DIY: I Painted My Oven--Really!

Greetings Friends! I hope you had a wonderful Fourth and relaxing weekend.  Have you ever had a pretty little thing--or in this case, not so little--get stuck in your mind? Inspiration turns to irresistible urge! Obsessed or not, there was no way I was spending $5500 (seriously!) on this beauty, so I started to research... 
...and research and research!  Turns out quite a few people paint their refrigerators and even washers and dryers but ovens, not so much.  Obviously the paint/heat factor is a safety concern. Painting your stove top is not recommended even with an electric range like mine. Notice mine is stainless.  It was the black doors I wanted to lighten up. Nothing against black ovens, but in my colorful retro kitchen, it stuck out like a black hole.  Seeing that Big Chill luscious light green pushed me over the edge.  The color is actually called jadeite--it had to be fate, right?! Incidentally, I saw a post in Kitchn where Susan painted her wall oven periwinkle.   So why not jadeite? Here's the before and after:

Before and after painting oven mint green

My kitchen is smallish and the layout makes it the hardest room in the house to photograph.  Do you have any rooms like that? The actual painted color is very close to the inspiration photo and I am loving it! Now I'll tell you how...

Tutorial for painting oven mint green.





Before making the decision and ultimately sharing it with you, I read many conflicting points of view--from one extreme to the other.  Initially, I thought I would need to use a high temperature paint.  However, I learned that to withstand temperatures of 500 degrees, they are made to "cure" which emits harmful fumes.  I also read that most oven doors rarely exceed 120 degrees. In the end, I followed this advice from a Firefighter: 

CAUTION! As a Firefighter/EMT/HAZ-MAT Responder, I am appalled at the risks some of you are willing to take with the safety of your families using some of those paint finishes around the eyes or burners on your stoves. That discoloration means that the products are OFF-GASSING, emitting toxic vapors into your home... not good! Worse still, you are standing directly in the vapor cloud while stirring your pots, etc.! Even if you don't see any visible changes, acrylic, acrylic enamel, and lacquer paints just cannot stand up to those kind of temps and are breaking down... i.e. off-gassing. Instead, paint the sides and front of the oven with regular spray paint.  So I did, just that...

First, I removed the oven door panels and taped the parts I didn't want painted. Most panels can be removed with several screws without removing the whole door.  Just handle carefully, if there is any glass in the door.  Here's an excellent tutorial to show how to remove the panels.  

Oven painting tutorial

Next, I sanded lightly and then spray painted. 

Tutorial for painting oven mint green

I gave it three light coats of Krylon Colormaster Gloss Celery. 

Tutorial for painting oven mint green

When the paint was dry, I reattached the panels to my oven.  Just to be sure all was safe, the following morning I opened the kitchen window and cranked the oven up, letting it run hot for over an hour.  There was no smoking, fumes or odors of any sort.  I call this a DIY LOP--lots of prayer! 

Tutorial for painting oven mint green


Have you ever attempted a DIY that was a little scary? How did it turn out?

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MY HEARTFELT THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING FOR FEATURING THIS POST:




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  1. Amazing transformation, bravo to you!!

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  2. Good for you Cecilia ... you are so brave to tackle that big job. Did you spray the vent-a-hood too? Looks really good and I know it brightens your little kitchen.
    Blessings,
    Audrey Z. @ Timeless Treasures

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  3. Wow!!! It looks great! I don't think I would have thought to paint the oven but what a great idea!

    Tania

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  4. I never doubted you for a second! It looks beautiful! Great job and very inspiring. Have a wonderful week!

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  5. How pretty, Cecilia! Definitely looks better! It fits your kitchen perfectly! I need to paint the front of my fireplace insert...wonder if regular spray paint would work? I'm sure I've done some scary kind of DIY but I can't remember off the top of my head...if you asked my husband, he'd tell you they were all scary. Lol.

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  6. Bravery has its rewards! LOVELY!

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  7. Your oven looks amazing! I've done it before and it changes the whole look of te room. Enjoy your evening. Jo

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  8. Wow that's fantastic, I love it! I can not believe you could use regular spray paint n here...amazing!

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  9. You are so brave!! It turned out amazing! I love it. Of course, it is my favorite color. Great job!

    Hugs,
    Dianne

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  10. Wow Cecilia, who knew that you could paint your oven! Your oven looks fabulous with its transformation.

    Thanks for sharing with Roses of Inspiration. Hugs to you!

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  11. Scary ain't even the half of it! I would never-ever have even considered this an option...and I paint everything! I love this ideal sooo much but it's still scary! Kudos to you and thanks for putting thoughts into my head.
    ~Michelle
    www.thatblackchic.com

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  12. WoW!!!! very scary with an amazing result!! i am not that brave!!!!

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  13. Wow, you are a very brave and talented woman. That is an amazing transformation. It looks amazing. Great job.

    Thank you for visiting me. I do appreciate your visit.

    Janet

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  14. I would say it looks terrific, I would like to color the vent lid on ours, great inspiration!

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  15. It looks so good! Several years ago we had our kitchen redone but the olive green 1 1/2 size stove still worked. We asked our contractor to paint it and he thought we were crazy. I don't know what he used but he did it. It lasted a while but thankfully the stove died about the time it started to peel!!

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  16. Wow, wow, wow! What a challenge, and what nice results!

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  17. I never would have guessed that could be done with ordinary spray paint. I'm so glad you got the "go ahead" and all the safety elements too. It looks so much much better now and blends so well with the rest of your kitchen. Great job. Thanks so much for sharing at Vintage Inspiration Party.

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  18. What a transformation! It looks wonderful. You get extra points for dutiful research done.

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  19. Well Cecilia, you hit it out of the ball park! Love the jadite color and you amaze me at how clever you are. Yes, I've seen plenty of other appliances painted, but not stoves. You go girl! Love it!! Thanks for sharing with SYC.
    hugs,
    Jann

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  20. Wow! that is amazing! I wanted to paint my old appliances, but chickened out.

    super job Cecilia.

    catching you!

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  21. I love the colour of your oven now and it really brightens up your kitchen. Good job!

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  22. This is the comment I came looking for lol, I was wondering the exact same thing. I'm renovating a trailer and want to repaint the stove to match the rest of the kitchen but couldn't find any high heat paints in a light aqua color

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  23. I second the comment above.... I'd love to know how that stood up over the last year

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    Replies
    1. For everyone who has asked about how my oven has held up, 5+ years later and it has held up great! I had no smoking or odors, and the paint has been quite durable. To clarify: I DID NOT PAINT THE STOVE TOP, only the door. Again, I recommend carefully reading the article on safety included in the post and exercising the utmost caution.

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  24. Exactly the info I've been looking for... I have an old McLary electric stove in a turqouise/green colour that has a big scratch across the oven door... and I can't find the colour in a heat resistant stove paint... I'm pretty brave and do a lot of painting, so I am going to give the Krylon enamel a try!

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