Is the grate a goner or intact?

If it's intact, could you paint it - spray paint maybe?

Pudgeder, long gone. Broke off years ago, too busy to fix it. I have no idea where it went to.

Maybe I'll just get a new fridge and take all that back. I just looked at Home Depot and the Black Friday prices are really good.

I don't know what to do about the bottom grate but a painted refrigerator sounds like a ton of fun! I have thought many times about how to redo mine. I hope that you will post before and after photos and what your process was.

If the grate has been gone for years, does it need to be replaced? Is it noticeable?

ilikefriday, it does look bad if you look down.

Can you post a photo of the refrigerator? My guess is that something is needed that would provide airflow. Perhaps you could use chicken wire, or the kind of decorative wire that people use in kitchen cabinet doors, painted the same color as the refrigerator. Or maybe you could paint the wire gold or silver or some other color and then paint your refrigerator handle a coordinating color.

downloading from my phone, may take a few minutes.

I would do either lattice wood molding or chicken wire over lattice wood molding. Putting the chicken wire over the molding would add stability but still allow airflow.

I forgot about airflow lol.

Or use the metal for radiator covers-

https://www.lowes.com/pd/M-D-24-in-x-3-ft-Aluminum-Sheet-Metal/1000243329

There are several different styles.

@Kathsgrdn, I forget where you are located physically. Are you near southern California? I only ask because I will have a 3-year-old refrigerator available in the very near future.

Fun2BHere, no, in Central KY.

I think I'm going to paint it and get that metal grate. See if it will last another year or more. Most of it will be enclosed in cabinetry, as the man making the cabinets told me he thought I'd like it better with the cabinet on the one side. I never had that in my old kitchen, or any kitchen I've ever lived in, so I didn't really care. I started reading reviews and although most are good, some of them aren't right after they were brought home or delivered. Yikes.

Now I remember, @Kathsgrdn. I knew you lived somewhere familiar. I spent four years in Louisville, KY back in the early 1990’s. Wish you were closer.

I suggest that prior to painting slick surfaces such as refrigerators or stoves that you sand and prime with something like Zinsser Bullseye 123.

Plug your fridge's model number into Google, it should take you to a parts site where you can order the grate. Newer fridges don't last as long as old ones, so you might be better off keeping it.

Newer fridges don't last as long as old ones,

I think that wisdom has outlived its usefulness. 1995 is past the good ol’ fridge days; and at 28 years it’d be on borrowed time even if it were. No reason not to run it to the ground but I’d agree with being aware of this when investing time and effort on a refresh.

I strongly agree with wildchild about researching new fridge sizes in preparation for this eventuality. My mom’s small FD fridge is basically shot, no replacement parts available, and her choices are to go with some apartment sized top freezers, or spend thousands more on a high end built in style which totally wouldn’t be worth it for her kitchen. Nothing else avalavle; it’s a mess.

That looks like the same model that I replaced, when I succumbed to the "get new to go with the remodeling" itch. The only appliances I really needed to replace were the dishwasher and stove hood. I'm not sure how old the fridge was, but it was somewhere between 15 & 20 years.

I missed that fridge after I replaced it. I liked having a bottom freezer, but the fridge and freezer never seemed as roomy as the old one - and I liked the shelves and door bins better on the old one too (could easily move and rearrange).

The new one died just shy of 10 years.

What wildchild said is true. I ended up with a smaller fridge this time, not just because of the unplanned expense (which was a factor), but because a "same size", same brand fridge wouldn't fit through the kitchen doorway - even with the fridge doors removed.