Turn Your Fridge Into a Chalkboard

The camper and the new cabinets in the camper are ready for the fridge, but the fringe is not ready to go in there just yet, cause we're gonna do a cool thing. There's a product you can get that will turn any surface into a magnetic surface, and/or any surface into a chalkboard, two different products. So one of the things we're gonna do with these panels, before the fridge goes back in, is get that paint on here so they're magnetable, if that's a word, and chalkable, if that's a word. The bottom line is, these are wooden panels in here, so you can't stick a magnet on here currently. Additionally, obviously you can't write on here with chalk.

So we're gonna do this by taking the panels out. These wooden panels come out by taking this trim off. And one of the reasons we're doing this out here is that especially on this top one, remember when the fridge is in the camper, the top of the fridge was about here and the roof is about here, sorry, the ceiling. So we wouldn't be able to do, this. And just as an FYI, if you ever need to, or want to just swap out the panels in your fridge for something cooler, like if you don't want them to be magnetic, but you want it to be a cooler-looking wood, you could certainly slide this out, it's just 1/4 inch material, put something else in there.

I'm gonna slide that bottom one out, and then we'll have a look at the magnetic paint that's gotta go on here. It's gonna take two different products to make this whole thing happen. One product is gonna make it magnetic, the other product is gonna make it chalk-boardy. The magnetic paint is this stuff right here. And when I say this is thick and goopy, it is thick and goopy.

What is happening here is that, this is not magnetic. This has steel particulates in it, and when we stir this or you need to stir it and we're bringing those particulates into solution in the paint so that when we roll this out, we're getting a layer of metal on these wooden panels. You really gotta pay attention to stir, stir. You gotta go a little stir crazy on this, to make sure that you're getting all that steel into solution, otherwise it's not gonna work. Read the instructions.

It's most likely gonna take more than one coat in order to get adequate steel coverage so that a magnet is actually gonna stick to this stuff. So give that a good stir. Get it out of the way. And generally, the easiest way to do something like this is gonna be to roll it. And it is thick and goopy, but you can use a roller.

And I'm using the same style of roller that I used on the cabinet. It's a foam roller, and that's gonna give us as good a surface finish as we can get here. And don't worry about trying to get a perfect surface, because the paint is so thick, it doesn't roll out like regular paint would. Notice that, that's the original show side. It's got the contact paper on here that we've talked about before.

This is the stuff that's on the cabinets. So on the cabinets, we did this whole process of scuffing and then we put grain filler on it, and then we painted over the top of that. In this case, why bother? Cause we had this side, which is just raw wood. So I'm just gonna paint on here and then I don't have to mess with that contact paper side.

And this part's easy-peasy. Rolling, rolling, rolling. See how thick that stuff is? It's kind of like rolling tar out. There we go.

First coat, like I said, follow the destructions, follow the instructions. It's probably gonna take more than one coat to make sure that you have a good surface here that stuff is really gonna wanna stick to. Once this is completely coated, we have everything on here we want, it's another product, it's a different product that we'll put on in order to get the chalkboard effect. The magnetizing paint, and again, the paint isn't magnetic, it's got a steel base to it, is dry. Did I mention read the instructions, read the instructions about how many coats you need.

And what's cool about this is, remember that this stuff is basically, it is just 1/4 inch plywood. But now when I take a refrigerator magnet and I do that, and I do that, the magnet sticks because we've given this this metal substrate. The next thing that I wanna do is turn this into a chalkboard. And for that, there's a very similar product and instead of magnetic paint. It's chalkboard paint.

You can get this in a couple of different colors. So you can get it in the can is just a black, or if we look here, there are a bunch of colors you can have it tinted to. So I had this one tinted to this teal green, and I'm gonna say just like with the magnetic stuff, read the instructions, because there are some very specific application guidelines for this. And it has to do with how many coats you should put on, letting it dry, and then there's a treatment you have to do at the very end, after it's fully dried in order to get it to work correctly. High-quality foam roller, same as we've been using all along.

And once this stuff gets its full coats and treatment, it's gonna be a chalkboard. There you go. First coat is done. Let that dry. Second coat, read the instructions.

We'll go from there. Fridge is back in the camper, and of course, the door panels are back in the fridge. Did that outside remember, there was a head room issue with putting those in once the fridge was in. So the fridge is back in and what we've got now are magnetic panels top and bottom. That comes from that magnetic paint.

That is crazy cool. Remember, this is a piece of 1/4 inch plywood that is now magnetible, the magnet will stick to it. Then of course, the other thing that we've got going on is, a chalkboard. Isn't that crazy cool? And of course, it's erasable.

Even if all you have is a paper towel and not a chalkboard eraser. Now, I have said this a time or two in this process, but I'm gonna say it again. Read the directions for this products. When you get to this step, when you get into the chalkboard step and it's all done. The paint has to cure set amount of time, then you do what's called seasoning the chalkboard.

It's a really really important step. Read the directions on the paint cans. Can it get you there? You want to make sure you do everything with these products, the way they tell you to do the stuff with the products. I think this is a really amazing edition, not just for a camper, but really for the kid's room, for your kitchen, for your garage, for your shot.

It's so easy to do. You can turn anything into just a chalk board or just a magnetic surface or a magnetic chalkboard. A like we have here. I love the process. The stuff is really easy to work with when you read the instructions.

So try this out on your camper at your house. And I think you're gonna love it as much as I do.