Decorating with a Vintage Flair

[sabrown82]

As you'll see in my other posts, I've been working on building a teardrop camper with my father. Take a minute to check out my build journal! I hope to update it as we make more progress!!

The teardrop is now getting to a point where I can see that this might actually get done! I honestly thought it would take us at least a couple of years but we have been moving very quickly. Dad is thinking he wants it done by July 4th (I think he's a bit optimistic here!!)! However, I'm already thinking about what I want the teardrop to look like. I definitely want a vintage flair to the décor.

Some of the things I've been thinking about:

Retro/modern feeling fabric for curtains and some pillows



Bottlecap backsplash in the kitchen area - I like how it looks like multicolored polkadots!



Chart Reading Lights on either side of the bed - If you know where I can find nice ones for cheap, please comment in the thread!



In general, for the bed area I'm going to go with a green/blue/mustard color theme. I'm also intending on sewing together a fun retro canopy for over the door. I have lots of ideas for outdoor décor!


Some questions I have - Do any of you have a pattern for sewing together a folding mattress (accordion style)? I see these all over the internet but can't seem to find a pattern. I'm definitely a novice seamstress and really need instructions for this kind of thing. Is everyone still getting the foam for their mattresses from foam factory? Any money saving alternatives?

[sabrown82]

I've been thinking about this a bit more and have some thoughts about kitchen supplies. I have pretty much whatever I've been able to throw together on the fly for cook gear when tent camping. Growing up, my mom sold Tupperware for side cash and we always had Tupperware products camping. I'm looking into getting the old "harvest" colored Tupperware items to supply my galley!

I pulled out the bag of extra promotional bits and pieces that my mom gave me when I moved into my first apartment. I found a few useful things including a under shelf/mounted spice rack and its containers! I think that will be fun to install!

I'm going to have to grab some coffee/hot cocoa mugs, the square plates, and maybe some seal and serve bowls!

[deleted]

Just a thought on the retro fabric. You may already be familiar with the site but Spoonflower is a designer fabric site where people create and sell their designs printed on a multitude of fabrics (like Cafepress but fabric instead of t-shirts), or you can submit your own custom design and have it printed. The beauty is that you can choose the exact colors and pattern if you make your own. Here's a link to the page with everything that's been tagged as "retro" http://www.spoonflower.com/spelunks?type=&q=retro&x=0&y=0

I'll be using them to create a custom design for The Glampette, maybe one that incorporates the cartoon of her into the design.

That's cool about your Tupperware! I've been finding some great plasticware at estate sales. Even found a few in that nice retro aqua blue from the 50's!

[milliejohn]

I made this comforter and pillowcases for our scratch built tear, it took me about the same time to sew as it did for John to build the trailer.



Millie

[sabrown82]

Millie - Those are lovely and WAY beyond my skill level in sewing! I wish I could quilt. I may eventually take a class near me.

[sabrown82]

Stacie - I saw that link to spoonflower on one of your posts! I totally checked it out and they do have some great prints. I can't wait to see how your decorating comes out! I'm pretty sure mine won't come out near as nice. I tend to get lots of great ideas that don't really go together and then I get confused.

But I'll try to stick this one out and do something nice. I'll try not to overthink it.

The Tupperware is fun. It always seemed very practical when my mom used it (she STILL uses it). I also don't like the waste associated with using so much throw away dinnerware while camping. Here you are enjoying the great outdoors while contributing to landfills. That's always been a weird thing to me but is generally a lot easier when you tent camp. Looking forward to having a suitable place to store my kitchen items.

[deleted]

Millie your quilt and pillow covers are gorgeous! Seriously, after seeing nevadatear's cooler cozy, curtains, and bed quilt with matching pillows I'm now under the impression that making a quilt must be some kind of teardropper's rite of passage Me? I spent HOURS last night just trying to cut two pieces of fabric and pinning them together to make a duvet and I went to bed like this I'll get it done today, no telling how bad it'll be around the zipper but I really wanted a zipper to make it super easy later to pop off and wash the cover later.

sabrown82 if you ever need to brainstorm to work through a design challenge send me a message. I may not always be able to execute the idea well, but I'm usually able to come up with some kind of solution.

