🖼️
The project:
An old 70s caravan, with dark wood paneling and old kitchen needed a clean, strip and modernisation to become a comfortable guest bedroom. I had no DIY skills but had inherited a shed full of tools from my late husband and thought ‘I can do this - how hard can it be?’
Many trips to Bunnings and lots of Googling later and the result has been approved by my guests.
- Materials:
Reused wood paneling where possible.
Zinsser prime sealer white stain blocker undercoat
Deluxe Wash&Wear low sheen wall paint in Dieskau
Selleys liquid nails
Insect screen fibreglass Cyclone
Gorilla polyurethane adhesive
Pine Adoored leg furniture
Blind indoor basic roller x 5
Screws, nails, etc
Sika flexible gap filler
Smoke Alarm
- Tools:
Ozito drills
Ozito circular saw
Ozito sander
Trojan hand saw
Multiple hammers, screwdrivers, scrapers
Paint tray & liners
Roller set mini Unipro frame and cover - multiple
- Step 1:
Remove all soft furnishing. Pull out kitchen and fridge.
Remove fixed table, overhead cupboards and seats in dining area.
Take out old iron bed frame, wardrobe and bedside table.
Remove damaged wall behind kitchen.
- Step 2:
The hardest job was removing old Lino and carpet. There were hundreds of staples in the carpet.
- Step 3:
Replace rusted bolts to secure floor to the frame. Patch holes where pipes and fittings had gone through floor and walls in the kitchen. Seal all outside holes and joints to stop leaks. Replace damaged kitchen wall and cover air hole where fridge had been. Remove staples in walls and patch any holes.
- Step 4:
Replace fly wire in air vents and windows. Replace perished window latches. Cleaned walls and ceiling with Selleys Sugar Soap.
- Step 5:
At this stage I laid the Lino. Should have painted first but you live and learn! While working on other jobs, I started applying undercoat to the walls and ceiling. I knew it would take multiple layers and wanted a good cure between coats. Found lots of staples I had missed and had lots of patching to do.
- Step 6:
An electrician removed old bedside lights and replaced power point in bedroom. I replaced the end of the lounge chair where it had been water damaged. Applied more undercoat then finally started on final painting.
- Step 7:
After finishing the painting I left it alone for a few weeks while the paint cured. Then started the fun bit. I installed roller blinds on all the windows. Made new covers for the lounge chair. Used Pine legs from Bunnings and the old table top to make a new desk. Installed a shelf above the bed with pine and brackets, also from Bunnings. Found a queen bed to fit. Built a bedside table to fit against sloping back wall.
- Step 8:
Next I dressed the bed, hung a clock, framed and hung pictures and a mirror. And finally installed a smoke alarm.
