She's Crafty: RV Drawer and Cabinet Knobs

I'm a crafty person. I love to create, to add my personal touch to a space, to incorporate what is important to my family into spaces we live in. The cabinet knobs and drawer pulls in the RV were a heavy brass, and while they were durable and stylish for the old decor, they don't match what we're doing at all. Plus they were really heavy, and as much as possible, we have tried to remove anything heavy from the RV.

So I thought wooden pulls would be fun, because we could paint them with my son's favorite characters, adding color, fun and whimsy to the drawers. And the wood is really lightweight! Bonus!

So here is a collage of what I painted - the collaboration from my family was of which characters to do. I sort of took it over and did the rest. 

RV paint job

I thought that I'd just show you the painting my husband did in the RV all these months. I helped some, but he did the majority of the work. I painted all the cabinet doors and drawers, and did some of the blue in the bedroom. He did everything inside the RV.

My favourite green for a living room. We had this in our first house, and I have never stopped loving this colour. Notice all the white cabinets. Those were cherry wood before. We wanted everything light and bright.

Detail of the white laundry cabinet - again, was cherry wood. I know wood purists will be gobsmacked by this, especially given that it is REAL wood - in an RV - which is rare. But White really makes the space feel bigger, and if there is one thing I know about my family, it's that we do NOT do well in dark, cave-like spaces.

A lose-up of the blue in the bedroom that also shows the floors and trim. 

Blue bedroom. 

Purple bathroom vanity area. 

Purple toilet area. Same purple, the lighting is just a bit different. 

One sofa back in on the green wall. Not installed, just sitting there. 

detail of white cabinets. 

White kitchen cabinets. 

White overhead cabinets. No handles yet because I am still painting those. 

White kitchen.

Bathroom sink. 

Bedroom drawers. 

Bedroom overhead cabinets. 

All totally white. This took sooooooo long to do!

Bedside drawers. 

Bathroom mirrors. 

Front of the cab. That big box is still cherrywood. We left it because we're having it removed and replaced, so no point in bothering to paint it. 

we can haz floors!

We thought they would be done by Friday, and then by Wednesday, and in the end, they were done by Tuesday of the following week. But THEY ARE DONE!!! Which means we can move to the next step in getting the RV ready to be inhabited. 

The slide is in, so those rubber strips you see over the floors are to temporarily protect the floors from being marred by the rollers in the slide.

My husband will do the trim and reinstall the sofas this weekend. Hopefully he will even have time to install the curtain rods!

I better get to making those curtains.

Detail of the floor pattern. We used a "cheat" eco-friendly floor (we just could NOT afford bamboo, plus it was too thick). It's still better from an eco standpoint than stuff you might find at Home Depot, but not as good as bamboo, for example, as far as sustainability and renewability. We DID get it at a locally-owned, family run business called Rug Bug Eco Flooring, and the guy we ended up hiring to do the job was a flooring contractor they use and recommended (he also gave us the least expensive quote). 

The really good news is that even *I*, with my insanely sensitive sense of smell/sensitivities can stand inside the RV on those floors with no issues. Impressive for ANY sort of flooring/new materials, IMO. There is one building supply store in all the land I can actually tolerate being inside of without having a mast cell reaction, and it's The Green Depot in SE Portland - I've even commented to them how amazed I was that I didn't even need my mask to go in - that's nothing short of a miracle for somewhere that sells paints and varnishes and flooring and other building supplies. 

It goes all the way back into the bedroom. Having floors makes me so happy!

Look at this nook. Think about ALL the cuts they had to do to shape this floor, which was planks, into this space. No wonder it took three days (of actual work time).

Again with the nooks and crannies and cuts they had to make to fit them all. 

You can see into the front of the RV from here, and the planks that are left. My husband is using these to do the elevated bathroom floor himself. We were originally going to do something else but these are leftover, which makes it "free" material, so we might as well use what we already have. He'll do that this weekend. 

One step closer! Not too much longer now!

Finally, it feels like progress! Of course it will, it's spring!

we almost have floors!

Well, I WAS going to write a post about how today is the last day our RV floor will look like this:

But it turns out it isn't  - the flooring guy rescheduled for Wednesday. So we have a few more days of bare floor while we get some other things done for the RV. Well, we've waited THIS long, right? 

