1963 Friendship Vacationaire Vintage Camper "Middle Tour"

As promised, the "Middle Tour"!

 Because it will most likely be years before the "After Tour" is ready, and I couldn't just leave ya'll hanging with only the super scary "Before Tour". 

If you missed the before tour, click HERE. 

Not everyone can see hidden potential, but we can, and we knew it could {potentially} be charming!

So, here is our 1963 Friendship Vacationaire, so far.

My husband was able to strip the rest of the paint off the front side only.

 It's very hard to get off because it's so thin and almost gone.

. Because there isn't a lot of actual paint left, so it took a lot of elbow grease. 

We hope to eventually get it a paint job. The originals were all white, so we will do that but also maybe add some sort of teal or light blue stripe at the bottom. 

Light teal is a common color around the camper. I spray painted the screen door with it.

"Take my picture, mom!" 

And now, what you all truly care about - the inside!

I found this "happy campers" sign at hobby lobby this year and spray painted it with Rustoleum's "Blushed" chalk paint to match some other soft pinks through out the camper.

I painted all of the cabinets with Annie Sloan chalk paint in "Old White".

The copper light was really fun to polish up. 

It was so tarnished to begin with, that I didn't even know it was copper!

These curtains were my project for this year. They are the first thing I've sewn fully on my own, (without my mom) and I did a really horrible job! Not the best at even straight lines yet, but I'm still proud I did it on my own, and they are "good enough" to get the job done.

We added a full size memory foam mattress, which is very comfy. 

I found the little teal lamp shade next to the bed for 9 cents at Hobby Lobby. Yes, 9 cents!

I know the ceilings look a little rough. There was some water damage from moisture being trapped inside (not from it coming through the roof - this thing seals up tight!), so replacing the paneling is on the list of future projects.

This year we also added the curtain rod (spray painted in the same color as the sign) and sheer curtain.

 I added a small section of our old eyelet bed skirt by just cutting it to size and stapling it to the inside of the wood. It adds a nice softness plus hides the laundry basket and some storage totes.

The little shelves at the sides of the table and trim around the door were painted with Annie Sloan's "Antoinette" chalk paint, which is a very similar shade to the pink Rustoleum chalk spray paint.

*Side Note* I didn't get a very good close up picture of the table top or counter top, but it has little flecks of light pink, light teal, and light yellow, which is where I pulled the color scheme from. Although I am still in need of more light yellow.

 Maybe I can recover the cushions with yellow fabric!? 

I'm sure you've noticed by now that they need it. :)

My mom sewed all new curtains for the camper as a birthday present to me. Light teal with light peachy pink floral, so they fit the color scheme perfectly. 

On the bed side they have some pretty lace at the bottom too.

I've had this little decorative metal chandelier for years, and it is a nice shabby chic touch that helps put the GLAM in "glamper". ;) 

I've said from the start that this would be a Shabby Chic Glamper. 

And I've got a good husband that has never put up a fuss. 

Happy camper wife, happy camper life.

And now, a few practical pictures -  I personally always like seeing a bit of that.

To help you get a real feel for the camper, inside of the tall cabinet with the mirror on it lives our port-a-potty that we have yet to use. It was brand new and came with the camper. We may get some use out of it eventually. Also, the water container is stored in here.

 When we are camping it goes out on the end of the picnic table. 

I also painted the inside of the "kitchen" cabinets with Antoinette and added some mini cork boards to keep different camping notes organized. 

All of our camping dishes (more off to the left) are either stainless steel or blue enamelware. 

The little kitchen shelf and under cabinet lights were all painted with Annie Sloan's "Duck Egg Blue" chalk paint. 

I call this the "pantry" - little mason jars with flour, sugar, popcorn, dandy blend, etc. just to always have on hand if need be. 

Do you think that cabinet lining is original?! 60's orange and yellow. And I'm sure i'll leave it, because our smokey cast iron skillets get placed on top of it.

I found the teal floral knob at Hobby Lobby... or course. Best knob isle eva! 

Also, one of our first "projects" in the camper was to simply move the paper towel holder from up above to down in the cabinet. I like to keep as much ugly stuff hidden as possible.

 We hung enamel mugs up above where it used to be.

Behind the curtains I made used to be a big open hole. The stove was on top and I think possibly a refrigerator was underneath at one point? My husband put in shelves for our dry food storage. I just slide the teal bins out and fill them up before we head out. We always use our cooler and cook over the fire when camping, so we don't really need a fridge or stove.

* We do have a vintage Coleman camp stove in the storage under the table seats in case of rain or fire bans. 

If you are familiar with campers, then you probably can see how this little table area converts down into a bed. When we camp we usually have it set to a bed and the pack-and-play is on top for our son.

Speak of the little love...

He LOVES camping and the outdoors. He even had a camping themed birthday party this year.

The inside color of the door was a horrible muddy brown, so I spray painted the bottom half with chalk board paint  - for kids to color on, but it's filled with "camp rules" right now.

My plan for the top half is to slowly cover it in stickers until all of the ugly brown disappears. 

My garage sale score bistro set was very handy for our first camping trip this summer, and I'll probably keep taking it with us - it adds a nice pop of color out front. We also have a large teal rug we put outside when we are camping.

I plan to eventually spray paint the step a dark teal, and there are lots of other little projects along the way. But it's usable, cozy, and cute. We love it! 

Thanks for taking the tour! 

Have a happy camping season!

~Olivia

Vintage Camper Update & A "Before Tour" of a 1963 Friendship Vacationaire

Remember long ago when I posted about our vintage Shasta compact travel trailer? 

