Use contact paper to snazzy-up your boring fridge

Guest post by Raining Woman

Screen shot 2013-03-26 at 3.09.59 PMNot too long ago, I saw a picture of a normally boring white fridge with some nice zippy chevron stripes. I was so jealous, and knew that I had to do something to my fridge.

First, I had to find a pattern. I wanted it to be one that I could cut out pieces and then use the reverse pieces on the other side of the fridge, essentially making the two sides opposites of each other.

fridge2I found this bag in the dollar bin at a craft store. Then I took it to a copy store and blew it up 200% onto 11×17 paper. I printed off about 25 of these and taped them together to equal the size of my fridge.

This was actually the biggest pain in the butt because I had to hodge-podge all the pieces together to create a nice rectangle. Taping together enough pieces for one whole side of the fridge was a lot of paper and tape, I am sure there’s an easier method to this somewhere out in the world. I laid the pieces over my sunny yellow contact paper, holding them together with a few staples. Then, the cutting began…

fridge3I started out with scissors and a kitchen knife. I wanted the white parts intact, so I would have to poke a hole in the black parts to cut out the pieces. This was a huge headache and time-consuming. I eventually upgraded to a cutting pad thing and rotary knife.

fridge4Then it was time to apply the yellow contact paper pieces to the fridge. I used some of the paper to make sure I lined up the pieces on the fridge correctly.

fridge6I had intended to do the whole fridge, but ended up quitting halfway because I did not take into account that the design I chose was a bit beyond my time, patience, or mental allowance. Also, having a two-year-old, and newly-crawling seven-month-old made the project twice as hard as it normally would be — having to continually hide sharp tools/remove scraps of paper from baby’s mouth/keep my two-year-old from gleefully shredding my project proved a bit of a challenge. I ended up quitting halfway through, but I actually think the project is better for it! Plus, I rationalized my young kids would mess with it if I put it too low to the ground anyway.

Now the trash can is next…

Comments on Use contact paper to snazzy-up your boring fridge

  1. That looks badass! And I love that its only halfway, if you hadn’t said it was unintentional I would have just figured you were way more creative than I am.

  2. Great idea! I used those removable wall decal stickers on mine. I have a birdcage hanging down from the top and little birds flying all over it. I then used the left over clear plastic on the fridge to put behind the handle to stop the paint rubbing off like it does over time in high use areas.

    • I never thought of those decals! Those would have been perfect, lol. We are renters but actually own the fridge (pretty normal for SoCal) which is the only reason I went with such a complicated pattern. But those decals would be sweet!

  3. I admire your patience through this! I would have lost my mind after the first few cuts I think. I do love that pop of yellow though. It’s my new fav.

  4. This looks so cool! It’s great that you didn’t go all the way down. My almost 3-year-old would LOVE peeling something like that off. Your kids would have ruined your hard work in no time. 🙂

  5. This is such a cool idea!!!! I just got a new rental apartment and am looking for ways to make my fridge un-boring as well. I don’t have much experience with contact paper, and since I do not own the fridge, would the contact paper be able to peel off without damaging the surface when it is time to move out? Thanks!

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