Old camper

Fixing the counters

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In the previous post I talked about putting the contact “marble” contact paper on the counter. I’m also going to put it on the kitchen countertop as well. But I needed to do a little prep work first

I have stick on squares that resemble tiles for the backsplash, and in order to put them on straight I had to pull the rubber trim off. That was no easy task. My sister tried helping pull a bit… and pulled a chunk of the counter out. Yes, I’m totally calling her out 😉 it was a total PAIN in the booty. I had to take an x-acto knife and cut out a lot. Once I got all the trim out, fixing the counter wasn’t too bad

I took this picture when it was dark out, so the lighting wasn’t the best. But you can at least see what I’m talking about. A huge chunk missing!

I used this Elmer’s Wood Filler and just as it says, it dries pretty fast!

I just scooped a bit out with my finger, and then smoothed it out with my metal scraper. Pretty simple.

I’ll be covering the counter so you won’t see any of this. But at least there isn’t a hole now. Once dried, I sanded it smooth just a bit. Next step will be the contact paper!! Yay!

The scraper (putty knife) is great tool to have on hand for little projects like this. They are pretty inexpensive and I use it all the time. There are some on Amazon (which I like to link for your convince) or you can find them at your local hardware store

Easy Camper Counter Tops

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So I ran out of paint… and while waiting for it to arrive I had a new thought. I know, I know…. I keep adding all these little projects to the camper. Some day we’ll actually camp in it again! Anyways..! After all these changes I’ve been making (like painting everything) has really made the counters look bad. I really don’t want to rip them out and put on a new top. I’ve been considering that, and glad I had a different idea! If I can wallpaper the walls, why can’t I do it to the counters! Turns out, my right hand man (Amazon) had just what I needed

It’s called Adhesive Vinyl and looks like marble! It’s a thick peel and stick contact paper. And applies the same way as wallpaper. It was pretty easy to work with. I didn’t take the time to line up the design because I figured 1) that would take forever and 2) its a camper. If you look closely you can see the seam where I had to do a second piece. But in person it’s super smooth and pretty! I love it!! I tried it out on the cabinet right by the door. I originally painted this white, and it’s already getting worn so the contact paper is way sturdier and I’ll be able to wipe it down

Pretty awesome right!! If you see my previous post on wallpaper, you can find the tools I used. And you can find the contact paper here!

Don’t mind all the stuff hanging out in the shelves. It’s been the catch-all place while working on this 🙂

And in case you’re curious… this is what it looked like before paint and the contact paper counter top 🙂

For The Love Of Wallpaper

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I know people have a love/hate relationship with wallpaper. Obviously, if you’ve seen the kitchen mushroom wallpaper in this camper’s kitchen… you probably aren’t a fan. (Unless of course mushrooms are your thing) but I was looking at the wall going into the bathroom thinking, it needed “something”

WALLPAPER

you guys, I found this wallpaper on Amazon (duh, all good things are from Amazon)

It comes with easy to follow instructions. I won’t go into all the details, but if you have a little patience, it’s fairly easy to put up. I was a little nervous about it sticking to everything and not being able to get it straight. But it’s pretty forgiving. You can pull it off slowly and realign if needed. Which I did a couple times.

After putting it up, I used this smoothing tool to get out the bubbles. And then trimmed around the edges with this X-acto knife

Slow progress, but progress none the less!

Fixing The Bunk Ceiling

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I put this project off for awhile, mostly because I wasn’t sure how I wanted to do it (or how to do it) However, I finally tackled it! The back of the camper had water damage and I removed all the loose pieces. You can read about that HERE

I got a sheet of 1/4″ Lauan Plywood from Home Depot that I cut into strips to fit the ceiling. Each one was a different size to fit equally between the studs. So I’m sure if you have this issue to put up boards it might work a little differently for you. I knew I was going to be covering it so I wasn’t too picky with how it looked. My ceiling is rounded so I couldn’t just put up one piece. I’m sure there are so many different ways to fix a camper ceiling, but this board and screws only cost me about ten bucks! Plus I have about half the board left over for other projects.

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I measured to the middle of each stud so I could secure each board and have space to screw in the next one.

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I purchased these black vinyl tiles at Home Depot. They have these similar ones on Amazon but they are 24″x24″ rather than the longer ones I got. I think they will still work perfectly for you if you’d rather order them with prime shipping. They come in just about every color. I’m not sure if the black will look good or not… we’ll find out soon! Once I get all the walls painted then the tiles will be going up! Super excited!

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