Frigador- Turn an Old Refrigerator Into a Humidor

Ever wanted a large humidor to store all of your nice cigars in, but didn't want to pay the big prices to have one? Why not build your own. This project utilizes an old refrigerator and a humidifier to do just that. We had this old refrigerator sitting around and decided that it would be a perfect size and would be really awesome to transform and restore this to a beautiful humidor. You could use probably any fridge or other old piece of furniture that is enclosed well or could be sealed to keep in the humidity an turn it into a new piece of furniture for the man cave or any room for that mater.

the items needed are fairly straight forward for a humidor but will vary in all forms depending on the detail you choose to go into when restoring chosen enclosure or how you choose to do it. Below is what was used in this project.

Old General Electric Refrigerator
A Humidifying Unit- to keep humidity levels up in the humidifier
Old Picture Frame
Glass Fit for picture frame
Paint
Stains
Cleaner - stainless and general
Piano Hinge

Custom Cedar shelves and a Tray were made to fit to hold cigars

Step 1: Choose and Prepare Enclosure

The refrigerator we have is from around the 1920's and 30's and thought it was perfect. We first removed the condenser from the top of the unit and cleaned it up. We removed all the original stainless steel hardware and signage to also be cleaned.

Step 2: Paint and Stain

After it was all cleaned up we decided to make it look as though it was made out of wood so we painted it a base coat of brown with a mix of paint and light stain. Once dry we stroked on a different stain to add wood grain and knot details to have a greater effect and look like it was pieced together. Once this was dry, then another coat of stain was brushed on to finish it off.

At the top an old Frame with a piece of glass will be mounted with a piano hinge. This will allow to look inside from the top without even opening and releasing the humidity levels. A cedar tray will be made to fit on the ledge just inside the top where the old condenser sat.

On the inside at the top, the ledge was lined with cuts of old cigar boxes. This is where the cedar tray will sit. You wont even be able to see the cigar box lining when the tray is in, but adds a nice touch.