I Painted My Appliances!!! (Liquid Stainless Steel Review)

Our house had an appliance problem. All of them worked, but none of them matched. The home came with a black fridge, a white dishwasher, a black and white oven, and a hole where the built-in microwave should be.

I had never really looked at purchasing appliances before so when I saw the price, I was a little shocked. Stainless steel fridges cost $1000 if you get them on sale? ACK! That was definitely not in the budget.

But we needed to order a microwave and I want stainless steel, but I didn’t want to add a third finish into the mix.

So I started looking around and found a product called Liquid Stainless Steel. I watched their YouTube video about 87 times, then decided to contact them and see if they would send me product to review here on the blog.

They said yes and generously sent me a refrigerator kit and a dishwasher/range kit.

This is about the point that I started freaking out. Paint my appliances? It’s kind of a big deal! What if I screwed them up beyond repair?

But my Liquid Stainless Steel was already in transit, so I put my big girl panties on and decided to go for it. I’m so glad I did!

Here are the before pictures of the mismatched set:

I followed the instructions that came with the kit. I scrubbed every surface thoroughly, removed the face plate…

… and taped off the parts I didn’t want painted.

I also undid the handles and anything else that would come off. I put all the little pieces on a strip of duct tape so nothing would roll away and get lost.

After three coats of the metallic paint and three top coats, here’s my new fridge:

Squeal!!! Check it out!

The paint is much more sparkly in real life. Here’s a close up that gives you a better idea:

Does it look exactly like a stainless steel fridge? No. The texture shows through on the fridge and real stainless is smooth. But it is definitely a pretty good alternative to spending $1000 for a new fridge. It’s the right color, it has that metallic sparkliness, and since the Liquid Stainless Steel refrigerator kit only costs $79, it is close enough for me!

The dishwasher is still a work in progress. I painted the bottom panel, but I have not finished the top part. Chalk it up to indecisiveness. I can’t decide if I should paint it black or go stainless all the way. Opinions?

You’ve already seen this tragic photo:

I undid the front screws to clean the inside of the glass and when I tried screwing it back together, POOF. All that glass shattered.

It’s too bad, because the drawer turned out great! Because it was a smooth texture, it is super convincing. It looks JUST like stainless steel! Seriously, the pictures just don’t do it justice.

Obviously, now we are buying a new stove. But I think the paint would have worked great if I hadn’t been such a dork.

I am so glad I gave Liquid Stainless Steel a chance. It was nerve wracking, but it paid off in the end.

A couple of tips if you decide to try it:

• Watch for drips. No, really. For the first 10 minutes after each coat, turn on your eagle eyes and inspect every nook and cranny, especially along edges, joints, or screws/holes/bumps. If your drips dry, it is really hard to get those spots to look good.
• The first coat will be streaky and look really bad. Don’t worry. It will all work out.
• Be very precise with the squeegee tool. It comes with the kit:

After you roll the paint on, you use the squeegee to make streaks in the paint. If you make crooked lines, you will be able to see them when they dry. So be precise!

• Speaking of the squeegee, after each pass over the paint, you’ll need to get all the excess paint out of the foam. Too much paint on there seemed to make it harder to work with. Also, I kept it in a plastic bag in between uses.
• Follow the instructions. If it says to wait 1 hour, wait 1 hour! I got impatient towards the end and have a few imperfect spots to show for it.
• The videos say you can leave your fridge on when you do this, but I don’t recommend it. Throw your stuff in a cooler, turn the fridge off and save yourself the trouble! It is so much easier if you can leave the doors wide open, especially when painting along the edges and insides.

We took advantage of Home Depot’s Black Friday appliance deals, so we’ve got a new oven and microwave coming, in stainless, of course. Can’t wait to show you once they are all installed!

UPDATE: How The Appliances are Holding Up Three Months Later

Check out Liquid Stainless Steel on Facebook and Pinterest for more awesome makeover photos!