Well, I figured I should give you an update...

Actually, a few followers reminded me I just kind of left y'all hangin'... Sorry!

If you need a refresher on what the "Before Shasta" looked like, click HERE.

So... the Shasta was in such bad shape that it ended up having to be rebuilt completely.

My husband got pretty far on it, and then was having a difficult time "wrapping" it. 

Getting the wood to curve around in that nifty canned ham shape isn't easy. So, we actually hired some vintage camper restorers to do the frame and wrap it in the wood. (It is an extremely weird feeling as a DIYer to pay someone else to do the work, but my goodness it was nice!!) So, it is beautifully wrapped in new wood now and... sitting in a friends pole building just waiting for love! 

There are two reasons for that.

1.) You see, we began to realize that it would need new siding. Even though I spend hours and hours striping 9,000 layers of paint off of the original siding, it was splitting and had random holes and horrible patch jobs all over. We realized with everything else being completely new, it would be silly to put that rough looking stuff back on. Unfortunately, the price of new siding for vintage camper is thousands of dollars. We own a fixer upper home and were getting ready to have a baby, and the poor little Shasta just wasn't a priority for our money. So in the pole building it sits. We have thought about selling it, but I was so dang excited about getting it in the first place, so that seems crazy.

 I'm still trying to convince my mom that it needs to be turned into a cute little food stand she can run. It already needs a new window on the side, so it would be perfect for that. Gourmet strawberry shortcake out of a vintage camper? I think yes. What do you think? It's wings are already painted red!

2.) In the mean time of our beloved little Shasta waiting patiently for attention, we ended up getting a NEW vintage camper! This one is also a fixer upper camper, but is in quite a bit better shape than the Shasta. Like... actually usable. So we ended up putting a bit of time into it so that we could actually go. out. camping. We have gotten a good amount of use out of it in the last year (I think 4 trips now, which isn't bad for camping with a new baby), and we LOVE it! It is just the right size, toasty warm, hauls like a champ, well made, and will be cute-as-can-be when we are finished. 

So, let me introduce you to the...

1963 Friendship Vacationaire

Maybe not a big name "Shasta" or anything, but still so cute and so vintage.

My husband just giving a good scrub to the exterior and making it that much more beautiful.

Look at the difference even soap and water can make!

The front window had a crack from a rock hitting. 

That was one of the first things we replaced, and we just used Plexiglas, which saved money and was easier to work with.

From what I have seen in other's pictures the original color of the Vacationaires was white.

 This one just has a bit of chalky white paint barely hanging on. My husband scrubbed the front side so well that he was able to get it back to the silver. The silver is nice, but since he couldn't get all the original paint off (no matter what we do or use) it will most likely get a paint job. I think white again, but with some sort of pop of color. 

My Pinterest board:

I'm a Happy Camper

will give me some inspiration I'm sure! Lot's of cute colors and styles.

Now, what you're all truly waiting for: the inside!

It's amazing what just a good cleaning job can do to really snazz a place up! ;)

One thing we had already bought for the Shasta, which ended up in this camper, was a very comfortable memory foam mattress. It took the place of this foam bed, which made me so happy. 

It has always been my dream to have a tiny vintage camper (a hard sided tent as I like to say) with the bed all ready to go. We just pull in, level the camper, and wah-lah! Good to go. I don't like to spend a lot of time setting up, because I like to be out swimming and exploring, so not even having to set up a bed is fantastic. 

A few things have already been done to brighten up the inside, and I will try not to make you wait years to see it! ;) We still have a lot left to do, but I'm thinking I could manage doing a "Middle Tour" type of post. 

This tiny "kitchen" is one of my favorite parts!

This picture looks confusing because there is a tall cabinet on the left that has a long mirror on it. It is right in between the bed and the entry door.

This is inside that cabinet. It came with a brand new Coleman port-a-potty, which was probably worth about half of what we paid for this camper! 

We got a good deal on this camper because it belonged to my Mother-in-law's boyfriend's parents. 

The good price helped justify the fact that we would own TWO fixer upper vintage campers! :) 

We weren't sure if we should actually get it at the time, but I have no regrets now. I'm so glad it came our way.

The other side of the camper has a table and benches that converts to a bed. When the bed is down we put the pack-and-play right on top of it, and that is where my son sleeps! He has become a champion camper for only be a year old. 

This camper has tons of storage, which I love! I am a bit of a minimalist, so there are just dishes and things I know we will actually use in here, and it has been perfectly enough. I add a few little things here and there, but we still have some storage space left unused, which is a great feeling!

I paint and come up with the decor game plan... this is the man behind all the actual hard work (like flooring and shelving and new paneling, etc.) He makes me a happy camper!

It just occurred to me that some people may have looked through these pictures and been a little repulsed! Well, that doesn't offend me, because people with the mentality that something old and dirty is no good are usually people that are just scared of a little hard work! 

Work doesn't scare me, and trust me, this tiny little camper already looks a million times better than these pictures. With just a little bit of love, we are making sure that a piece of history stays out and about adventuring. This camper was built to last, and I would much rather have something old and well built that can be used for years to come rather than a new, light weight camper that looks the same as everybody else's in the campground. Also, it is really fun to "make something your own". This gives us the opportunity to get just what we want. 

I'm so thankful we found this little GEM! I'm excited to slowly keep putting little shabby-chic, glamping touches on it, and I promise I'll keep you updated as we get more things done. 

Thank you for following along and taking the tour!

Have a blessed week and lovely rest of the camping season,

~Olivia