Well, we finished up replacing all the rotten wood in the rear left hand corner of our little Shasta travel trailer, also known as Dottie. There are many owners of compact Shasta travel trailers who are lucky enough to own a Shasta that has beautiful birch paneling. I believe that I have read on vintageshasta.proboards.com that most Shasta trailers that were made before 1964 had this beautiful birch paneling originally. Unfortunately our 1973 Shasta 1400, did not have this paneling, but the (IMHO) the not so pretty 1970's wood paneling. The two sheets of paneling that was in the corner was in bad shape and needed to be replaced.
Well, since I knew I would have to replace the paneling, I had the idea that I would use wainscoting. I love wainscoting and what a perfect excuse to use it. I have used this in a couple of places in my home, (laundry room, bathroom, and a bookcase/window seat in the master bedroom). The only problem is, is that when we went to purchase it is $40.00 a sheet. Not that this is a bad price, and we only needed 2 sheets, but I never realized how heavy it is. It is funny, my husband is very concerned about the weight, and every purchase or change we make he wants to know if there is a lighter solution.
So, we bought the cheapest ugliest, lightest paneling we could find and just covered it with paintable wallpaper that looked like wainscoting. Yay!!!
I have a sneak peek that I will let you see. We are just going to paint it white along with the rest of the walls.
We started painting the walls and was just going to paint the little rubber rounded cabinet welt that was used for trimming around everything. This was used everywhere, but it looked horrible painted. So we pulled it all out. (I didn't get pictures, sorry I wasn't blogging at the time and just didn't think about it.) Again, this was used everywhere. It was between the ceiling and the walls, in the corner of the walls, around the cabinets, and counter tops, between the floor and the walls, you get the picture, it was everywhere. Well unfortunately, where ever this rubber welting was, there was a huge gap between everything. We will probably use to light weight trim, quarter round etc around the ceiling and floor, but for now we just ended up caulking everywhere. I did manage to get some before and after pictures of this.
Tip: My dad was a carpenter and he taught me to do this years ago. The tip he gave me was to keep a glass of water handy. After you squirt the caulk into the corner, wet your finger and run it along the caulk to smooth it and remove any excess.
Well, since I knew I would have to replace the paneling, I had the idea that I would use wainscoting. I love wainscoting and what a perfect excuse to use it. I have used this in a couple of places in my home, (laundry room, bathroom, and a bookcase/window seat in the master bedroom). The only problem is, is that when we went to purchase it is $40.00 a sheet. Not that this is a bad price, and we only needed 2 sheets, but I never realized how heavy it is. It is funny, my husband is very concerned about the weight, and every purchase or change we make he wants to know if there is a lighter solution.
So, we bought the cheapest ugliest, lightest paneling we could find and just covered it with paintable wallpaper that looked like wainscoting. Yay!!!
I have a sneak peek that I will let you see. We are just going to paint it white along with the rest of the walls.
We started painting the walls and was just going to paint the little rubber rounded cabinet welt that was used for trimming around everything. This was used everywhere, but it looked horrible painted. So we pulled it all out. (I didn't get pictures, sorry I wasn't blogging at the time and just didn't think about it.) Again, this was used everywhere. It was between the ceiling and the walls, in the corner of the walls, around the cabinets, and counter tops, between the floor and the walls, you get the picture, it was everywhere. Well unfortunately, where ever this rubber welting was, there was a huge gap between everything. We will probably use to light weight trim, quarter round etc around the ceiling and floor, but for now we just ended up caulking everywhere. I did manage to get some before and after pictures of this.
Tip: My dad was a carpenter and he taught me to do this years ago. The tip he gave me was to keep a glass of water handy. After you squirt the caulk into the corner, wet your finger and run it along the caulk to smooth it and remove any excess.
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Our trailer has cabinet welt everywhere too, and I was just planning to paint over it. How has the caulking held up to travel? It looks so nice I'd love to do it, but my husband doesn't think it will work.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
It is holding up great, we like the way the caulk looks much better, but it is a little bit more work than just painting it. Plus once you paint it, you still see little cracks between the welt and wall. We never did put up trim, we just decided it was an unnecessary step and expense.
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