    xo – kb

  44. Hi Katie!

    PLEASE write a post on co-sleeping. My 11 month old son has slept with us since he was about 10 weeks old. It seems like so many people frown on it, but we absolutely love it. I’m not sure how I’m ever going to get him into his crib though! I’d love to hear your experience.

    (Oh, I know I’m totally commenting on the wrong post, but there were so many comments on the post where you mention co-sleeping, they won’t load.)

    Thanks!
    Andrea

  46. I love it! Is there such a thing as epoxy you can apply with a paintbrush? I don’t think I can get my kitchen fridge outside 😉

  47. Very cute. I know you’ve already thought of this so how do you plan to keep your kiddos from hiding & becoming trapped inside or just even getting out stuff when you don’t want them snacking, etc.? Thanks. LOVE your blog so much!

  49. I actually DID have a night stand fridge when I was a kid! True story. Well, I was a teenager. And it wasn’t a nightstand fridge so much as just a fridge.. that I used as a nightstand. But whatever. It’s okay, we cant all be as cool as I was. Spending $200 of Christmas/birthday money on a sexy white mini fridge to keep water in your room. Yeahhh buddy, crazy times.

  50. Well, it does have shelves inside so it would be really hard to fit them inside. And Will doesn’t get stuff out right now because he’s never alone with the fridge…I’m sure that it’ll be a test in the future 🙂
    xo – kb

  52. I’ll definitely think about it. It’s a tough topic because it’s risky and I don’t want anyone to be mislead about the facts or what is best for their child.
    xo – kb

  53. I am so bummed!! We had that same fridge and we gave it away…had I known how pretty I could have made it, I would’ve kept it in an instance!! It looks awesome!!
    On a side note….I bought my FIRST role of Frog Tape!!! My husband didn’t understand why I didn’t come home with the regular blue painter’s tape (I told him to give it a try, one of my favorite bloggers uses it all the time! Then he asked what a blogger was, lol), but when he tried it, he was hooked!! SO MUCH BETTER!!!

  55. I was wondering about it in your other post, too! Really cute. And I feel SO sorry for you and your poor legs in that pic 🙁

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