The refrigerator in my apartment looks gross. I hate it, but I'm not going to have any luck getting a new one soon.

So I'm thinking of covering it in faux stainless steel film. Has anyone ever done this? It looks pretty easy, and it has the bonus of being (so I'm told) easily removable, so I won't have to worry about losing any deposit money if it doesn't work out. It also looks like it turns out to be nice looking enough. I'm not looking to fool anyone into thinking it's really stainless steel; I'm really just looking to cover up what is an old, ugly refrigerator that still works fine despite looking like a giant eyesore.

Any thoughts from the decorating-savvy section of the org?

Thanks.

I've never seen it in person (that I know of anyway) but I think it looks fine.

Huh, that stuff actually looks kind of cool. All I would say is that you need to remember its a big sticker. Have you ever applied a sticker and had air bubbles in it? Air bubbles that you can't get out no matter how hard you try? They say you'll need a plastic squeegee in their FAQ and recommend (with an exclamation point) watching the installation tutorials, so I'm guessing that may be an issues. Otherwise, seems like a decent enough idea for a asthetics quick fix.

Cerebus said:

Huh, that stuff actually looks kind of cool. All I would say is that you need to remember its a big sticker. Have you ever applied a sticker and had air bubbles in it? Air bubbles that you can't get out no matter how hard you try? They say you'll need a plastic squeegee in their FAQ and recommend (with an exclamation point) watching the installation tutorials, so I'm guessing that may be an issues. Otherwise, seems like a decent enough idea for a asthetics quick fix.

Yeah, that is a big concern. Even the little protector I put over my cell phone has an air bubble in it. I thought I might invite a friend over to help me.

I saw a designer use this once on one of the HGTV shows - a quick fix for the kitchen of someone trying to sell their house. Maybe it was because the rest of the kitchen still looked dumpy or they did a bad job, but I didn't think it looked like the real thing.

Efan said:

Cerebus said:

Huh, that stuff actually looks kind of cool. All I would say is that you need to remember its a big sticker. Have you ever applied a sticker and had air bubbles in it? Air bubbles that you can't get out no matter how hard you try? They say you'll need a plastic squeegee in their FAQ and recommend (with an exclamation point) watching the installation tutorials, so I'm guessing that may be an issues. Otherwise, seems like a decent enough idea for a asthetics quick fix.

Yeah, that is a big concern. Even the little protector I put over my cell phone has an air bubble in it. I thought I might invite a friend over to help me.

I made the person who sold me my phone at Verizon put it on.

Genesia said:

Efan said:

Yeah, that is a big concern. Even the little protector I put over my cell phone has an air bubble in it. I thought I might invite a friend over to help me.

I made the person who sold me my phone at Verizon put it on.

Sprint wanted to charge me $20 to do it. I hate Sprint.

But I probably should have just paid that $20.

Genesia said:

Efan said:

Yeah, that is a big concern. Even the little protector I put over my cell phone has an air bubble in it. I thought I might invite a friend over to help me.

I made the person who sold me my phone at Verizon put it on.

The phone gal put mine on and I still have a bubble in the lower right corner.

Alternatively, has anyone had any luck painting an appliance or does anyone have anything to recommend to pretty an old fridge up? Because my place is pretty small, my fridge is a presence in my living room, and I'd love to have it be a little more presentable.

My phone protector came with this solution that you apply first. I did it myself and no bubble. Maybe there is a solution you can use.

Efan said:

Alternatively, has anyone had any luck painting an appliance or does anyone have anything to recommend to pretty an old fridge up? Because my place is pretty small, my fridge is a presence in my living room, and I'd love to have it be a little more presentable.

I've heard appliance paint is not bad, but are you allowed to?

JustErin said:

My phone protector came with this solution that you apply first. I did it myself and no bubble. Maybe there is a solution you can use.

Will have to look into this. It makes me nuts.

johnart said:

Efan said:

Alternatively, has anyone had any luck painting an appliance or does anyone have anything to recommend to pretty an old fridge up? Because my place is pretty small, my fridge is a presence in my living room, and I'd love to have it be a little more presentable.

I've heard appliance paint is not bad, but are you allowed to?

Probably not.

Maybe I should just try to find a way to break the fridge so they have to replace it...

