Decorating your fridge

The refrigerator is one of the largest electrical household appliances in most urban dwellings. I can often tell a lot about a family culture from the way they decorate their refrigerators and how they organise various items in the house. The refrigerator is an opportunity to personalise your living space and express yourself. Here are some factors to consider when decorating your fridge:

Top of the fridge

This is an area that easily accumulates dust and stick cooking grease and could easily get neglected. Lining up the top of the fridge with a vinyl plastic cloth will protect the top of the fridge from dust and sticky cooking grease and make it easily wipeable. Place a decorative item such as a tall flower vase or three tall decorative matching bottles.

Unless you are six feet tall and depending on the height of your fridge, placing a short decorative item could be non-effective as it may not be visible for an average height person to see the decoration. If the fridge is placed in the kitchen, then it is imperative to use easily wipeable decorative items which are also able to handle the warm humid temperatures found in cooking areas.

Front of the fridge

Less is more when decorating the front door of the fridge. Find a theme to work with so as to make it more artsy. You could decide to work with different coloured letter magnets and make word art from them to convey a message to the readers such as “smile”, “thankful” or ‘happy’. If working with photographs, it is best to limit it to three to five photographs and provide plenty of white space in between the photographs. Position the photos on the fridge using a magnet or a double-sided tape and arrange them either symmetrically or asymmetrically.

For the bolder and braver decorators, repainting your fridge to fit in with your kitchen’s colour scheme can be a good option. Talk to your fridge supplier to find out the best paints that can be used on your refrigerator without damaging it. For a dramatic effect that is less committing, try out stickers on the fridge that could make the fridge door look like it has a face.

Sides of the fridge

The side of the refrigerator often provides the biggest space to work with and can be used as a message board. Stick post it messages on the front door to inform a spouse where you have placed their dinner in case they are running late. You could also place a weekly menu or emergency telephone numbers, which are needed when calling for an ambulance or fire brigade.