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

A Look Back: Barn Door Headboard {A Guest Bedroom Tour}

Here is a look at the barn door in its first home: the guest bedroom.

This room is also where the nursery currently is.

I love my barn door in the living room, and I love my baby's nursery, but I do miss this room!

It had a very serene feel with the monochromatic color scheme and lots of natural elements.

The comforter had a small leafy vine pattern.

Here's a look back so you can remember the dark, dated, smelly cave...

Don't miss that ceiling fan that you could literally walk right into!

This room get's a lot of natural light in the evening, 

and once I added all of my whites and light colors it felt even more bright and happy.

The plant in the window is a "lipstick plant" ...a baby from one that my mom had. It gets bright red blooms that look like a tube of lipstick.

As I look back now, I see that I may be killing this plant a bit! 

Uh-oh... it's definitely not this big anymore...

My sister did the painting on the nightstand. 

It is from a real photo of her and I sitting on a little bridge over a creek.

It looks exactly like the photo!

I love meaningful decor.

Maddie is on the left, and I'm on the right.

She also got me the piece of rock sitting on the mirror.

The rock has a story behind it about how it looks like Lake Superior. 

This wall display has some poetry that my best friend's mom wrote.

These pieces are now split up all over the house.

But I do love how you can bring a bunch of small items together to make a bigger impact on a wall.

The paper behind this verse was almost the exact same as the wall color in this room.

It wasn't planned, but it's nice when things like that happen!

The wall color is called "Sheltering Winter's Pine".

It doesn't get much more rustic than that... That's why I was sure to have my husband hang the door high enough so that even the pillows wouldn't be touching it.

I have no idea what the plant in the corner was called... 

it was a hand-me-down that we unfortunately killed.

This is the smallest of our 3 bedrooms, but it was still perfect for a couple of  guests to come for a cozy stay. And it did get quite a bit of use too!

Maybe someday I will get our current guest bedroom whipped into shape and can give you a tour of that. It also has a very serene feel with a monochromatic color scheme... but none of these colors.

It's currently the dumping grounds for all the things that need to be worked on around the fixer upper and all the things that need to be kept hidden from the baby! So...it will be a while before you see it probably. 

My few readers are pretty patient people thought. ;)

Thanks for taking the tour!

Blessings,

Olivia

The Living Room Tour

It's been a while, I know.

My new "mom life" kinda took over for a bit...

But my babe is just a couple months shy of his first birthday, so I thought it would be safe to give the blog some attention. 

And, I wanted to make sure I show ya'll the living room before it doesn't look like this anymore! There have already been several changes since I took these photos, but now that I have a new couch it is really starting to reflect my true style better.

I took a while (3 years) but I've finally got all of my hand-me-down, garage sale, and thrift store items working harmoniously in the living room - after lots of painting of course.

Let me remind you of the BEFORE picture.

When we moved in this room had gross, stinky carpet, a granny valance in the bow window, and lots of other problems. 

Like those beautiful baseboard heaters...all the pipes were burst. 

A true Fixer Upper.

This room wasn't too expensive or hard to fix up...basically just new flooring and paint did the trick. 

New windows will come shortly, and then it will be 100% complete.

I know, it's hard to make a gigantic black TV look pretty. 

There is now a sign above it, which helps ever so slightly.

Definitely not the best angle of the living room, but I want you to get a feel of the lay out.

The console table in the entry way is always changing. 

It's one of the few places I have to actually display decor.

My beloved church pew (a gift from my MIL and from the church my husband went to as a child) fits absolutely perfectly on this wall and is a great landing place for bags when coming in the door.

Still on the hunt for the perfect wreath to hang on my barn door, but until then I'm just enjoying it as is. The major rustic element in the room to help balance all the romantic pieces. 

My corner hutch doesn't fit in the dining area. 

When we first moved it in to the home I thought it would be so weird to have it in the living room, but I have grown to love it in here. It makes a statement and adds height.

Q: How many candles is too many candles in a vignette?? ;)

This room gets really nice natural light in the early afternoon.

All of my whites really help make it that much brighter. 

Light and bright is what makes me happy!

~~~

I got the rocking chair for $10 at a garage sale. It needed a bit of work, but it is an antique that used to be in an old school house in my town. I know I got a killer deal on it.

We purchased this couch from Wayfair.com once I discovered how much I hated our old couch when I started breastfeeding. It was so low and deep and there was no support for my back or arms.

This one is perfect! The exact opposite.

I will admit, we were a little nervous about buying a couch that we couldn't try out. We had no idea if it would be comfortable, and it was hard to get a sense of the color from the pictures and comments. I was looking at the pictures daily and starting to feel like I may have made a big mistake. 

Then it showed up, and I ended up loving it even more than when I first saw it in the pictures!

Wayfair win.

I do love having a church pew... it is also great during parties for extra seating.

My Calla girl striking a pose...

I sometimes look at this barn door (that I pulled right off of a barn that was about to be tore down) and laugh because I know the person that built it had no idea it would end up hanging on some lady's wall one day as decor. There are nails all over it that were pounded through and then back down. 

It adds a lot of "character", that's for sure.

It works out well that my dog matches my decor...

Mostly white with some brown spots :) 

She knows neutral is in!

I would like to find a beautiful dried floral wreath for the door. 

If I can't find what I'm looking for I may attempt to make it. 

Or I may settle for the overly trendy cotton stem style wreath, we will see.

It is fun looking at the living room now that things are coming together. 

I have been collecting things from garage sales and thrift stores since I was in high school, not really knowing how it would all work out together. 

I think it...mostly...does. Right?

I chose the stain for the TV stand my husband built before I totally knew my style. ;) 

Someday it will probably get refinished...maybe white washed if he will let me.

But I also dream of a big armoire with old doors that will just hide the TV. 

Thanks for taking the living room tour!

Things are always improving around here...little changes being made, but it is finally in a place where it's actually presentable and not embarrassing anymore. 

I hope you all have a beautiful and blessed spring (yes, I am signing off using a "season" because who knows when I'll be back with another post!).

Blessings,

Olivia