Efan said:

johnart said:

I've heard appliance paint is not bad, but are you allowed to?

Probably not.

Maybe I should just try to find a way to break the fridge so they have to replace it...

Its not a bad investment for an owner, maybe you could just convince them that a new one is needed. Or that it would help them keep tenants. ... or maybe you could just stick a screwdriver in the fan or something.

Efan said:

does anyone have anything to recommend to pretty an old fridge up?

FRIDGE MAGNETS

Efan said:

johnart said:

I've heard appliance paint is not bad, but are you allowed to?

Probably not.

Maybe I should just try to find a way to break the fridge so they have to replace it...

i would go for the paint

i hate that sticky stuff and the bubbles and water / moisture damage..... for me it's a waste of time

paint is cool... just throw away the brush when u r done

[Edited 3/30/11 16:34pm]

Efan said:

johnart said:

I've heard appliance paint is not bad, but are you allowed to?

Probably not.

Maybe I should just try to find a way to break the fridge so they have to replace it...

You risk having them replace it with something even worse.

cover it in refrigerator magnets

sextonseven said:

Efan said:

does anyone have anything to recommend to pretty an old fridge up?

FRIDGE MAGNETS

you're weird

I don't know if stainless steel film is the same thing as self adhesive foil as English is not my first language.

This is what I am talking about:

I put one in a silver and grey design on my old fridge looking a bit like this, but it was a nicer design

I did that before we bought a new silver one years later and it worked pretty fine. It is a lot easier I think if it is not plain silver, but some kind of design so if there is any part not perfectly done nobody will notice it at all. If you have any bubbles you need to try to get the air out of them with a piece of soft fabric while you are still putting the foil on and if that is impossible then you can still put a needle inside the bubble later and get it out that way. Or when you see a bubble just take that part off again immediately while you still put it on, that is no problem. We painted our whole kitchen in grey with paint, but no aplliances, I am not sure if that would work For our fridege we preferred the foil and it worked really fine. The only problem area were the handles, it never stuck nice there, but apart from that the fridge looked realll cool for a couple of years until it broke down. I am pretty sufre it would stil look nice today if it was still working. I hope that helps .

Thanks for all the help, guys! I appreciate the feedback.

ZombieKitten said:

sextonseven said:

FRIDGE MAGNETS

you're weird

not if you stick enough on there. then, you have a brightly colored collage of eye candy*

*unless you get a demented nutjob who strips them off while burlgarizing your pad, but that's another story

XxAxX said:

ZombieKitten said:

you're weird

not if you stick enough on there. then, you have a brightly colored collage of eye candy*

That's exactly what her fridge looks like! I'm not even sure what color it really is under all the magnets and stuff.

sextonseven said:

XxAxX said:

not if you stick enough on there. then, you have a brightly colored collage of eye candy*

That's exactly what her fridge looks like! I'm not even sure what color it really is under all the magnets and stuff.

i used to have fridge magnets entirely covering my frigerator, with wind up toys crowding the top. it got so i didn't notice how ugly the thing was underneath, since it looked like some kind of freaky sculpture...

XxAxX said:

sextonseven said:

That's exactly what her fridge looks like! I'm not even sure what color it really is under all the magnets and stuff.

i used to have fridge magnets entirely covering my frigerator, with wind up toys crowding the top. it got so i didn't notice how ugly the thing was underneath, since it looked like some kind of freaky sculpture...

^ and then my cockatiel realized he could spend the entire day picking up the wind up toys, walking them over to the edge of the 'frig top and dropping them over the side.

sextonseven said:

XxAxX said:

not if you stick enough on there. then, you have a brightly colored collage of eye candy*

That's exactly what her fridge looks like! I'm not even sure what color it really is under all the magnets and stuff.

mine is covered in notes from school and photos and magnet alphabet and robots etc

ZombieKitten said:

sextonseven said:

That's exactly what her fridge looks like! I'm not even sure what color it really is under all the magnets and stuff.

mine is covered in notes from school and photos and magnet alphabet and robots etc

And lists of chores!

sextonseven said:

ZombieKitten said:

mine is covered in notes from school and photos and magnet alphabet and robots etc

And lists of chores!

and before you came to visit I cleaned it up so it WAS even worse than that before