Month: January 2019

DIY Chalkboard Camper Fridge

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I knew before I bought this camper that I wanted to have a chalkboard fridge. I think it will be a lot of fun to write messages, notes, and for the kids to draw on. It was pretty easy to do, too! I taped off the edges with painters tape then taped up paper as well. I chose to do a spray can application rather than painting it on. I haven’t used the paint on kind from a can, so I can’t tell you which is better. But I have zero complaints so far (as I haven’t actually written on it yet)

I did three, really light coats. It’s better to do it like this, it looks splotchy after the first coat, but it will all cover after the next coats. You don’t want to have any runs, so take your time. I think the Rust-Oleum cans spray pretty easily. (I wasn’t paid to say that 😉 That’s just my opinion! You can wait about 20ish minutes between coats, but it says 24 hours before you can write on it

Pretty excited about this little project, let me know if you have any questions or if you’ve painted anything with this chalkboard paint! I’d love to hear from you 🙂

Rust-Oleum Chalkboard Paint

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Chalk Painting Camper Cabinets

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GOODBYE brown ugly cabinets!!!

I’ve been sooo looking forward to painting these cabinets. It took me awhile to figure out what color I wanted them. Part of me wanted to do something bold like yellow or blue, but I ended up with Paris Grey. Then I can do some funky curtains and pillows and be able to change them out when I’m ready for different colors, rather than having to repaint.

If you haven’t used chalk paint, it’s pretty straight forward. It’s hard to mess up. If you have some rough edges, you can lightly sand. However, as long as your cabinets are clean, you don’t have to do any prep-work by sanding or stripping them. After all, it’s a camper and it doesn’t have to be perfect! Any brush will do, I’ll link a couple at the bottom of this post with my favorites. I do have some of Annie Sloan’s brushes, and while I love them!.. You don’t need to spend that much money on them for a one time use of camper cabinets. It dries incredibly fast, you could paint both coats if you have to. Just let them dry a bit in between to cure. I like to wait a couple days and then wax. So it hardens up. Waxing isn’t difficult, it’s just time consuming.

Waxing:

This can be done a couple different ways, and I feel like everyone has their own technique. You can use a wax brush: dip it into the can, swirl it around on the lid a bit to even out your brush, then go in circular motions to cover over the paint. You’ll be able to see where you’ve already applied it. Once you have a good section covered, take a soft rag, or a Blue Shop Towel and ‘buff’ the wax. Basically you just rub out in circles or up and down motions. It seems as though you are wiping all the wax off, but you’re smoothing it all out and making sure it’s even. You can also do this same process with a cheese cloth (one to dip into the wax, then a clean one to buff)

I painted over the hinges, but not the handles

I like to buy my paint from The Purple Painted Lady, she ships super fast and decorates the box really cute 🙂 I like the little details. She also sells Annie Sloan paint brushes

Click HERE for the paint I used

Click HERE for the wax I used

shop towelsBlue Shop Towels

Purdy 2in Paint Brush

Cheesecloth for waxing

Priming The Walls For Paint

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An important step to painting the walls is the prep! After taking down all the curtains, I lightly sanded over the holes. When you take the screws out it pulls up the wood a bit, so if you go over with sandpaper it will smooth it out. Then take a little bit of wood putty and fill in the hole. If you wipe over the hole with either your finger or a paper towel, then you don’t have to go back and sand over each hole. At the end of the day, it’s an old camper and it doesn’t have to be perfect – which is easier said than done if you are a perfectionist like me 😉

This step isn’t necessary, you can hang things up or put curtains back in the same spots if you don’t want to fill in the holes

What is necessary though! Is wiping down the walls and making sure they are clean and free of dust from sanding. You won’t want to use anything that will leave behind a residue. So the vinegar mixture would be good, or my personal favorite is Shaklee’s H2 cleaner. It’s an organic – all purpose cleaner that doesn’t leave behind chemicals or residue (which means my kiddos can help clean. win. win)

Once you have your walls ready, you’ll want to do a coat of primer. I used Kilz Primer. It has a mildew resistant layer which is nice in a camper. You can brush it on or use a small foam roller. I’ll add some links at the bottom of this page so you can see what tools I used

There are a lot of different options for primers, I just happened to have a gallon of this on hand and I read good things about it for campers

This step sure doesn’t look pretty, but it really brightens it up already! I can wait to get the actual paint rolled on!!

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Here’s what I used:

Kilz Primer

My favorite brush (seriously, gotta have one of these)

 wooster brushWooster Brush

 

paint rollerpaint tray and roller

wood filler.jpg I like this wood filler because it turns white when it’s dry

 

sand block.jpg A sand block makes it easy to go over all the screw holes or died putty. Plus the handle is nice and squishy 😉 you can buy sandpaper already cut to size, or cut down large sheets to fit.

