More updates on our vintage travel trailer

Well my husband and I (mostly my dear husband) has been working on finishing up our little travel trailer.  He has finished putting on all the trailer's emblems, painting the wheels of the trailers, putting up trim and painting appliances.  We were going to paint the door to our trailer red, but it has a lot of dings so we opted for white right now.  We still need to add trim around the opening of the fridge and some quarter round around the floor, then I think we will be ready for the finishing touches, YAY!

Here are some pictures of all we have accomplished. If you want to see before pictures, check out my first post.

I put up the paper towel holder after I sprayed it with red spray paint made to cover plastic, it used to be a harvest gold color. The tray that you see also came with the trailer.  The seller threw it in with a bunch of other stuff he didn't want.  It was old and scratched up and had a picture of a pheasant on it.  I decided to use some left over red paint and a piece of scrapbook paper.  I used Mod Podge to adhere it.  There is a small hole behind the tray where the old gas light use to be.  I am going to look for a spice rack to hang here while on the Nebraska Junk Jaunt.


Some other things I would love to find, just to name a few, are salt and pepper shakers, a canister set, a  bread box, an old tin match box, a vintage aqua or red radio,  a little vintage stove top coffee pot that percolates, a vintage wall clock in red, some old lanterns, some old coffee cups, and lots and lots of enamel ware.

I am still trying to decide on a fabric for the seat covers, but I got this throw at a thrift store a while back for $1.50.  I guess it will do for awhile.  The other cushions are covered with red sheets that I got for $2.00 each.  One nice thing about having sheets thrown over the cushions is that it makes them easy to wash.  I got that cute little pitcher at a thrift store for $2.00 too.  I made the throw pillow the other day.  I was cruising through pinterest and saw a really cute pillow and wanted to make one of my own.  I am new at sewing but am having a blast making things I never dreamed I could before.  Although it is not as well done as my inspiration pillow, I love how it turned out! When I get back from the Junk Jaunt, I want to make some more pillows and some bunting.  Decorating is the fun part, and I can't wait to get started!

 Here is a better picture of it. Not bad for my first pillow ever!

 We added some trim as a chair rail! We still need 1 more piece though.

Taking my travel trailer on a Junk Jaunt!

I just found out that I get to attend the 9th annual Junk Jaunt that is held in Central Nebraska. This is a junkers dream. The Junk Jaunt is held the last full weekend in September each year.  This year the Junk Jaunt starts early on Friday September 28th and ends on Sunday September 30th.  There are about 30-35 small towns that take part in this with an occasional detour sign directing you to a farm. I've never experienced a sale of this magnitude before, but I've heard that the Nebraska Junk Jaunt draws people from all over the country. 

I purchased a route map for $7.50 and I'm very glad I did.  It list every town and some key items that each vendor will have, so my husband and I can skip the sales that don't really sound like they will interest us. The route makes a loop through some very scenic country. It includes the Sand hills, Journey Byway and the Loup Rivers Scenic Byway.

I don't know if this is realistic or not, but we are going to try to hit 6 towns the first day and 6 the second.  If anyone has actually done the jaunt and has experience with this I would appreciate hearing from you.  We are going to start on the southeast part of the loop and travel north on the loop and then start heading west at North Loup. There are 393 vendors listed in total for the towns we are planning on visiting.  Most vendors are open til 7 or 8 in the evening and later if it is a business, so we will see.

We are going to take our travel trailer and spend the night a couple of nights.  There are not a lot of places to camp in the middle of Nebraska, so we might have to rough it.  I can't wait for the adventure to begin!

QUICK UPDATE: It was a blast!  Here are just a few treasures I found.  I painted the spice rack red.  My favorite finds were the fan and match stick holder, and tea cart (I want to paint that red too). My favorite part of the trip was having people stop me to tell me how much they loved my little vintage travel trailer. 

We saw quite a few others little travel trailers on our little jaunt and even camped right next to another one.  It wasn't done up though and it was too dark to take photos and by the time we got around the next day, it was already gone.

1st time camping in my vintage travel trailer

We took our travel trailer out this weekend for her maiden voyage!  It was a last minute decision, so we didn't go very far.  It was such a great weekend, and it was my weekend off so we just couldn't pass up an opportunity to go.  Since I work every other weekend there were only 4 weekends for us to go camping before the 1st of November, and 2 of the weekends are ready are booked.  My oldest son is getting married the last weekend of October, so with time running out quickly, we decided it just pick someplace and go. 

