As we continue our camper renovation, we wanted to do something with the refrigerator. The pale yellow, heavily finished, and fake looking surface that came in the camper was not appealing in the least. Seeing as there were no magnetic surfaces in the camper at this point, we wanted to make the refrigerator panels into a magnetic surface. Browsing our options, we agreed that brushed stainless steel would look best and serve as a magnetic surface as well as a writable surface like a white board. However, when we went to purchase some brushed stainless steel the right size, we couldn’t find a reasonable dealer in our current location of Yuma, Arizona. Lowe’s did carry it, but it was out of our price range. So, we opted for second best and decided to go with chalkboard paint for now. We plan to replace these panels with brushed stainless steel in the future!

Homemade Chalkboard Paint

In my research about this project, I discovered some fascinating options you may find valuable, so I thought I would share them with you briefly. Apparently you can make your own chalkboard paint in any color! This was intriguing to me, but considering our needs at the time, I opted to go with something I knew would work. I’ve never tried this recipe, but if you’re wanting to be daring, I’ve heard the following recipe works great!

Tint able Chalkboard Paint

Stores also carry tint-able chalkboard paint which was very tempting to me. I’m just not a big fan of black! It seems so very boring to me. The reason I agreed to the black chalkboard paint is because it kept the project simple, I knew it would work as I’ve used it before, and I know my husband will update it artistically from time to time which will make it attractive.

Magnetic Paint

Most fascinating and tempting of all these options was magnetic paint! I never knew such a thing existed!! What turned me away from this option were all the reviews on Amazon stating that you need to paint at least 5 coats to get a truly magnetic surface. I don’t mind painting several coats, but I wasn’t confident there would be space for the final thickness if I put multiple coats of a thick material on the wood before sliding the panels back into the casing. What I loved about this option, is that I could make the surface magnetic and then cover it with chalkboard paint for a magnetic chalkboard. Win win! But again, I was afraid it would be too thick for my purposes. You could also cover the magnetic paint with any other color of paint you wanted.

Black Chalkboard Paint

In the end, we decided to go with plain and simple black chalkboard paint for now. Here are a few pictures and thoughts from the project.

I really wanted to tackle this project on my own. Sometimes I get frustrated that whenever I want to do something, I end up interrupting my husband’s work multiple times and sometimes he just has to stop what he was doing and practically do my project for me! That was not going to happen today. He was busy working on the shower and I was much more interested in getting that finished up than distracting him with my little DIY project.

The first challenge came as I tried to get the main panel out of the refrigerator door. I unscrewed the top black trim piece and removed it. Then slid the panel up to slip it out of the casing….until it hit the ceiling. Well that’s not going to work! I realized I couldn’t take it out the bottom either. Next I decided to take the door handle off and then slip the side casing out of my way. Nope! Glued in place. As I inspected the situation, I determined I was going to have to take the door off the hinges and remove the entire refrigerator door in order to slip the panel out. Whew! This was getting more involved than I expected…as usual. Hubby did have to stop and help me disassemble and remove the door in order to get the panel out.

We were very surprised to find that this fake venure looking panel was actually solid oak wood with a heavy coating of shellac finish. I couldn’t believe they would put so much shellac on oak and purposely make it look fake! Anyhow, out with the belt sander to stripe this crazy thick finish off the gorgeous wood. This was really the hardest and most time consuming part of the job. I think I spent about an hour sanding, but I took a lot of breaks because it was 94 degrees and the sun was hot!

Once I was down to bare wood, I got the air compressor out and blew all the excess dust out of the cracks in the wood. I also dusted the area with an old t-shirt because there was still dust on the surface after blowing it with the air compressor. Finally ready for paint!

I’d never actually used spray paint before so I was a bit nervous. Knowing these panels were just temporary, with plans to replace them with brushed stainless steel later, made it a lot easier to just go for it. I’m not sure why I always think projects are permanent, but I usually do. It doesn’t stop me from trying, but it does make me get really nervous!

Reading the directions carefully, I shook the paint as best I could, set up my panels in the shade, and waited for the wind to blow gently away from me. Spraying with the can about 6 inches away seemed to work best for me. The instructions said 10-12 inches, but I think the wind was the reason I needed to be closer in order to get the paint on the board. I sprayed back and forth in rows about 2 inches apart and overlapping, then went back after giving it a brief rest and sprayed another coat. Then I gave it about 10 minutes to dry (the can said 20 minutes, but I was working in the desert in 94 degrees with about 10% humidity!!), and did a second coat the same way.

After about an hour, I took the panels back inside and reassembled the refrigerator doors. As I stepped back to admire my work I have to say I wasn’t very impressed. Black is one thing, FLAT black is entirely different. I went straight for the chalk to see if I could cheer things up a bit. Normally I can’t draw to save my life, but I think this turned out alright and it definitely cheered up the black fridge! We will enjoy it this way for now.