DIY GE Café Wine Beverage Refrigerator Look-A-Like

Today, on the blog, I wanted to share how we turned an inexpensive wine refrigerator into a GE Café lookalike. We already have the Cafe matte white appliances in our kitchen (which we LOVE). I wanted to add in a wine refrigerator to our kitchen and when we found the matching Cafe appliance, it was OVER $3000!  Honestly, that’s how much our actual refrigerator cost and it was a hard no to the matching wine/beverage one. I am not one to give up so easily, so I talked my husband into our next DIY project!

Over the years, we have become super confident in our Home DIY projects. However, I did get nervous when I realized we’d have to cut into one of our kitchen cabinets to do so. I left that part to Neil, haha! All in, we paid about $450 for the generic wine fridge, the paint and the handle I snagged off eBay! we are thrilled with how it turned out.

GE Café Wine Refrigerator Look-A-Like

Things you’ll need:

  • wine refrigerator of your choice ( make sure to measure your space to ensure it will fit properly and have airflow)
  • GE Café Wine/Beverage Refrigerator replacement handle (I got one off eBay for $50, but they sell them for $189 new)
  • Appliance primer ( I got a spray paint version)
  • Sherwin Williams “Rock Candy” appliance paint in matte or satin
  • sand paper
  • painters tape
  • smooth cabinet paint rollers
  • power drill
  • wood trim

While Neil cut apart our cabinet, I worked on the door to the wine refrigerator. First, I took the door and handle it came with off and lightly sanded the stainless steel. Then, I placed painters tape over all the glass and any area I didn’t want spray primer to go. I also filled the two holes from the original handle. Most likely, the cafe handle may not fit in the pre-existing holes. You will need to drill out two new holes for the new handle. Once I sprayed one coat of primer, I waited 2 hours to reapply.The next morning, I used smooth cabinet rolls to paint the door. Sherwin Williams “Rock Candy” matching almost identically. This is especially important to match if this appliance will be close to one of your other GE Café appliances.

Once the paint dried, we installed the Café handle. You may need to get creative with this. The handle doesn’t screw in with screws. You can get the parts on amazon or you can Forest Gump your way through this step and use gorilla glue and a thicker screw.

Since we had a plug under the cabinet, we didn’t need to mess with electrical. Once the fridge was in place, we added some wood trim from Home Depot to close any gaps. I painted that the same color of our lower kitchen cabinets (Sherwin Williams “In the Navy”.

I LOVE how it turned out!

 

 

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DIY GE Cafe Wine Refrigerator lookalike

DIY GE Cafe Wine Refrigerator lookalike

DIY GE Cafe Wine Refrigerator lookalike

DIY GE Cafe Wine Refrigerator lookalike

 

 

 

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