Delilah's before and After photos... Retro caravan renovation

Finally nearly two years after her completion, i am now sharing

 Delilahs New look.

Sorry it has taken me so long, but i do have a good excuse.

 I have been busy nesting and now busy 

with my  3rd child  Nicholas  9 weeks, my 3 year old girl Evie and

 my Teenage boy Jesse.

Anyway we have taken Delilah on 2 xmas family holidays to date and i just love playing house in her now.

Not bragging but this was my first complete from scratch caravan reno(oh and hubby too) and i am very proud of the end result. We did everything our self, i made the curtains, upholstered dinng seats and bedhead  and we sanded and sanded, scraped up old lino, replaced some of the ceiling. Removed  and re-designed cupboards to allow for microwave etc. 

The list goes on and on and on. It ended up taking about a year all up.

So get ready for shit loads of after photos. 

Just to refresh your memory here is Delilahs delightful original 1975 state...

She had good bones. 

Heaps of storage, big fridge, 

separate areas for parents and kids 

and diner style eating area.

Brace yourself for lots of Before N Afters

AND NOW..

A Retro Beauty

Dining and(extra bed) Before

I love our New dining space.. 

Hmm it will be very cosy on our next holiday, with our new addition..

5 people in a van, what fun!

Shame about the view(hubby is great at building/fixing things but not so good at organising things).

I don't know how he finds anything..

Evie nearly 2 years ago on our maiden voyage.

Kitchen

For the splashback i got a peice of glass cut and covered it in some pretty blue vinyle i had leftover from a sign. Im also a signwriter, well i would be if i stopped having babies.

I love the cup hanger / fluro light in one i found at bunnings, as if you have a van you'll know the lighting isnt great.

Removed the dodgy old shelf and maximised the kicthen storage by adding sliding baskets.

Our bedroom

and now...

Not 100% happy with the quilt as i wanted a green one but couldnt find the right one.

Our bedroom cupboards, then

and now

Heaps of drawers, his and hers wardrobe. Cute cabinet for toiletries and bits and bobs behind the mirror.

This was one of the must haves for me when i was searching for a van.

Im a bit of an organisational attic..

Also needed bunks for the kids.

 I

I bought a timber play pen and got hubby to fence in the top bunk for Evie

as the top bunk is smaller and far was too small for my tall teenage boy.

So now i quess Evie will move to the bottom bunk leaving the

 top bunk cot for our newbie and ill have to kick Jesse out into the annexe.

He'll propably be pleased about that.

A closer look

So thats that! 

Please excuse any typos as im rushing to get this done while 

the two littlies are napping.

Thanks for your interest...

Retro caravan renovation



Hey there, a few months ago i decided it would be a good idea for us to buy a caravan to renovate for family hols and long weekends away. So as i had found a great Big 4 park and booked a caravan site when we didn't own a van yet i thought i better get movin.

So after months of perusing every caravan possible i found our perfect match. We had plans to tidy it up a bit, maybe a spot of painting, new curtains, just a few minor improvements. (Ha)

                                           and we called her   Delilah...   


Hubby & bubby

As soon as we got it home we(me and hubby) ripped out the 35yr old stunning orangy-brown carpet, removed the curtains which were adorned in same style and started cleaning madly. Anyway before we new it we had started removing all and drawers inside to give Delilah a coat of fresh white paint and the list goes on and on and on.
Not to mention all the stuff hubby did underneath.(wheels, brakes, painted whole undercarriage and so on)


So to cut a very long story short our minor face lift became major
 reno(a retro reno).

Here is some pics of our "Delilah" at the start of the makeover...      

                                                     



                                                                                    

So now you have see her at her worst, its time we move on to a brighter note...


My Inspiration for Delilah's New look !





At first i wasn't sure about the new color scheme for the caravan, but then it hit me. I wanted to keep it retro, but a brighter more clourful version. I loved the colours of
my new totally retro cutlery set that i recently got from http://www.cathkidston.com/. So that was that...

So now i was off to spotlight to see what i could find.



WOW  !  I actually found something at spotlight
that i liked....

                                         

                                                             

     I am using the floral for the curtains, and the stripes i will be sewing up some yummy new covers for the seating on the dining booth and finishing it off with green piping. This will be my first attempt at piping

or making boxed cushion covers(or actually sewing anything at all for a long time). So i thought i would practice making something less important first...

Here's our bedhead i made using some red velour i had laying around for 10 yrs or more, i didn't have a large enough piece, so i decided to join smaller pieces together to get the quited effect which I'm quite please with.  I then used the striped duck fabric to cover the buttons.

 

During the process i have tried to reuse anything that i could to keep the costs down.

                  *  I removed the zippers from the ugly old dining seat area covers to use in my new ones

                  *  I have repainted the original cutlery tray in red chalk paint i mixed up.

                  *  We kept the original curtain tracks. 

Here is the newly covered Dining seat covers of which i am pretty proud of-

I can't wait to see it in it's place in "Delilah"

And with the money i saved REUSING i thought id better find some cute retro stuff to give

Delilah some character.

In the background- i found this cute tray in true retro style.
In the foreground- the cutest set of coasters from www.rusticangels.co.uk/
Cake tray on right is from http://www.cathkidston.com/



Isn't this just what every mum needs to
hanging their holiday home..



Love these stacking mugs! Sooo exciting when you find
something that is totally perfect for the space,in
this case "delilah's" kitchen.
Canisters in background also from cath Kidston. 

Finally Delilah has a new clean white interior.

Can't say i miss the brown!

How cool is this coat rack i found on ebay. I thought this would
be great opposite door as you walk into van, to hang
all those bits & pieces on as you come back from
 the beach...

These cute tins will be perfect full of cookies for the kids
and the big Kids(hubby). Also from Rustic Angels

                                                                     


I picked up this pull out sink tap for a bargain on Ebay

Hubby plumbing up the sink

I came up with the idea to turn the small top bunk into
a cot for our little girl, when she gets bigger, we just remove
the bars... Hopefully this works well!!

Storage

Very important!!!

This is the majority of our storage space in the
 kitchen so i wanted to maximise its efficency by using
every sq cm possible. So i ripped out(yes me not hubby)
 the one and only shelf , found some baskets
the right size{ even though they not what
 i wanted due to funny sizes}and hubby put in
some runners and there wella there it is..
Our pantry...

Hubby gave shelves a new look

I was going to leave the sliding glass doors the original
color, which is the one on left. But one day when i was
painting inside the cupboards blue, i found myself
painting one side to see which i prefer? Not sure.
Any thoughts

This is my favourite alteration.

I Love it.. It was shelves which was

accessed from the other side which

is in our bedroom. A bit of a nothing

space, so i cut a oval hole in this

side which is right near dining

booth, moved shelves to suit

then but the back on. This will be

sooo handy for salt/pepper,

sauces, serviettes, cutlery, i wont even

have to get up !!!!

Hubby re-installed the original light fitttings

The first curtains to be hung. Now were getting somewhere..

                                                                                       

More Delilah's before and afters click here 

Love to read your thoughts so

Please comment below...xx