We started searching for camping within an 1-2 hours of Kansas City, and quickly discover Lake Perry which only ended up being 1.5 from our house.  It was also close to Atchison Kansas, a little town I have wanted to visit for some time now. Atchison is known as the most haunted town in Kansas, but I wanted to go because Atchison is also know for the many beautiful historic homes featuring many architectural styles from the mid 1800's.

After we found a place to park, we strolled along this historic downtown area, ate lunch then took a historical trolley tour where I was able to learn quite a bit of history and view several of the beautiful historic homes in Atchison.

Around 4 o'clock we headed out to Perry Lake for our first camping adventure.

We found a seclude little site on a bluff overlooking the lake. 

My husband definitely needs practice backing in.  It took him several times to get her back in the sport nice and straight.

Since this was just a quick last minute trip we decided just to have hot dogs over the fire and of course I don't consider any camping trip complete without smores. 

When is was time to call it a night, we soon realized we had left the extra board that widens the sofa bed at home.  Since there was 3 of us, we had the bunk mattress, so one of has had to put that on the floor and sleep on it. 

The next morning we got up, had breakfast, then went on an hour and a half hike around the rocky shore of the lake.  It has been a long time since we have visited a lake, as we usually opt for sunny ocean beaches instead.  But we had a nice stroll, and my husband and son enjoyed seeing who could skip a rock the furthest. My husband won with 7 skips.

We saw another vintage travel trailer, but this one looked like it could use some work.

The trip home was even fun.  The route we chose to take home just happened to be on a partial route for Bikers for Babies.  There were people that were parked and scattered along route 92 waiting for all the bikers to ride by.  We got a lot of waves, thumbs up, and honks as we passed by people waiting for the bikers to pass by.  I felt like we were in a parade, it was quite fun.

Just playing around in my vintage travel trailer

Wow! I am getting really close to being ready to decorate my little vintage travel trailer, YAY!!!

Well if have read my previous post you know I have a really difficult time making decisions.  First picking out fabric for the curtains, then with picking out a paint color.  I never did choose a paint color, I just stumbled upon a bargain that I couldn't refuse, but ended up absolutely loving the result.

Well I have been pondering fabric choices just as long as I have been paint colors and I just can't seem to make up my mind.  I think part of the problem is that I like too me things and just can't settle on just one choice.

I am also a very visual person and have a difficult time knowing if I will like something without actually seeing what it looks like.  Not seeing it in person and seeing the exact color is another problem, especially when it comes to the aqua fabrics, are they too green or too blue? Ugg, just make up my mind already! I was originally going to go with the aqua on the top row, but my husband doesn't really like it. Here are some of the fabrics I am trying to decide on...

I am also thinking that I would like to use 2 fabrics, so that the cushions have a french country look to them.  Maybe something like these sofas...

Well then I remembered that a while back I bought a big bag of fabric for $2.50 at a thrift store.  It was originally $10.00 but it was marked down to half price, then the day I went in they had half off all of their linens, so I got over 10 yards of fabric for $2.50.  I bought the scraps so that I could make some bunting for my trailer.  In the pile of scraps was 5 yards of red western fabric and 4.5 yards of red and white gingham.  I have also bought some sheets and table cloths, so I thought I would just go out the my little vintage trailer and play for awhile.

Here I put a red sheet on the long bench, and some gingham fabric on one of the dinette cushions.  I brought some other stuff out and started playing around.

I threw on an aqua afghan that I bought at a thrift store for $1.50, (originally $3.00, but again I got it at half price) and a aqua table cloth that I bought at another thrift store for $2.00.

Here is a close up shot of the aqua tablecloth.

This little table cloth gives me an idea of what it would look like if I chose the large gingham fabric.

I just threw this on the back of the cushion for fun.  This is the little table cloth that was my inspiration piece for my color choices.  I really like the red aqua and yellow together.  I haven't been able to find any fabric with all three colors that I like, but I do like the pop of yellow!

Here is a shot of some vintage flatware that I found at a thrift store.  Each piece was .29.  It wasn't a full set but I thought they were adorable and just couldn't pass them up.  They need some polishing, but that will have to wait for another day.

Exterior paint on our vintage travel trailer

Well we finally picked out a paint color for our 1973 vintage Shasta travel trailer.  It was a little bit of an ordeal, but we finally got most of it painted and are putting on the finishing touches.

