Vintage Dutch Girl

Monday, June 25, 2012

Travel Trailer Makeover, Part 5: Recovering Window Cornice Thingys!

For this part I will heretofore refer to the top of the window covering cornice thingymajigs as Cornici. I'm certain that it the correct pluralization of the word cornice, yes? Ok, maybe not, but I think it's fun. Cornici. Rhymes with Octopi. Sort of.

I decided to recover the curved Cornici in our new trailer (Lumi :) with Premier Prints Topeka Solid Chocolate brown fabric that I purchased from Fabric.com, my fave online fabric store. well, all the regular windows cornici. I did have one flat cornice over the kitchen window that I used the chevron print to recover.

In the interest of saving my wrists and hands from days of aches and pains after tearing out hundreds of staples I decided to leave the previous fabric and just put the new fabric right on top of it. Ah yes, much more simple. And made the project quick quick quick. Well, as quick as you can get with a three and five year old around.

Another benefit from leaving the old fabric intact? It was super handy to see where the previous Cornici coverer had cut the fabric to help it stay tight and unwrinkled on all the corners and curves:

But hey, we are getting ahead of ourselves a bit. First off, I had to remove the industrial strength velcro strips that hold the side curtains on. Then i tried to get a rough measurement of the amount of fabric I'd need per cornice:

The comes the fun.When you are recovering just about anything you first center the cornici or chair seat board or whatever on your fabric. You then wrap the fabric around from opposite sides, pull tight and staple from the centers out. Here's a wimpy diagram:

The key is to not create any lumps, bumps or folds on the visible side so keep turning your piece (or cornici) over and checking to make sure everything is smooth.

Last up, the corners. I'm not going to lie, they are not always easy. Just keep folding and pulling and stapling until they lie flat or look as good as you want them to. Once again, I was glad to have left the old fabric on so I had a folding template for the corners.

After I was all done, this is what the inside cornici looked like:

I reattached the velcro strips on the inside (for the side curtains) and then had my hubby help me hold the cornici in place to reattach to the trailer walls.

Less diamond pattern, more sassiness!

And the before n after of the kitchen cornice:

This made SUCH a huge difference in the cheerfulness of our trailer! In fact, the next week or so my Mom also decided to recover her faded cornici with some fresh newer fabric. It make such a huge difference! I dare you to try it :)

Amanda - Vintage Dutch Girl

Check out all the posts from this Travel Trailer Makeover Series!

Part 1: A sassified Shower Curtain

Friday, June 8, 2012

Travel Trailer Makover, Part 4: Wallpaper Removal, a Dismantled Trailer and New Side Curtains...

Oh yes. the diamond wallpaper border. I was extremely nervous about this but had decided that if I was going to eliminate all of the other diamond/check gray/green/beige fabric I should also try to remove the wallpaper border:

I had tried to find out online if anyone knew what kind of wallpaper this was and how to best remove it. I found only one lady on an RV forum who said her new trailer had the peel n stick kind of wallpaper boarder and to just peel it off slowly. So, after the hubby's enthusiastic approval ("Sure, whatever you want Hon") I tried to peel back a small part of the border in a hidden spot to see if it would work.

AND IT DID! I sent this crazy face text to him:

Hee hee :) I was kinda excited. The pink arrow is pointing to the place where I had just removed the wallpaper! I found that as long as I peeled back sssuuuuuupppppeeerrrr slowly it did not leave much gunk behind.

However....

There IS a significant amount of sticky glue gunk left behind.

I tried MULTIPLE methods at removing this gunk. The very best method to remove the leftover peel and stick wallpaper gunk is spraying Goo Gone on it and leaving it set for a few hours. Then, come back with a plastic putty scraper (I wouldn't recommend a metal one - it might damage your wall!) and scrape like crazy.

Lather Rinse Repeat. Took about three sessions of spay, soak and scrape on each section. LOTS of elbow grease.

But hey, by the end you end up with a pile of yucky wallpaper and smooth, unsticky walls:

And apparently a daughter who is proficient at angry birds.

Next I took all the curtains, window valance thingys, queen headboard, venetian blinds and cell shades down. Fully dismantled and ready to be sassified:

The original, straight from the manufacturer look to the dismantled, oh-boy-what-have-I-gotten-myself-into look:

And you might notice on the taken apart photo, I had already begun to sew the new side curtain panels:

First I laid all the original panels on the new fabric to get measurements....and to take before/after photos :) Then I serged and finished the edges. On the bottom I left a pocket so they could slide over the wall mounted curtain end holders:

The tops had to be gathered and then velcro sewn on. Yup, these hang from the cornice thingys by industrial strength VELCRO. I love it! It means whenever my kiddos pull on them (because you know they will) and rip them down, nothing is damaged. It's just velcro. No problem!

Hoo boy, this post is getting too long! Next up: recovering the window cornice thingys.

Amanda - Vintage Dutch Girl

Check out all the posts from this Travel Trailer Makeover Series!

Part 1: A sassified Shower Curtain

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Travel Trailer Makeover, Part 3: Bright, Bold and Beautiful Fabric...

I was on another trailer stuff gathering shopping excursion and found my first color inspiration piece. It was super late at night and I had left the kiddos at home with my Hubby...didn't really want to repeat the poo accident episode.

So, I'm walking through the world of Wally and saw this pillow....and Ka-Chow! another light bulb moment!

This pillow really helped me decide what my final colors would be. Within a few days later I had ordered a large amount of fabric up for consideration.

My main fabric choice was this Premier Prints funky chevron number:

This premier prints Zoom-Zoom Village Blue was the perfect fit for designing a fresh, YOUNGER, modern style for my trailer sassification project. And the rest of my design board:

Also, for the bunk beds I decided to personalize their curtains and bedding. The fabric design board for their bunks:

Orange and navy chevron zigzag and stripes for Bubbalu on the left, pink elephants and chocolate brown polka dots for Lil Chick on the right.

ALL fabrics are the Premier Prints brand, purchased at Fabric.com. I am in LOVE with Premier Prints fabrics. They have wonderfully modern, fresh, bright prints for home decor. I've been extremely happy with them! Also, they are super inexpensive. We're talking like $7.50 a yard....so I can change my mind often and it's totally OK. Click HERE to see all that's available, if you dare!

Oh, did I also mention? Spend $35 and you get FREE SHIPPING. Awesomesauce.

Next up in the series: sticky, yucky wallpaper removal - UGH....

Amanda - Vintage Dutch Girl

Check out all the posts from this Travel Trailer Makeover Series!

Part 1: A sassified Shower Curtain