Travel Trailer Remodel

My parents gave us their 1993 Prowler travel trailer when they upgraded to a larger fancy trailer with slide out. My husband and I really wanted one but we just weren't ready to make an investment, especially with our little one only being 8 months. So when my parents gave us the Prowler we were so happy and saw the possibilities roll out in front of us like a red carpet. Hunting, beach trips, weekend in the mountains and many nights near Disneyland came to mind. The trailer was in great condition...it just looked, old. Chase wanted something masculine so I started looking into color schemes for just that. Between a little paint, some new light fixtures, and eventually reupholstering the sofa and dinette the trailer will really start to feel like our own.

We started taking down all the window covering and cabinet doors on day one. It took longer than expected so we only were able to start priming the first coat but didn't finish. We used Zinsser 123 Oil based primer.

 

 

It was time consuming doing the primer coat but I felt like it already looked better, getting rid of all the ugly faux wood. We primed everything, we took the counter top edging off since we are going to spray paint that (not shown in this picture). We also took all the speaker covers and a/c control box down and spray painted with a white plastic spray paint from Home Depot.

 

 

 

After we were done priming we started with the wall color. Which looking back I wish we would have done cabinets and then walls. It has been challenging to cut in on the cabinets and not get the dark gray on the walls. If your not going to tape off then do cabinets first. The wall color is Valspar Montpelier Ashlar Gray in Eggshell. For the wall application we used a foam roller and small brush. My husband does the rolling and I do the cutting in when the baby is taking her naps. Excuse the mess please!

 

 

Here is a shot of the gray going on! Soooo this is where we hit a huge road block. We applied the cabinet paint, Valspar Rugged Suede high gloss latex paint. Waited a night and another night and ...it NEVER dried. It stayed a tacky consistency. We sanded it back down, primed again and had Lowes remix a new gallon for us since the first had many air bubbles as well. We thought maybe the paint was defective. We tried again...and, still tacky. Ugghh the frustration of working and working and making no progress. So after sanding again and priming again we went to Dunn Edwards for some professional advice since Lowes had no idea what to do. Dunn Edwards recommended an oil based paint. They said latex in high gloss sometimes has trouble drying especially in hot humid weather, which we were experiencing this week. So we had them color match the one from Lowes and we picked up the new oil based rugged suede in high gloss and began painting AGAIN. and.....It worked! Yes, we were so relieved. It dried completely overnight and looked great.

 

 

The project has come out of the nightmare stage and being able to see the progress is motivation. We started the first coat of gray and the second coat went on even quicker. We decided to do bronze hardware. We were contemplating black but loved the bronze against the gray cabinets. So we bought pulls from Lowes. 4 inch Center-to-Center Oil Rubbed Bronze Modern Rectangular Cabinet pulls. We spray painted everything else that was gold to match. The cabinet railing, the countertop edging, the bathroom towel holders, toilet paper holder, heater vent and a few other little things. It took us 3 cans of bronze spray paint. Home Depot had 2 choices for bronze, we went with the one on the left since we didn't want a gloss finish.

 

 

Once the second coat was dry we put on all the hinges, attached the doors, put the railings and countertop edges back on. We are starting on the floors in a day or two!