DIY Counter Tops...Finished

The camper's counter tops are now finished! See the first steps in this post. I really love how they turned out! However, if I were to use this method in my house (which I very well may do), I would make the first coat of color a solid and even color. I was going for a rustic/stone/granite look, and this is exactly what it turned out like. As you can see, the black paint under the stone paint is a little uneven, but I think that achieved the look I set out to obtain.

Remember is what they looked like before:

And here is after:

After all of the camper updates are complete, hopefully I will be able to get some better pictures for you :)

Camper Progress and DIY counter tops

UPDATE...FINISHED TOPS:
Click Here 


I'm making progress with my vintage camper renovation! You may think that the cold and snow would have put a damper on the camper work, but no, it's warm and toasty in "The Jones," and I've managed to put a few hours into to it each week. What I'm working on today are the counter tops.

As you can see (or maybe not from the dark and horrible photos), is that I was working with some U.G.L.Y tops and had nothing to lose, so I tried out this tutorial on using American Accents Stone Spray Paint to create a faux granite look. The tutorial used the sand colored stone paint, but I went with a darker choice.

Steps:
1. Tape everything well
2. Spray paint the base layer using just regular and cheap spray paint. It doesn't matter if it's all well covered or not because you will be covering it up with the stone spray paint.

3. Let dry and then spray on the stone spray paint.
4. Let dry for a long, long, long time. Every time I checked my stone paint, it was still damp, so I ended up letting it dry two nights before moving on to the polyurethane.
5. Polyurethane. This is the step I'm currently on. I applied my first coat today, and now, I'm going to let it dry over night before applying the next coats

There's the sneak peak! I will post the finished outcome in the next week or two! I can't tell they are going to be so so so much better than what was in there :)

Cost:
Cheap black spray paint $2
Stone spray paint x2 $10 (I ended up using 1 and 1/2)
Polyurethane  $8
Total = $20

UPDATE...FINISHED TOPS:
Click Here 

Old Shutter Christmas Card Holder

I made this shutter card holder for our wedding, and I loved it so much that I kept it to use as a Christmas card holder as well.

It looks really cute sitting in our kitchen on a couple of picnic baskets also left over from our wedding :)

Our Vintage Camper

I'm so tickled to have finally found an old camper to call my own :) :) :) I've been on the lookout for a vintage (such a better connotation than 'old' haha) camper for months and months, and my patience has paid off. He may not look like much now, but I have some big plans for "The Jones." I let my husband name him since he so very sweetly drove an hour to haul home a cute piece of "junk" that he can't even stand up in all the way because it's so short and he's 6'1. He chose to name it "The Jones" after George Jones because our little camper is old, beat all to hell, and can hold quite a few cold ones. hehe

This is a 1971  Aristocrat. It makes me smile to think about all of the joy it's given previous owners in the past 41 years. I have a lot of plans on how to fix it up, and I will share all of the before and after photos as I finish. My goal is to have it ready by our spring break (March!) so my honey and I can take off somewhere wonderful  :)

Here is a mood board of what I have in mind for the inside:

If you are wondering how to begin the hunting process for a camper of your own, here is what I did.

1. Set a budget. I knew I didn't want to put more than $600 into a camper. Sure the new ones are nice, but for me, the pleasure I will get from fixing this one up is worth loads more. Plus I'm cheap.
2. Check Craigslist and your local newspaper....everyday 
3. My husband will attest that I became obsessed. I checked listings every morning and night for about 5 months. But, this served two purposes....1. I would catch the good listings 2. Aaron knew this wasn't a "phase" I was in. He realized how much I really wanted one, so he gave in ;)
4. Search for the words "Vintage" "Older Camper" "Hunting Camper" "Aristocrat" "Scotty" "Shasta" "Airstream" as these will show up out of your regular local search.
5. Over the coarse of 5 months, I probably found about 15 campers that I thought fit what I was looking for. Out of those, only about 5 owners emailed or called me back. Out of those, we looked at 2. So, I guess this step is to be patient.
6. Take someone with you that will be the voice of reason. I wanted the very first one I saw. However, Aaron pointed out that the floor and ceiling were....umm....rotting out. He knew that would be too much for me to fix, so finally I agreed.
7. Always bring cash and talk them down. The man had this camper listed for $1000. I told him via email my budget ($500-600), and then Aaron was able to talk him down to $450 once we got there because we had cash to pay. Whoop!

Aaron laughed at our hoopty trailer all the way home, but haters gonna hate. lol He won't be laughing when he wakes up to biscuits in the tiny oven, a river rolling in the background and coffee by the fire this spring :)

Upcycled Sleeping Mat into a Headboard

Our king size bed really needed a headboard, and I had full intentions of making one since May, but the   hassle of measuring and getting the wood cut at Lowes turned my intentions into procrastination. However, just so happens that my sleeping prima donna (husband) , decided to throw out my little one-man camping mat since his highness needed a fancy air mattress for camping ;)  Never fear though,  I snatched it back and made this handsome headboard out of it. :)

Time: 15 minutes (I know, crazy fast project)

Supplies:
Old sleeping mat
Cloth
Push pins
Hot Glue gun

Steps:

1. Cut mat to size if need be

2. Cover front of mat with fabric and hold in place with push pins (if you use decorative ones, you can leave them in)

3. Flip over, pull fabric tight, and hot glue to back

4. Nail to wall

This is the before picture above, and...

This is the after. I like how it anchors the room with the black.

Also, I finally framed my $5.00 prints as you can see in the picture. I am ON it this week!

Fall Kisses

This is a simple little way to spread some fall kissy poohs :) Just add some googly eyes, and use puffy paint for lips and eyebrows.

We love fall! 

$20 Living Room Update

This October marked the 3rd year that I've been in my house, and I was in the mood for a little update.

Here is the before picture:

(We really aren't this messy. I had already begun moving some things before I remembered to take the picture) As you can see, I had a tiny little rug under our trunk/coffee table. I found a much larger rug at Big-Lots for $19, and I think it pulled the living room together so much better!

Then, I finally did something with a $1 yard-sale canvas I had. The canvas originally had brown circles painted on it, but I gave it a white coat, and then I got to work using the same colors found in my new rug.

It took me about an hour to free-hand it, and I REALLY love how it turned out. It also blends well with the tree painting I did when I first moved in. Both of these DIY paintings were fairly easy to do, but I think that anyone, regardless of artistic talent, could do the abstract one. All you need is 3-4 colors of paint and to be able to draw a leaf-like oval. After getting the ovals, simply rotate the ones your fill in all the way, or leave as outlined.