Project Glamp - from drab to fab

One of the first stages of Project Glamp is cleaning it up in every way possible. Imagine 36 years worth of camping grime...there are not enough rubber gloves in the world..... So after a lot of scrubbing we still had a dirty looking caravan on our hands.

It was the old and tired and slightly smelly wood paneling that was bringing us down. If you look up the definition for 'dank', i am sure there would be a picture of the stuff. To bring quick resolve, I picked out a bright yet warm white semi gloss paint to cover every exposed surface aside from the table and countertop.

The process, for those who are considering, is three step. Not hard three steps, but can be time consuming - just so you can mentally prepare yourself. If you are anything like me, I am not very good on estimating how long something will take me.

1. Tape! We taped off all of the windows with tape and poly since we planned to spray the paint on. we also covered the floor since this was recently recovered in laminate. When covering the floor use either paper or in our case some plywood cutoffs that we puzzled into place. No poly on the floor people. Danger danger. This step was SO TIME CONSUMING! ugh. I hate tape. For your planning purposes. we used up 3 rolls of tape. We had to go to the store 3 times. sigh.

2. Prime! We used an all purpose, all cover primer. There are a couple on the market to choose from, we used Bullfrog 123. We did a once over spray to make sure that the semigloss would stick.

3. Paint! So we thought 2 coats would do since we primed...not so much. That dank paneling is a stubborn b-word. It took 3 coats to do it and the last one we rolled on as the spray was doing more damage through dripping than good. Our 15' trailer took a gallon and a half to cover - keeping in mind we covered EVERYTHING ceiling, cupboards in and out, bathroom, walls, benches, etc.

Here are a little before and afters to satisfy your curiosity...pin at will.... :)

front dinette view BEFORE

Front dinette view AFTER

back bed BEFORE

 

back bed AFTER

 

kitchen BEFORE

kitchen AFTER

Now for the fabric.......

Project Glamp

So this is how the story goes....

I hate tent camping.

I know hate is a strong word, but it is more than appropriate in this situation. I have the privilege (?) of working in the Yukon Territory for three summer seasons which last 4 months each. There is NO housing there for all us seasonal workers - so we lived in tents. Little tenting communities popped up lovingly referred to as "Tent Cities". You quickly lose the novelty of camping when you live that way in the arctic. I never was able to get any of the novelty back...the Yukon wilds beat it out of me.

Fast forward 18 years. Now living in a house with real walls not made of canvas and co-habitating in said house with one big and two little people who love to go camping. I managed to dodge the camping idea for sometime with the very good excuse of not wanting to camp with babies. But alas and sigh, my baby is now almost 4. That standby excuse is no longer valid. So after much "discussion" with the Hubs, we compromised on a vintage travel trailer to both meet his need of all things cool and vintage, and my need for a solid roof and running water.

We set about to find a vintage tin can that would have all my wants and all his. No easy feat I must say. But we were able to amicably settle on a 1976 15' Scamper trailer. Not as vintage as we would like, but it was what we could willingly pay for an old trailer and had all the bells and whistles - like a teeny tiny toilet and running water! The JOYS!

The downside of vintage is gross, old, stinky trailer decor. We wanted to make this a little cottage on wheels and the cutest little cottage on wheels we could muster. Plans quickly developed (thanks Pinterest) and we set out on glaming our little trailer find.

I am going to document our little project so anyone who is in my camp (get it, get it) may see that even you can do this too!

Hope you join us on our adventure.