Michelle Sullivan Photography // Orange County Wedding and Senior Portrait Photographer

We go camping every August with a big group of friends. When we first started our yearly tradition about 7 years ago, everyone slept in tents, now more families have trailers than tents.  I guess not everyone loves rolling onto a rock in the middle of the night =)  So we decided to keep up with the Jones’ and bought a 1960 Aristocrat LoLiner on craigslist and renovated it. We had a hard time finding good tips on how to remodel a trailer, so we thought we would share our experience with you =)

Here’s what it looked like before:

As much as I loved the cute turquoise stove, I really wanted to do a different color scheme, so it had to go. But if you are interested in buying it, email me =)

And here it is after:

We have 3 girls, what color did you expect us to paint it? And yes, Eric was totally fine with it. He’s used to all the pink by now.

We were on a pretty tight budget and did all the work ourselves. It took us about 4 months from start to finish working at night after the kids went to bed.  Here is what we used:

1. Brasso, a wire brush and some elbow grease can do amazing things together! First we gutted the trailer and then I scrubbed from top to bottom. This stuff worked great on all the metal inside the trailer. And the wire brush helped me get into all the little crevices and hard to reach places. Pretty much the only visible thing that we actually kept in the trailer is the metal (we also kept all the wood, but painted it white or covered it with wall paper, more below on that). It was on the backsplash, the fridge, and it was a trim for everything from the floor to the windows. So it was nice to be able to get it super shiny and clean, because trust me, it was bad, and not the good kind of bad.

2. A new stovetop // We bought ours from PPL Motorhomes  // We took out the existing stove, put in the stove top, then a tension rod and a handmade curtain later, voila! I hide all my pots and pans behind that curtain. We also took down the vent and almost bought a new one then remembered that there is something magical called spray paint, so we painted it glossy white and it looked brand new.

3. VCT flooring // We got ours at Home Depot for 79 cents a square foot and we only needed 30! // We used grey and white in a diamond pattern

4. We used Rustoleum to paint the outside and yes! it does come premade in pink (and a few other fun colors)!  // We sanded and primed the whole thing, painted it all white first, did some magic with a straight edge and some masking tape, then painted the pink. We did it all with brushes (no sprayers used here!) and I still don’t remember why Eric said it was better to use brushes. We also painted inside using regular glossy house paint (and brushes again!). We painted the existing cabinets and the ceiling.

5. We used Bondo to fill in all the dents on the outside before Eric sanded

6. Taplights are amazing! // I put these bad boys by the door, in the cabinets, under the seats, everywhere and anywhere I wanted some light. The trailer came with a propane lamp, but it always took forever to light it and we needed light to see to light the darn thing

7. A new sink // We bought ours from Home Depot // At this point we don’t actually have a faucet because we couldn’t decide on one, so the perfect fix in the mean time? A big 2 gallon water jug (the kind that sits on it’s side and has a pull out spout) sits on our counter and we use it like a faucet.

8. Linoleum countertops // We ordered this in sheets from Home Depot and Eric used the existing countertop as a template // There are a ton of color choices but we went with a light gray

And here is the all the fun stuff:

1. Fun Toss Pillows // This one is by Trina Turk. I made mine for way cheaper (shhhh!)

2. Fun Wallpaper // Ours is Shimmering Details by Candice Olson // The wallpaper was our most expensive purchase, but we love it and it was totally worth it =) I even used it to cover the fridge! // And here’s a tip: If you’ve never hung wallpaper before, you might want to watch a quick tutorial on youtube before hanging said wallpaper and almost getting a divorce in a vintage trailer

3. Fun fabric // We bought ours at M & L discount fabrics // I made the curtains and my super talented friend Salley made the cushions for us that double as benches, then fold into a bed.

4. Ikea cabinet and drawer pulls

5. Pink Flamingoes (duh!)

6. Ikea honeycomb mirrors // I love these! They double as decor and function, plus they add more light and they’re only $14!!!! // We hung them on our pantry/utility closet

And in case you are interested, we had a ton of people ask if we’d be willing to rent out our trailer and we decided to say yes, so here is a link to our blog with all the info about that:

http://pinkvintagetrailer.blogspot.com/