The Oakified Fridge

This was another one of those what the hell was I thinking projects. It so easy to say these things – (In a happy-go-lucky voice) I’m going to cover the fridge in oak! – but the reality is it’s a lot of work. It’s not like I had anything more important to be doing. I mean, if I had any kind of social life it might be an issue. Also, I can’t really start painting the house again because of my shoulder, although it is improving. So really, I guess it's a good thing I did it. I take back everything I just said.

In the back of my head I keep thinking about what I’ll do if the fridge dies in 5 years. Will I do this again? Probably not, but one thing I can say is that I will go to great lengths to repair this fridge if it does break down. I now have a lot more than just money invested in this thing. Considering the disposable world we live in I guess that’s a good thing.



Here’s where it sits as of this minute. Tomorrow I will sand and stain and then I can move it in to the kitchen. The last thing to do will be to put the hinges on. There is a small problem. The oak strips are 3/8-inch thick and the hinges are designed for 5/8-inch thick oak. It’s not the end of the world. I’ll just need to plane down some of the oak strips to quarter inch thickness and then add little pieces under the hinge. It’s a bit of a hack but not the end of the world.



I started playing around with stains today. I had a partial can of Min Wax Early American and Red Mahogany. From right to left it goes Early American, Red Mahogany, and then a 50/50 mix of the two. I’m going to play around with a few more but so far the 50/50 mix is in first place.