Seaside Retro: Renovating a Retro/Vintage Caravan

Doing up Daisy!

Many years ago, I spent much of my childhood staying in the families static caravan. I loved it.

My husband loves camping, as do I, but am not really excited about staying in a tent anymore. On our last camping trip I managed to 'hack' our VW touran so my self and the baby could sleep in it. There was lots of room. I also took the three children on my own camping and it was very cosy in the car. The only problem with camping in our car, is once it's set up, you can't take the car anywhere. If you do, you need to remove the bed and then put all the car seats back in. This limits us on future trips, not being able to leave the campsite.

I looked into buying a campervan, I love the old VW campervans. My parents had a few and I have lots of fond memories of them. They can be very expensive, and being a classic vehicle likely to be fairly unreliable. If we had brought a camper it would have had to have been be our main vehicle. I love our touran and didn't want to give her up. So a touring caravan was the answer! I have always loved vintage and retro things, our house is full of hand-me-downs and I love it. *our family are hoarders.* So only a retro van would do, but they are becoming harder to find. At one point people couldn't even give them away, but so many have been destroyed or left to rot that they are becoming rarer.

While looking for our perfect van, I set up a pinintrest board. Hours have been spent looking and dreaming at caravans.

Click the link to take you to my Pinintrest board: Come away with me.....

Daisy the day we got her home

I can't stop smiling when I look at her. She is everything I have been dreamed of. She needs lots of love, new wood and hard work. So I thought we should document how we get on.

This is what she looked like inside when we first got her.

It's taken about three years of looking for our perfect van. I would look for one then it would have to go on a back burner, while we got on with other things. So this year I made my mind up, that we needed a deadline! End of April is the first event we will need to have our van unable by. Most likely not perfect and painted but usable!

One of the very first jobs was a tow bar!

In the end we went with a mobile company, they where brilliant, both on workmanship and cost. After the towbar and before we went to pick up our new van we had a full service on the car. (I would advice making sure you tow car is ready, willing and able to tow! Also roadside cover, car insurance company informed of tow bar and caravan insurance, all in place before you tow.)

Here she is, at last our Daisy!

A look around Daisy, after we had started to remove the rotten wood/bathroom.

She is a 1969 Bluebird Europe Three MK4 4 berth caravan

(We thought she was a 1968 click here to read all about what Daisy is!)

Inside, so lucky to find a beautiful original oven!

I can't wait to cook up a storm on that! Four berths, one double at the front and another at the back.

A bathroom, and lots and lots of damp, rot and the odd spider!

We, my husband and I have never done anything like this before. We have done the odd bit of DIY in the house, am good at the painting stage or finding the right pillows. When we have tried some home DIY it's often lead to a few swear words under our breath or the silent treatment!

We are also working around our three children under 5yrs old. So our free time is very limited. It did feel like we where taking on alot, when I looked through the rotting floor to see the ground underneath but Daisy is worth it!

I've had a lot of time to think about how I wanted our van to look. Hours on pinintrest and dreaming of colours, pillows etc. So to spur me on with the renovation, I did a mood board.

Our three main colours are: grey, light blue and yellow.

Silver for fittings (if I have yellow in a colour scheme I sometimes pick gold fittings but with the grey, blue and yellow combo, silver looks perfect.)

When picking white or cream, I made my mind up to match her cooker. With the other colours for her I would have gone with cream, it's softer but her cooker is ice white. So we will match the ice white.

I always try to pick colours this way, it works with anything, from an outfit to a bedroom make over. It means if you spot something you know it will match. I could pick a white jug and a silver kettle and when putting them together in the same space they work. It makes shopping for items much easier. Even though the 'dressing' stage is a long way off, when am pulling off the rotten wood, having the finished image in my head will help me get through it.

I like the idea of using her name, in her finished interior. The white of the Daisy with a touch of yellow, works perfectly with the colours I've picked. I love to crochet, and am really looking forward to making some lovely blankets to soften up her interior. Am hoping to add in the daisy shape to the blankets design.

When we unscrewed the back bed, I thought to my self it would be a good idea to renovate each bit of her furniture outside of the van. She has a few draws and I love the idea of pulling open a draw to some bright paint or wallpaper.

(Click here to see what happened, when couldn't find any more of the fabric!!)