Tack Cloths are also nice to have on hand if you have to do a lot of sanding

Demo Of The Ceiling

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Here’s where things get a little more complicated. In the back of the camper there was a leak. I’m sure it leaked way before I bought it… However, I had the camper stored outside at the farm for a while over winter. It was in a plastic hoop building and the snow got so heavy, it collapsed the building. This resulted in a metal pipe puncturing the roof (cue the face palm) andddd some more water got it.

Anyways, it is what it is. The ceiling is going to be a huge project. I started ripping into it to see what all I need to do

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Ugh. It’s a mess a know. I was half tempted to call it quits at this point, feeling way in over my head. But some conversations with my Dad and Grandpa reassured me it can be fixed.

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I highly recommend getting a scrapper like this. I found this one at my local restore, but there is a pretty similar one on Amazon. It works like a charm for scraping all the loose wallpaper loose and the broken paneling. I use it for odd jobs all the time in there

If you’ve done work on a camper or RV ceiling let me know! This is all new to me and I’m just winging it! haha Now to figure out how to put the wood back up…! Since the ceiling has a curve, I’m not sure how to go about sealing it back up

Removing the J Shelf

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Out with the J!!

I didn’t see a need to have this shelf, plus the big letter J was really throwing me off. Nothing would stay on the shelf while traveling, so a few screws later, it was gone! The top has a light in it, so that will stay. And I think the wood around the edges has a cool look to it

on a side note… pretty sure I had those glow in the dark stars in my bedroom as a kid lol Did anyone else have those?!

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Removing Curtains

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Here’s where the manual labor comes in! Ripping down all the curtains and trim to start painting is a lot of work! I’m starting to think I’ll have more time in prep work than putting it back together. It is mostly held together by staples, which requires a lot of pulling/tugging/prying. I want a fresh clean slate to work with, so I decided to pull all of the valances down as well. We also got a surprise visitor from Papa DoDo (my grandpa) he’s always curious about all the projects happening! And he’s an experienced camper owner, so he gets a lot of my questions thrown at him 🙂

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A must have for every tool box:

Channellock long nose pliers (great for pulling out staples)

needle nose pliers

Removing Hardware

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The kids and I spent the evening working in the camper. We got all of the cabinet handles taken off. There were way more than I was anticipating! I’m glad my dad showed up while we were just getting started because he got us hooked up with a drill. Duh, way easier! Don’t start with a screwdriver like I did… Plus this impact is super cool to change out the bit one handed. Harrison was a great helper with the drill. He got it lined up and I helped guide and press the button. Finley was bouncing all over (per-usual) and wiped some cabinets down with her sponge. And ripped some more tape off… that girl! 🙂

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I looked around The Home Depot today for backsplash ideas, and I’m still not sure what I want to use. But I had a super cute helper while Harrison was at school. She is a great cart pusher! And we ended up with way more paint brushes then we needed because she kept throwing them in the cart. Glad they were cheap ones!

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Im sure I’ll lay in bed tonight wondering/thinking/planning camper ideas!

until next time —

Emily

Prepping For Paint

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EDIT: I wrote this post while still pregnant with my daughter, who is now one year old 😉 shows how long it’s taken me to publish this site!

We got the camper over to the barn at my dad’s farm around Halloween time. The kids and I started cleaning the inside and taping the cabinets. Prepping for paint is a chore! Or at least when you’re 27 weeks pregnant… and have an almost two year old who likes to follow behind and pull the tape off.

I used a vinegar/water mix with some essential oils to mask the smell to wipe down the cabinets. They are surprisingly really clean. I didn’t want to use any harsh chemicals because I’m prego and my kids were helping. It seemed to do the trick!!

I decided I’m going to paint the fridge with chalkboard paint to be able to write on it 🙂 very excited for that!

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I can’t wait to paint and get rid of the brown. Sooo much brown! And a lot of orange too. I mean look at these cabinets

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I have decided to keep the latches.. although brown.. they really are nice because they keep the cabinets closed and the kids can’t get them open. win/win

I just have to take them all off. Not looking forward to that. But I got a pretty good game plan on what I’m going to paint and where while the kids were occupied watching Zootopia and eating Halloween candy

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It’s SO dark in there! And did I mention brown.. lol! Okay I’ll stop with the brown comments because it really is true to the 80s mid century feel and I know that’s ‘in’ right now.. But not really my style! (but come on, how cute are these babes)