Our Little Skamper

I’m on a mission today. I have limited time before we leave for vacation and that means limited time to get things moved out of our house for our big move (next door).

Today I have to bring our camper up to my dad’s house. Like I’ve said before, my dad lives on a farm and he has ample space to store my little, old camper for the summer.

We found this camper a few summers ago. We got it at a bargain basement price- $300. It is from the 1970s (I see a theme here) and grossly outdated. But structurally it was in good shape. It says Skamper on the side of it. It just needed a makeover. So that is what we gave it.

Here are before pictures:

(This is actually after because I forgot to get it before but the outside didn’t get changed at all)

(This is a shot during the process of the makeover. That cabinet was actually the color of the fridge before I primed it.)

This was the flooring.

This is a good shot of the orange sink, retro flowered cushion, horrid curtain, laminate tabletop, and part of one of my children’s head.

This shows the ugly table with the newly laid peel and stick tile flooring and primed cabinet benches.

For the curtains, I just used the old ones to make new ones. I laid them out on the floor and cut them to size (leaving room for a seam allowance). I even cut the old snaps from the original curtains and sewed them onto the new ones. That way I didn’t have to buys new ones.

I then got some heat-safe spray paint and painted over the awful orange on the stove top and used the same paint for the sink.

For the tabletops and around the sink and stove, I found a very thick self-adhesive shelf liner from Lowes. It was a little tricky getting it perfect. But it is much better than it was.

For the cushions, I found an outdoor fabric in the clearance section at Jo-Ann’s. There wasn’t enough to cover all the cushions so I combined this with some other coordinating fabrics I found there. They were also what I used for the curtains. It was missing two cushions when we bought it. So I bought some foam cushions from Jo-Ann’s and cut them to the right size. This was probably the most expensive part. But it was necessary since the table sections fold down into beds.

We used a different shelf liner paper (the diamond pattern) to cover up the dark paneled walls around the table. It turned out pretty good and much brighter and fresher.

I’m too impatient for before pictures (as you can see) and not detailed enough to keep track of all the expenses. So I don’t know how much it all cost to do. But, in my opinion, it was well worth it. I love doing it and we love using our little Skamper.

Soon we will outgrow this camper and will be forced to sell. That will be a sad day for me .

But then someone else can enjoy it like we have.

Thanks for looking!