I couldn't decide what color to paint our little trailer so I let my husband do the honors and he picked out a color by Valspar called Ocean Whisper.  It was a pretty aqua color and it was bright enough to make him happy but not too over the top for me.  We went to Lowes to have them mix up our paint, but when we got there they did not have the tintable variety, but said they had a exterior paint that worked on aluminum.  We wanted to spray the paint on using my husbands air compressor and spray gun but the guy said that we wouldn't be able to do that.  So after reading many reviews about rolling paint on my husband decided he would give it a try.  He was not happy with the results.  We used a primer and roller for smooth surfaces but the the paint came out bumpy and did not level out like we were hoping it would.  So we went to our local hardware store to see if they had any tintable (oil based) paint and what do you know, they did.  It was Do it Best Industrial Enamel.

They had a deep base and pastel base to choose from and a gloss and satin finish.  I chose gloss because we wanted a nice shine.  In hind sight my husband said we should have use satin because the dings wouldn't have showed up as much.  Oh well, live and learn.  I guess that is the purpose of sharing blogs, so we might learn from others.

We sprayed in on using an air compressor and spray gun.  We could have used spray cans to paint our trailer but that limited our colors.  Although I wish the color would have come out just a little more green, I have to say it is still pretty darn cute!

I was really undecided as to whether to paint the trim red, so we did a quick test stripe to see what we thought. 
                                                                                                                                                                  
I didn't like the red as much as I thought I would, so we decided to just go with a white accent stripe.So we finished up painting our travel trailer with the Ocean Whisper Valspar paint color and painted the trim white.  But when my husband went to put the red brake lights and reflectors on I really like how the red popped against the aqua.   So we had some drip caps and decided they would look awesome painted red.

We are still putting on the finishing touches, but couldn't wait to post some pictures.  We will paint the screws to match so they don't show so much.  I really like the red, now I am second guessing the red stripe.  What do you think? Comments welcome!

Interior paint in our vintage travel trailer!

Wow, we finally got around to painting the interior of our vintage travel trailer. I had a really difficult time choosing a color, but then I stumbled upon some aqua paint at a outdoor flea market of all places.  Can you believe it, I found a can of can of mistinted paint from Sherwin Williams. The color is called Waterscape. Although I didn't have any swatches from Sherwin Williams (There are not any stores that are close to me) it was very close to one of the Benjamin Moore's colors that I liked, Antiquan Sky. Best of all it was only $5.00.  Well the guy wanted $8.00, don't get me wrong $8.00 is a great price, but I didn't want to buy it and then not like it and have it go to waste, so I told the guy I was going to think about it for awhile.  As I was walking away he asked if I would take it for $5.00, so I thought to myself , "what the heck, it's only 5 bucks, go for it" and bought it. 

  I have also been really busy making curtains and finally got them finished too.  Here is a picture of both the paint and curtains together.

I love the color!  I can't believe I got a $40 dollar can of paint for 5 bucks!  The curtains were a fluke, but I really like how they turned out.  They were just supposed to be the blue fabric with the polka dot ribbon on the bottom.  The ribbon was to help these curtains tie in with the curtains in the back of the camper.  Well, I am new at sewing.  I sewed some curtains earlier for the rear of the trailer but those were my first project ever.  Well I measured the fabric and cut it out, once I cut it out I realized that I didn't measure enough fabric for rod.  If I folded the fabric over to make a pocket for the rod, the curtain was too short, so I decided to add the gingham to the bottom.  Once I folded the blue fabric over to make a pocket for the rod, I didn't like how the blue fabric was almost the same width as the gingham, so I decided to sew red gingham to the top of the fabric to make a pocket for the rod.  I think they came out great! See the light fixture?  Well, we got that for free.  The vintage light fixtures that came with the trailer were dry cracked and brittle.  My husband and I go to thrift stores on a weekly basis. (he sells stuff on ebay) and so we were keeping our eyes open for an old light fixture.  Well he was on his way home and just a few houses down from us, someone was throwing away a pole lamp that had 3 sconces on them.  The base of the fixture you see is original but he painted both the sconce and base red and we have 2 left over for the other fixtures in the rear of the trailer.  We still have a lot of work to do, but we are getting close to doing some finishing touches.  We are going to paint the fridge red with some appliance paint, and frame the old opening with some trim. 

Vintage travel trailer inspiration photos

Well, I just got home from work and finished up with dinner.  Had to get my vintage travel trailer fix, so I started surfing the web looking for some inspiration photos of other vintage travel trailers others have done.  Here are a few that I came across...

Although this in not a little vintage trailer, it has got me drooling with envy.  I saw this cutie over at Rose Vine Cottage. This baby is big enough to live in, and looks like it has a bathroom and separate sleeping area a sitting area and even a little hallway. 
I love the pink and aqua, and the shabby chic bedding is So Cute!  Have I mentioned I love pink?

