How to Repair a Screen Door-Style Refrigerator

Before refrigeration, cabinets with screened sides were used to store some types of perishable food. These cabinets were often placed on shady porches where the breezes would keep the food as cool as possible. They were sometimes called pie-safes as they were most useful for storing pies and other baked goods. Use a pie safe to store bags of potatoes and onions or to display vintage linens. The circulating air helps prevent mold.

Screwdriver
Claw hammer
Wire screening
Shears
Large sheet of paper
Pencil
Tacks
Small finishing nails

Instructions

- 1
  Remove the wood trim around the section of damaged screen. Use a screwdriver to unscrew the screws, if it is screwed in place. Gently pry off the trim with a claw hammer or pry bar, if it is nailed in place.
- 2
  Remove the damaged screen by cutting close to the edge of the opening with shears.
- 3
  Place a large piece of paper over the opening. Trace around the outside edge of the space where the molding was attached. This will be the pattern for cutting the screening. Extending the screen to the outside edge of the molding creates a strong repair.
- 4
  Cut a piece of metal screening using the pattern. Match the new screening as closely as possible to the old screening. Place the screen over the opening and hold the edges in place with a few thumbtacks pressed lightly into the wood.
- 5
  Remove the tacks from one side of the screen and replace the wood trim on that side. Attach the trim using either the original screws or small finishing nails. Attach the remaining pieces of trim in the same way.

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