[nevadatear]

Stacie if a zipper is scaring you, how about velcro instead. You don't have to use it on the whole opening, just a few pieces every 6 inches or so.

[nevadatear]

Oh, and millie your quilt is indeed fabulous. Quilting, like dutch ovens, seems to go with quilting. Last year at the IRG we dod a walking quilt show. We looked at dozens of quilts. Really fun.

[milliejohn]

Itz all good! I love sewing, and painting, and sketching from old photo's, and antiques, pretty easy to decorate a trailer once you get the picture in your head of what you want. I am painting the inside of a 2003 Aljo that we rescued from the scrap heap[broken into and trashed inside], a nice light brown color and some vintage western art on the walls, and this trailer will be better than new.

[deleted]

If my little dog didn't shed like a team of huskies all year long I'd have gone with the velcro. But he does so his hair would get stuck all around the velcro hooks and work its way into the comforter too. I finally went to bed at 2:00 AM after getting everything pinned into place. Woke up, double checked and got her done. The hardest part was I was working with two fabrics, a soft "minkee" polyester for the top and a cotton bed sheet for the underside. The minkee fabric has a tendency to roll on the cut ends and stretch as you sew so I had to pin the heck out of it. I also added a second backing layer of cotton behind the minkee just to give it a little more substance. All in all it came out fine. As long as you don't look too closely. LOL

[sabrown82]

Stacie - What are you going to use for curtain rods inside your camper? I've been trying to find something but everything looks too big. I want to have a rod above and below the window so that I can cinch the curtain in the middle and make it have a little bow tie shape.

[working on it]

Thanks for this thread (though intended for the Ladies, I read everything on TnTTT), and the ensuing link to Spoonflower. I need to find a material for the bedcovers and curtains that would complement my semi-mechanical build theme, and I can't envision myself spending hours looking thru bolts of material at Joann's or similar shops (hardware stores, garages, auto parts stores, and tire shops are my normal haunts). I think, after spending a coupla hours on Spoonflower last night, that I've found a few contenders (Steampunk, steel, Victorian, and industrial themes look promising). I have no intention of letting my wife choose a material...I envisioned and built the whole thing, such as it is (though I presumably built it for her), and I'll continue the theme to the end. She can decorate her business trailer and her home office in flaming pink, Barbies, and (probably) Hello Kitty stuff...but not the TTT that I've spent the last 20 months building!

[rebapuck]

I love the bottlecap backsplash. How unique.

I've bought fabric from Spoonflower too. VW busses. Haven't decided what to do with it though as the colors don't go with my VW. But my sister suggested a vest. That's a perfect plan if I can get up the nerve to cut into it. Spoonflower is close to me and one day I'm going to go for a tour.

[sabrown82]

Had a shopping trip at Ikea today. The nearest Ikea is about an hour and a half from where I live, so it took up a good portion of the day. Overall, I think it was successful. We'll know for sure tomorrow when we start putting together the galley kitchen.

The main focus of the trip was to find a fun laminate countertop because Home Depot and Lowes both have such "traditional" looking pieces. We grabbed a 6 foot long piece of laminate countertop that is their "black-brown" wood grain style on one side and turquoise on the other for $79. Once we get the cabinets in we'll be able to decide which side we like best. The countertop will only be 4 feet long, so the extra laminate can be used to make a side table.

We were also able to grab a small 17"x15" stainless steel sink for $19.99. I'm not sure if this will be too big. It's kind of up in the air right now.

Other items grabbed include door pulls (that aren't exactly the boomerangs I want, but have the boomerang feel), folding hooks for hanging coats and hats, and some nice looking shelf supports that we might use in the teardrop or the house.

I think we made out ok.


Has anyone ever tiled in their teardrop? I'm wondering how/if it holds up with travel. I'm thinking it may crack apart.......