Daisy, our 1969 Bluebird Euorpe Three Caravan. Looked a little worse for where when we picked her up. While I got on with the really important jobs, getting her safe and water tight. Things which where just to make her look pretty where pushed to one side.
Painting her chassis is very important though, to keep the metal in good working order and stop rust eating her. Lucky her a-frame and chassis where in pretty good condition and only min scrubbing back with a wire brush would be needed.
One of the things which made a huge impact was painting her wheels! Wow. A million times better.
I went with cream, looking back at old photos she would have been white or cream. White can look a little hash, so I went with cream.
One more coat to go and then all the parts you can't see will be painted black.
Already one tin of paint has made a huge impact to how she looks!
We are currently trying to pick colours and paint types for the outside! I will update this blog when we have made up our minds!
My crazy idea for Daisy's door is something like the above. She is a 1960's van after all!
My plan was to use a new fabric for al the pillows and curtains in Daisy but it's been discontinued. :( I was gutted as its one of my favourite patterns and I have based all her paint work around that fabric.
I would most likely have gone for a more vintage blue and creams, if not for that fabric.
So I've had to go back to the drawing board, even though am not all that keen on the blue of Daisy's walls, it has grown on me. It's bright but not cold feeling and with all her many windows (not many vans have this amount of windows) she feels light, open and spacious. Without feeling exposed, she's still cosy.
So I've gone with trying to find vintage fabrics, with yellows, orange and blues. (The blue matches her walls, kettle and hob. Also the beautiful 1960's table cloth from my Nana.)
It's quite easy to find vintage/retro fabrics, it's much harder to find ones which match your brief. As many are off cuts or anything vintage on a roll is a crazy price. (It's not that it's not worth it, I just don't have the budget.) Due to my background in design, I do think one of my strengths is pattern matching/colour matching. I love putting different fabrics together which you wouldn't think would work but by adding in another, pull it all together.
People looking round Daisy (when we had pink polkadot fabric as a temporarily curtain was even worse!) couldn't see my whole vision and she looked a little bit of a hodgepodge!
I've got a lot of colours going on in Daisy.
My main rule when doing anything with colour, is a rule of about 3. Be that a bedroom, or an outfit. 3 colours and then picking cream, white or black, and sliver or gold. So our bedroom is Grey, black, sliver and white.
Dots room is Pink (light and dark) cream and sliver.
The boys is blue (light and dark) white and sliver.
Our living room/kitchen is Grey, black white and sliver.
That way if you pick a lamp or pillows, you will know it will work without having to colour match. One colour is too much, 2 is ok but to get it perfect 3!
But with Daisy.....I've gone a little crazy!
Cream
Orange
Yellow
Light blue
Dark blue
It's quite close to my rule of 3, orange, blue and yellow. Then cream and sliver fittings. So it's not to hard but when am looking at fabrics, the 1970's one almost always add in brown...or green...it's quite hard to find just orange or orange and cream. I missed out bidding on orange and cream beautiful curtains which once cut up would have worked for all of her windows. Ebay is an exciting and frustrating place! Outbid at 4 secs to go! Thanks internet.....
If you have time on your side, the right fabric will come along. I wanted to be a little more finished by Retro Fest but I managed to get two curtains up (not hemed but up!)
It can be a lot harder working with vintage fabrics, most are much more fragile. Where I have joined the fabric to widen the curtains has already pulled apart, so I will have to redo this or back the fabric to make it stronger.
Before you rip out old curtains, hand wash or soak them. You will be surprised how wonderful they can be after a wash and press!
I will update this blog as soon as I get painting!
In the meantime, I've found this amazing ap from Dulux. Its been so hard to think about what colours would look best on Daisy!
Its lots of fun......but.....so far its not helped me make up mind.........it has given me a great way of seeing what different colours could look like. I still have no idea which one though!
I quite like the idea of all one colour!
I just can't make up my mind!!
We have made up our minds, and due to a huge problem with fabrics.....There have been some big changes. Click here to read all about going back to the drawing board!
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