A thesaurus and a fridge walked into a bar.

My refrigerator is very old and won’t come clean. But it still works very well, so I can’t justify just replacing it. Instead, I decided to decoupage it. That’s right: decoupage. Sounds weird, I know, but I had a vision, and I went with it. Here’s how:

Prep! Thoroughly clean the fridge with a degreaser so that it’s as clean as you’re able to get it. Remove all of the handle hardware and any other materials attached to the fridge. I then cut the pages out of an old thesaurus and then used a paintbrush to apply a very thin coat of Modge Podge to the fridge to stick down the pages. The key here is to NOT saturate the paper at all nor put it on top of the paper. If you use too much it will bubble and look terrible. So working in small sections, paint on just enough Modge Podge to get the paper to stick to the fridge.

Work your way from the top to the bottom. You can arrange your paper however you like it — as you can see, I put each page about the same angle to the left and right so that from a distance there’s almost a pattern. I also chose which words from the thesaurus to put where, but that’s just me. Carefully slide the paper under the edges of the seals and cut the corners with a utility knife so they are tidy.

Let everything dry completely once you’re finished. Then, apply 3-4 very thin coats of Modge Podge (I used the glossy kind) over the entire thing, letting it thoroughly dry between coats. Reattach the handle, and you’re now able to learn new words whenever you reach for a glass of milk, or wine, or whatever trips your trigger.