Monday, August 6, 2012

Vintage Trailer Refurb: Outside BEFORE & AFTER


Taking the plunge & buying a vintage trailer to refurbish so we can go Glamping is a big thing. huge. I didn't realize how big!
But, we are in the process *enjoying it* & I wanted to share the Before & After pictures of our lil vintage beaut!
**all images: brushes & frames>>> Insta Lovin' Kits by Rhonna Designs**
Before.
I have learned a lot about this whole process & am still learning. And have had SO many questions about things...I thought I'd blog the detes here.  

No. 1: Know what you want.  

THIS lil questionaire helped me a lot. So, we prepared & knew just what we wanted.  
We looked on our local classifieds: KSL & we were wowed at how many trailers are put on classifieds. by the hour. seriously. We REALLY wanted a vintage Shasta, (we LOVED Enjoy Cupcakes' cute lil dream boats) but...figured since this is our first lil venture...we should start out small. We knew we didn't want to have to drive very far to pick up our new baby...so, we looked, were patient & then found HER!
Only about 15 minutes away from us. She was everything we wanted.
Size: under 14' so we could keep her in our driveway. She's 13'! Perf!
Age: She was vintage enough for us to start with. 1974 
Brand: As noted above, a Shasta would have been fab...but, we got an El Rae. Adorable. Fell in love with the lines, angles...she's got charactah.
Refurbish: We knew we didn't want to restore the whole thing, but wanted to put our own personality into her..so, Refurb was what we picked.  And, boy, are we having FUN! *wink* (we've had to tear out the ceiling & put it back up which has been very interesting! ha!)
Original or not: that wasn't that important to us since we didn't go for the Shasta...but she does have 'good bones' & I love her lil oven, fridge & table.
Layout: 
Main thing: Sleeps 5. We wanted our whole fam to be able to be comfy & cozy. So, again. perfect.
No Bathroom: We didn't want to deal with the plumbing/leaking issues many of them seemed to have. yea!
Cost: We knew we wanted it cheap since we would be glamming her up the way we wanted it. Ok. Ok...the way I wanted it! Jeff is such a sport about this whole thing! LOL...he figures it's both of our worlds coming together. If he can get me out camping more...he's happy! 
Title or Bill of Sale:  Made sure we knew what we were doing. check.
Storage:   
We wanted to make sure that we could fit all of our gear in there, plus sleep & camp comfortably. Yes...she's got plenty for us. Love her!
Specific Requirements:   This lil beaut will also be doubling as a cReative Playhouse for me & my family, friends, & *ahem* even Rhonna Designs. *wink wink* So, I had to make sure it had a sink, table, & room for cReating! can I get a HOLLA!!!????
During.
No. 2: Prepare for glamming.

Ok. Ok...I will admit. This is my fave part...to get the whole vibe together of what I want this lil Playhouse to 'feel' like...a place to glamp. make memories with my family. travel. cReate. 
yup...a mood board was in order. 
So...I gathered lots of inspiration...those of you that follow my Pinterest board knew right when I was doing this. LOL...I'm sorry...I was filling up my board fast. LOVED this part!
Colors:  My whole color vibe is: aqua, yellow, red, black.  With splashes of grey & green on the inside decor. *mood board for that later*

The outside was prepped & ready to go by following THIS Roller painting method!
PAINT: I chose my colors & got Rustoleum Bright White & Safety Yellow at Home Depot. But, my aqua dream was dashed to pieces when the paint dept. told me, 'No...can't tint any oil based paints.'...boohoo.
So, off to Sherwin Williams to make new BFFS with the paint guys! They helped me find a great color that I could tint & be happy with! So...I chose Tantilizing Teal. Yup...it IS tantalizing! 
TOOLS: The Roller Method worked great for most of it, (foam rollers) but I found that good ol' 2-4" paint brushes were great for getting into the lil spots I needed. I did NOT like the foam brushes that I'd read about...they frustrated me. Good, stiff paint brushes were my best friends in this project...especially around the edges & getting in the lips on the roof.
Look at this! I'm LOVING the bright, sunshiny yellow, glossy crisp clean white and the soft, gorgeous teal! A. Dore. with a capital DORE!
The whole family got into the prep & painting! Love my kiddos...they are good sports!
Then, the last bit to 'make it my own'...was freehanding scallops along the Tantalizing Teal.  This just completed it...I was giddy.  I just took a 1" paint brush (now THIS paint brush was a good quality oil brush I had from my old oil painting days) so I could get a good angle, smooth & lovely lil scallops.
Behold...the Happily Ever 
After!  

She's a lil dream boat! I'm loving her! 
Jeff sealed the roof up on top & we needed to replace a couple of the windows...but, other than that...we are good to go on the outside.  She's done! (minus the cute hub cap we still have to get for this side of her.) 
Now.....for the inside!
Oh boy! We spent ALL DAY Saturday ripping her ceiling out....It wasn't pretty.
Let's just say...sparks were flying.....
to be continued....



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