Refrigerator Handles

No, I have not lost my mind by deciding to blog about something so mundane as refrigerator handles.

When Tim & I were renovating our house as newlyweds, I chose a white refrigerator and cream colored tile in the kitchen. Obviously this was Before Children since now keeping my white kitchen and cream tile floor clean is a constant PAIN. Never again will I chose white as a main color for a kitchen. Did I mention our cabinets are painted white boards with grooves? Yeah, those are real easy to keep clean too. Above is a photo of Monkey Boy cleaning the floor for me! He loves the Swiffer mop.

A few years back, I foolishly sprayed the fridge handles, which are a composite plastic, with a bleach mixture (stupid on my part) and they turned yellow and permanently spotted. Just gross. Everytime I looked at the fridge I cringed. I never invited people over to our house due to those spotted fridge handles. Seriously! I was that embarrassed. Our fridge worked great but just looked trashy. Compare how white the plastic piece around the ice maker is to how discolored and gross the handle is.


I went to Sears to price replacement handles and it would have cost close to $300! Thanks but no thanks. The handles must have been getting on Tim's nerves too because recently he suggested wanting to try a new spray paint made just for plastic. I told him it would be much cheaper than paying $300 for new handles so off to Lowe's he went for a can. I thought if the painted handles turned out looking worse than before maybe I could get a new fridge :) Spray paint has a reputation of looking cheap but anything would be an improvement for the stained handles.

Tim took off the handles and sprayed them outside. Lo and behold, the paint worked great and our fridge looks like new! I am honestly shocked at how well this project turned out. No paint is flaking off and cleaning is a snap. Now I'm looking around the house to see what else I can spruce up. Our outdoor chairs are next on the list.

So the morals of this story are: don't clean your appliance handles with bleach and a healthy dose of patience is a good thing, so is plastic spray paint!