Like
everyone I’m still adapting/evolving to this new way of (isolated) life. However, recent relaxing of lockdown
regulations in the UK has meant that I can now travel to the family farm as long
as we keep a distance from our actual family members (other than the ones we
already live with) This has led me to finally undergo operation caravan! Let me provide a little background…
When
I first had the children and we were plodding through the ‘baby years’ I looked
forward to a time that we would be able to go camping ‘hassle free’ and
actually get some sleep. (The hassle free and sleep idea may have been a dream,
but it certainly is getting easier and so is camping!)
While
I enjoyed many nights under canvas as a child, never concerned about waking up
drenched from a rain storm or with a tent half fallen down - I’m not so
tolerant in my mid-thirties. Much to my husband’s distress (and a touch
of embarrassment) I started to toy with the idea of getting a caravan back in
2017. I had a very low budget so finding a caravan wasn’t easy.
However, Jamie pulled through and found one on Facebook - a family were moving
and needed to get rid of their caravan that day. I snapped it up for
£500!
The caravan when we first bought it back in 2017 - the kids are so small!!
This was one of the first times we camped in the caravan on the farm during harvest (hence looking a bit rough) back in August 2017
Warming up by the campfire as it got dark - Alf was 2 here!
While I initially gave it some instant TLC and
we’ve used it a couple of times a year, my dreams for out little plywood box
were much bigger! With ‘time’ now on my side (thanks to the corona virus
and kids able to occupy themselves a bit more) I’m undergoing the BIG
renovation!
The
past couple of weeks have been really intense with Jamie back on the boat, me
trying to balance lecturing online, design work, two books in progress AND all
that comes with two children at home full time.
So, I decided to take bank holiday weekend 'off' and on Thursday I switched
off notifications and commenced an intense 3-day renovation project completing
phase 1 of the project!!
I have
been researching interior ideas on Pinterest for the past couple of years so
had lots of ideas for the new interior.
You can check out my inspiration board on Pinterest here. I also did lots of research on HOW to do a
restoration – bearing in mind caravans can get damp and some decorating
products may not be appropriate. I came
across a post by The Twinkle Diaries that covered their own renovation from a
few years back – it’s really informative and covers everything you need to know
about applying paints and wallpaper to interiors click here to read it. You can see from the posts I was also inspired
by the retro feel and colour palette.
The original orange wood interior - it wasn't in bad condition but was a little sad.
Layer 1 of undercoat paint!
I
spent a 12 hour day stripping, cleaning and prepping all the surfaces. The wooden doors are taking about 4 layers of
paint to get my desired finish. That’s 2
layers of undercoat prime and an eggshell finishing layer twice. Day 2 I just painted, painted and
painted. I undercoated all the ceiling
and then covered with a matt emulsion which has made it a lot fresher and tons
brighter. Day 3 I did even more painting,
ripped out the horrid laminate floor and started to wallpaper the kitchen area with
a retro geometric wallpaper.
More layers of white paint!
Initial wallpapering
It’s
now the end of the bank holiday for me and I can say im absolutely
shattered. The kids loved playing free
range on the farm while I did all the hard work. They are equally shattered, covered in as
many layers as mud as the caravan doors are paint and have lovely grazed knees and elbows!!!
Where I left it - definitely a lot brighter!
So
what’s next… I still have more surfaces
to wallpaper which will take about another 3-5 hours. All the doors need their final coat of eggshell
too. I’m making new blinds for the
kitchen area (I re-made the curtains last week in the evenings) I just used a
cheap yellow gingham I ordered from a Home Scapes fabric store – link here. I also bought new curtain popper tape to mount
the curtains from e bay. They were
really simple to re-make on my sewing machine.
I have ordered a new laminate floor which should arrive in a couple of weeks (stay tuned for images). I also need to completely re-vamp the
bathroom which I think will be another days work too. Then we should be read to ‘glamp’!
I’m
hoping to get all the renovating done in time for harvest and spend many nights
sleeping in a shiny fresh caravan on freshly cut stubble fields (especially as
we wont be going on any long distance holiday any time soon) - I’ll keep you
updated.
Follow
me on Instagram @emily_kiddy to keep up to date more regularly with my progress.