She has a lot more interior photos and even some exterior shots, so if you are in love with vintage travel trailer decor be sure to check out her blog. Rose Vine Cottage

The next set photos are from a German blog that I stumbled upon. I love the shabby chic decor they chose for their camper in shades of pinks, blues and white. You can select the google translate if you want to read all about their adventures in their cozy camper.   However as they say, pictures are worth a thousand words.  If you scroll about half way down on the blogs page you will see several amazing before and after photos. Although these photos are not of a vintage travel trailer but a motor home, it goes to show you that with the right fabrics and colors you can make any trailer into a cute and cozy cottage on wheels. If these photos aren't inspiration I don't know what else could be. If the link doesn't work check out the archive link under 7/11

there are a lot more photos so be sure to check them out at Home Sweet Motor Home  Each area that they took a picture of shows a before and after photo. 

Interior paint for my vintage travel trailer

Well I have agonized quite a bit about what color to paint the interior of my vintage travel trailer.  I knew I wanted aqua. but choosing THE color. I don't want to pick a color and have it come out looking like toothpaste.

I have been slowly eliminating color swatches and have narrowed it down to just a few.

This is my weekend to work so I don't get to work on my trailer this weekend. 

I think I have narrowed it down to these few colors...BM Hazy Blue or Antiguan Sky.  Both of those colors are on the top card.

On the card to the far left is BM Green Wave, 2nd from the top, and warm springs right under than. 

On the card in the center BM Wythe Blue.  Wythe Blue just happens to be Benjamin Moore's color of the year for 2012. I think this is a very pretty and a very soothing color.  Here is a photo of a dining room done in this color.  Click on the above link to read more about this color.

I bought a can of paint from Krylon called Catalina Mist and I love it.  I have been thinking about just having it color matched because I have painted some larger items with this color and I know I like it.  Benjamin Moore also has a color called Catalina Mist which is on the card to the far right. I'm not sure if they are the same color or not.  It is the third one down.  Right above that is the color Bali.  Okay now it's just a matter of eliminating those...eenie meenie miney mo.

Decorating a vintage travel trailer, fabric choices

Decisions, decisions, I am horrible at making decisions.  I know what I like, but I like a lot of stuff.  I love vintage decor, shabby chic decor, and even traditional decor.  With my home I play it safe and paint with neutral colors and decorate with a traditional style.

But for my vintage travel trailer I want to have fun.  I mentioned before that I would love to have a shabby chic cottage of wheels, but alas my husband has different ideas.  So together we have decided on going for a vintage decor of aqua and red, and I love, love, love aqua and red.  As I type this I still don't know what color I am going to paint the interior or exterior of my little vintage travel trailer.

Not only am I having a difficult time making a decision on paint colors I am also having a difficult time with fabric selection.  Maybe you can help.

I have a few options that I am thinking about...

 The fabrics to the left are  combonation of fabric by Moda Bonnie & Camille and Riley Blake.  Both designers have a retro feel to them. The red fabric with white polka dots is the fabric I am using for the curtains in the back half of my travel trailer. I am thinking of the fabric to the right for curtains in the kitchen area.  The aqua lattice print is a possible option for the upholstery. That is another decision I am trying to make.  To make the cushions red or aqua, although I am leaning toward aqua, I am still going back and forth between the two.  

I really like the punch of black with this one.  If I choose this fabric, I would use the fabric with the cherries on it for the kitchen curtains.  It is by Robert Kaufman and it is part of The Giving Garden.  I am not sure if this is a new fabric or a discontinued fabric.  I stumbled upon it the other day, but could only find one source for it. The red lattice print in a possible fabric for the cushions,  The rest of the fabric I would use for throw pillow that I am going to attempt to make.  I am also going to try to make some bunting. I think bunting is just adorable !!!  Having a vintage travel trailer is bringing out my creative side and I am having so much fun.

Here are a couple of other fabric choices I have pondered on, but think I have ruled them out.  I really like the one with the roses, but my husband has vetoed it as being way to girly.

The Aqua fabric with roses is by Tanya Whelen and is part of the Darla collection.

The fabric with the daisies is by Michael Miller and is called Daisy Doolittle in Aqua.  My husbands favorite flower is the daisy and since with have a Shasta Trailer it might be kinda cute, but I'm just not sure I like it.I would love to hear what you think. 

