Loretta: Travel Trailer Reno

A few months back Noah and I were discussing things we can and can't do with Finn. Because of his disabilities, we are limited with the kinds of activities we can do with him. As he gets older it will probably become even more difficult. One thing we can and love to do with Finn is travel. But because traveling can get expensive we thought a little camper might be a good investment so we can take Finn on adventures without spending all the money on hotels and lodging. After a few weeks of stalking Craigslist we finally found the perfect little 13 foot Scotsman trailer from 1975. The moment I saw her I was in love. We named her Loretta after the sweet little old lady we bought her from. I wasn't there for the trailer purchase but she told Noah story after story about her family's adventures in this little trailer. We can't wait to add to those adventures.

She was in rough shape when we first got her. The exterior isn't terrible so we will probably wait until next spring to dive into sprucing that up. The interior was super outdated and dingy but her bones were strong and in pretty decent shape. And I might add, the whole trailer had a sunflower theme, clearly 70's right? It all had to go. Here's the low down of the updates and renovations:

• We started out with replacing the ceiling. It had some water damage and was old and brittle. 
• We then repainted the walls and ceiling white (Great White Way at Lowe's) to give it a nice clean feeling.
• We also repainted the kitchen and storage cabinets white.
• The floors were a greenish vinyl and we covered them with a vinyl wood plank flooring from Home Depot, it's inexpensive but looks like laminate and is super resilient, perfect for a camper! We used Traffic master allure in Dark Walnut. 
• For the front walls we wanted to add some wood paneling as an accent wall, we threw around a lot of ideas to do this but ended up using the same vinyl plank flooring we used on the floors except did a lighter wood color, called Pacific Pine. I am super happy with how it turned out. Real wood would have been super bulky and heavy but these thin planks went up super easy and it looks real and natural.
• For the kitchen we wanted to keep it simple and clean. We used peel and stick subway wall tile (Smart Tiles purchased from homedepot.com) for the backsplash which was super easy and looks like real subway tiles. 
• We replaced the drawer knobs in the kitchen with some simple mid-century brass pull handles, purchased from Etsy.
• The sink, stove and hood were a dark green and we spray painted them with Rustoleum High Heat enamel spray in copper, I absolutely love the copper look.
• We kept putting off the counters because we didn't know what to do with them. We finally decided to do a cement overlay. We followed this tutorial and I love how it turned out, super clean, modern and industrial. 
• The seat cushions I was totally dreading. I was not feeling sewing all those covers so I didn't. We bought new pads from Home Depot and I recovered them with an upholstery fabric from Fabric.com (got a great deal). We got a thin board backing to put behind the foam pad then wrapped the fabric around (kinda like wrapping a present) and then stapled the fabric to the wood backing. I don't think it will last forever but by the time they're worn out I'll probably be ready to change the fabric anyway. 
• For the final details: southwest pillows were purchased on Ebay, Squirrel pillow from Ikea, and skull head pillow from Home Depot. The long body pillow I made from a southwest style saddle blanket. I made the furry seat pads on the two ends of the couch from fur fabric and cushions from Ikea. We put up pull shades purchased from Ikea. The wall shelves are actually Ikea's spice racks we stained and then put in faux greenery. The rug on the back wall is from Urban Outfitters. The floor rug is from Ikea ($3.99!!!) We purchased the deer head, vintage first aid kit and Pendleton hat from Ebay. Lighting is from Home Depot.

It took us about 2 months to renovate little Loretta. We (mostly Noah) put so much time and effort into updating her in a way that felt like us. We mixed a lot of different styles but we love how it turned out and it feels like our mini home. We can't wait to take her out and make many memories with our little family. And most of all we hope this is something we will be able to share with Finn for many years to come.