I think homeschoolers know how to make a budget work pretty well, and how to make things work on that budget. Often homeschoolers are one-income families, and one a budget. That one income budget is why our fridge got an updated, painted look instead of buying a new one, or even newer one. Updating a fridge on a budget is the easiest update I’ve done in our house yet.
Updating a Fridge on A Budget
This post contains affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.
After almost eight years away from our house, renting it during that time, we moved back. I did not want to move back but I knew it was right for our family at this time. It’s a small three bedroom bungalow, not big enough for us, and a tiny home in comparison to our last two houses.
I could have cried when I walked in. People did not respect it (or us) in the time we were gone. With the elbow grease cleaning done, most of the unpacking done, it was time to start getting stuff done.
Fridge Update Instead of Buying New
Why did I choose to do this instead of buying new? Two reasons. My budget said I could buy a new dishwasher (which I didn’t know didn’t work) or a new fridge. The fridge still works, and inside, looks great. the dishwasher even with a new part was going to need more parts to make it usable everyday.
I could have left it rusted, but, I don’t love this house, and having one big ugly thing sitting in my kitchen which normally my favorite room of a house, was not helping. It just felt unclean even though I knew it was clean.
The Before:
I spent a total of $20 on supplies, but I definitely could have gotten away with a much smaller can of paint had I had more options and wanted to, or could have, shopped around. But $17 for a can of paint that can be be used on other projects is still about $500-700 less than a new fridge. I will say if I could do this over, I would have bought a small roller instead of using a paint brush.
I followed the directions on the can of rust paint, and lightly sanded the surfaces. It looked better and cleaner with just that.
The first coat made it look so good. I could have left it at that to be honest but wanted to make sure the rust was completely covered.
The second coat followed 3 days later, because I forgot to go back to it.
I also used some old black paint I had bought for a different project forever ago and did a quick coat of paint over the brown handles.
The After:
Is it perfect? Nope. But I feel a lot better with it now. It looks as good on the outside as it does on the inside. Someday we’ll upgrade, but for now I’m happy with this. I never thought I’d be painting an appliance.