We bought our beautiful Sadie back in 2017, soon after we purchased her we painted the exterior but didn’t do anything to the interior, we were way too keen to get on the road! If you’d like to read a blog post about the paint job, you can read it HERE!
I’ve always held strong to the belief that I didn’t want to update the interior, as I didn’t want to feel I had to keep the caravan neat and tidy on holiday. I also wanted the kids to run wild and us to relax and not have to worry about scuff marks on fresh paint. But the reality was that the previous owners had used a dark grey as the interior paint and black material for the curtains and lounge cushions and it felt very small and dark in there.
When we made the decision to travel around for a month, I really wanted to make sure it felt comfortable and homey for the kids - so finally took the plunge and did a mini makeover!
I’ve included a little photo in there of Sadie before her exterior paint too, in case you’ve never seen one! The makeover has made a huge difference and I'm going to share with you what we did!
First of all, we spent an evening removing all of the cupboards so that we could paint, I’m a fan of the original doors and cupboards and wanted to keep them. We chose a Dulux paint colour called “Mt Aspiring” and it took us a full day to complete the paint job.
Jon is super handy and built me a brand new bookshelf (I’ve had plenty of you asking where I got it from, sorry to say he’s not up to custom building them!) He also built some beautiful shelves for above our double bed and above the kitchen sink, all using oak purchased from Bunnings. He custom made a little ladder for the kids to access the top bunk, previously they had climbed on the fridge to get up there!!
We also chose to leave the table out of the caravan for the time being, it really opens up the space and makes it a lot easier to move around in there!
I had the WONDERFULLY talented Karla from Wabi Sabi Interiors hand make the new curtains and backrest cushion. The curtains are made out of a canvas material and leather straps hold them in place, I wanted the curtains to roll up so that material wasn’t bunching up everywhere and to let in as much sunlight as possible ☼
We decided to go a neutral shade for the back rest to lighten things up. I’m still on the fence about changing the black cushions, I know exactly what I’d prefer but have heard it’s a little high maintenance! Keep your eyes peeled, there may be another post all about those cushions!!
Changing the linen to lighter colours really helped brighten everything up! We also changed some of the chrome features to gold to keep with the warmer tones. I made the macrame door hanging myself one rainy afternoon and it really adds a boho vibe to the van, it also doubles as the perfect fly screen!
We still have a few more things that we would like to change that I will be sharing with all of you when we get around to it, let me know if you have any questions or if you think i’ve missed something! I’d love to know what you think of our little renovation, we are a little in love with it!
Safe & Happy Travels!