Deciding on a paint color

We are almost finished with all of our repairs on our 1973 vintage Shasta travel trailer.  When we first purchased our travel trailer we thought all we would need to do is spruce up our vintage Shasta trailer with some paint. But as we started priming it, we soon realized the paneling was too warped from water damage in a few areas.  7 weeks later we are ready to paint both the interior and exterior of our vintage travel trailer.

We have put up a new piece of paneling on the ceiling.  We just need to caulk the seam then we will be ready to prime then paint.

Speaking of paint, I have no ideal of what color to paint.  I know I want a shade of aqua or turquoise but there are so many shades to choose from.  There are so many shades of aqua to choose from I am getting a little overwhelmed.  I prefer the slightly muted shades like Benjamin Moore's Beach Glass, Bali, Catalina Blue, or Turquoise Mist, but my husband is partial to the more vibrant colors of aqua and turquoise like Sherwin Williams Tantalizing Teal and Holiday Turquoise or Benjamin Moore's Mexicali Turquoise.  I just don't think I am brave enough to go that bold. 

I have eliminated dozens of paint cards, but here is a picture of a few shades I have left to choose from.  I think I am going to try and find a happy medium between the more muted colors and the brighter colors.  Here you can also see that I have a magazine article from Better Homes and Gardens, a piece of scrapbook paper, and a aqua glass jar for inspiration.

Since I also need to pick an interior color maybe I could compromise a bit and do a more muted shade of aqua for the interior and a brighter shade of aqua for the exterior.  We will see...

Better Homes and Garden

This is an online article that I found on the Better Home and Gardens website.  It has a lot of beautiful inspiration photos of colors reminiscent of sea glass. I love these shades of aqua, turquoise and greens.

My favorites on this page is Mermaid by Benjamin Moore.  It is the large middle lid on the right.  My other favorite is Lambs ear by Valspar right under
Mermaid.

Below are a few samples I bought to try out.  The colors I chose where SW Sea Salt, SW Quietude and SW rainwashed.  I have one BM paint sample called Seacliff Heights.  Although in person they are a very pretty muted aqua color, they seem to look a little gray, hmmm...

The other dilemma I am facing is whether or not to paint the trim white or red.  My vote is for white but again my husband is braver than I am and wants to go bold. I like the looks of it on the little trailer I created for my header, but not sure how it would look on a real life sized vintage trailer.  If you have a favorite shade of aqua and would like to share, I would love to hear what it is. 

Almost ready to start interior finishing work on our Shasta

I think we are almost ready to start decorating the interior of our 1973 Shasta travel trailer.

We have to replace a portion of our paneling in out ceiling.  Most vintage travel trailer have issues with areas that leak. The areas that are most vulnerable are the corners, around the trailer windows, and the roof vents,  our 1973 Shasta travel trailer is no exception.

If you have read my previous post, you have seen that we addressed water damage in the front and rear corners.  I think we were lucky because damage was minimal. Now we are addressing the damage near the ceiling vent.  Again we are lucky as the damage is minimal.

Unfortunately this is the only picture I have of the damaged paneling.  I forgot to take pictures again.  I just happened to notice that if you look in the refection of the mirror you can see it. The damaged paneling really wasn't all that bad, but I have seen what can lurk behind damaged paneling, so this was not an issue to be ignored.

The biggest issue we had was removing the paneling.  This particular piece of paneling just happened to run under two cabinets and the closet.  (You can see one cabinet in the picture and the other is in the reflection.)  We THOUGHT this would be a fairly easy process.  All we would have to do is unscrew the cabinets and then start ripping out the paneling.  Until...we discovered that not only where the cabinets screwed in, they were nailed in as well. The nails could not be accessed be cause they were nailed to the frame before the skin (siding) of the trailer was put on.

Not knowing what the heck to do, I turned to my wonderful friends on the Vintage Shasta Proboards, and they helped me solve this little riddle.  We ended up buying a little Oscillating Multifunction Power Tool.  It is only $24.99 from Harbor Freight, but we had a coupon and got ours for only $17.99.  This is an awesome tool and saved us hours of hard work.

Instead of removing the cabinet, the oscillating tool allowed us to cut out the paneling where we needed to.  What we did was take an angle square and drew a straight line from one side to the other.  The oscillating tool allowed us to cut down the line through the paneling.  This gave us a nice straight edge to work with when we were ready to cut out a new piece of paneling.  We then used the tool to cut the paneling around the cabinet and closet.  I was amazed at how close this tool allowed us to get.  Luckily there was no indication of wood rot anywhere else in the ceiling.  Once we get the paneling in place we will be ready to start the finishing work.  OMG, I need to pick out a paint color!