Being Great with Mrs. Bates: July 2017

This is not really teaching related but I had to share my pop up makeover!

My husband has wanted a pop up camper and has been combing sale sights for a few years now! I was not totally sold on the idea of a pop up and kept holding off until one day I finally gave in to a convincing argument. He found a great deal on a pop up and it came from a wonderful family! We drove out and picked it up.

Bringing Coleman home!

For the most part our new pop up (the boys named it Coleman) was in great condition...bUT I just wanted to make a few updates. My husband is in the Air Force and gone quite a bit so I did all the updates by myself while he was gone on trips.
Thank you to The Pop Up Princess for so many cool pop ups to check out and inspire me.

Here are some pictures of Coleman in the beginning.

The first thing I did was take down all the old curtains and valances. I made sure to keep all the plastic tabs that connect the curtains (I did reuse those).

Next, I took the covers off of the beds and the cushions. I recovered the cushions but kept the originals under the new covers.
I threw the old covers in the washing machine and I laid the pads outside to air out. I sprayed the pads from the cushions and beds with a water/vinegar mixture and sprinkled them with baking soda once they were dry.

IMPORTANT! Make sure you remember where and how certain things go on the cushions and in the camper.
I took photos!

NOW, I CLEANED and I CLEANED. I wiped down everything and cleaned out all the cabinets.

The first update I did was to paint the stove top. I just used a white appliance epoxy and spray painted. It turned out great and was so easy to do.

Now onto the fun parts the curtains and cushion covers. Here are the fabrics, rugs and colors I chose.

The curtains by the beds.

For the bed curtains I found a throw I liked at IKEA. I bought two and just cut them in half and hemmed the ends.

For the curtain tie-backs I found napkins on sale a World Market. I cut strips and hemmed them up!

TA-DA all done!

Now, the regular curtains. This was the easiest job of all, I stumbled across blackout curtains at Walmart that were exactly the length and color that I wanted-I didn't have to sew a thing!!!

The only difficult part with the curtains was deciding the best way to reattach the plastic tabs that hung the curtains. I tried a few items and finally ended up with safety pins.

The cushion covers!! Well, these were not that easy. I have okay sewing skills, but these took a few hours and lots and lots of measuring and remeasuring. I found this post to be very helpful! I followed this tutorial to sew the boxed corners.
I bought my fabric at IKEA.

Here are some pictures from the cushion process.

For my next project I made a cushion to go along one of the sides. I found the foam and fabric at my local Michaels Craft Store.
I followed the same tutorials as I did for the chair cushions.

What came next was not easy but I am so happy I did it...the floors!

I headed to lowes and picked out my color and style. I chose Stainmaster Peel-and-Stick Stone Vinyl Tile it is $1.28 a piece. I used about 44 sheets in all. I soon figured out that pop up camper floors are not even. To start I just cleaned my floors really well. I did stagger mine, which was a lot more work BUT I am so happy with the way it turned out-SO HAPPY!

Here are some before and after pictures of the floors.

I found my rugs at World Market!

After the BIG things were done I started installing some personal touches.

Bear Bottle Opener found @ Amazon

Paper Towel Holder Found @ Amazon

My shelf, I love this shelf. I found the shelf at Target and the tubs at IKEA. The shelf lays right under my table when it is time to put the camper down.
I store all of our food in the tubs while we are camping.