Instead I'll show you some of the painting we've gotten done: 

Our pretty purple bathroom with the compost toilet

The sky blue bedroom. 

Where there was cherry wood, now is white! And you can see the green of the living room/kitchen area. This has ALWAYS been my favorite green for living rooms. 

This is just a sneak peek -  I'll do better taking photos once everything is really one, and I'll endeavor to make proper before/after photos when we truly have an "after" to show you. 

Right now, we have a list of "things left to do in the RV", and it's so much more doable than that never-ending painting was! 

Things left to do in the RV: 

• paint cabinet knobs (in process)
• finish knobs with shellac or protective cover spray
• install cabinet knobs and latches 
• put up curtain rods
• make curtains
• finish painting sofa
• reinstall both sofas
• remove microwave
• paint doors with chalkboard paint
• install metal panels around slide frame, on refrigerator
• get oil changed
• finish bathroom floor
• make panels for holes in bathroom floor and beside bed (so small animals cannot hide there)
• paint RV chairs
• paint table
• install shelving in closet
• install shower curtain rod around shower

I'm pretty sure there are more little things here and there, but these are the things that need doing before we can begin to move in. Shouldn't take TOO much longer, should it? Heh. 

The Rig Before

The bedroom, before we bought the rig. They took the mattress, so we need to get a new one - so all we need to do is find an affordable organic comfortable mattress that fits an RV queen. Easy peasy, right???

That sliding mirrored closet is fairly deep, and will be made into cubbies/private bunk space for K.

I like the little drawers by the bed. Now, do we take them out to make room for a king, or leave them and settle for the queen?

At the foot of the bed on the left. Double cabinets with a TV cubby on top. there is currently a TV inside the cubby, but not for long. We don't need a TV or any electronics where we sleep, except my CPAP and white noise machine. 

The drawers nest to the big closet. On the right of the foot of the bed. 

Window above the head of the bed. I will make this pretty. And also, block out the light.

Laundry cabinet, with washer/dryer combo inside. 

Bathroom kind of opens into the bedroom. I rather like this, actually, it gives it a more open feel. There is a mirrored door that closes - an actual door - between the bathroom and the front of the rig. 

The shower.

A view of the whole kitchen. We'll be taking out that microwave and adding a shelf for our toaster oven instead, along with a vent. A dishwasher below he sink? We'll see. Don't plan on needing the stove, so we might sell it. 

Next, we begin renovations....

Renaissance Garb for the Whole Family

I whipped up some garb today for our friends' renaissance-inspired wedding. I already had the corset from a Ren Faire a couple of years ago - by Felix and Kitty Creative. My underdress was a part of my wedding costume, made by my friend Karen at Curious Cat Clothing. The rest is made by me - Hubby and Son's shirts were made previously for different costumes, hubby's pants were actually part of an owl costume I'd made for myself two Halloweens ago. So what I whipped up today from a couple of tablecloths were my overskirt, Hubby's vest, and all of our hats. There is a Renaissance Faire coming up here in a couple of weeks, and I think before then I'm going to remake Hubby's vest and hat, but for today, we looked pretty good and got lots of compliments.

with purse comes wallet

The one thing I discovered after making my purse is that my giant carryall wallet was REALLY heavy to carry in it, and I really didn't need all that wallet, anyway. Again, I set about seeking a way to make one out of the leftover fabric I had from the purse - and there was plenty!

Craftster to the rescue again, and I found myself the perfect wallet to make. 

I do have to say on my behalf, sometimes I am infuriatingly ambitious. Sometimes it's sort of cute how I think I can do things way beyond my skill level, and sometimes, like when I am actually attempting to do said task, it is infuriating and crushing. I won't lie - this is probably beyond my skill level, even though in the end, I did manage to pull it off. Not without tears and cursing and real bleeding, mind you - but in the end, I did complete the wallet, and even though it's so so imperfect, I'm pretty happy with it . I did go through three zippers trying to make it happen, though.

The back pocket:

 Inside: Zippered change pouch, cash pocket, card pockets.

 View of cash pocket (then holding cheques):

 Change and a spare car key.

 A little hiding space for my aromatherapy bottle:

And a close-up of the zipper. 

If I were to do this again - in the distant future - I would make the corners MUCH more rounded, which would allow for much easier opening of said zipper. I took lining up my zipper to the extreme and ended up with these square corners - which are not easy to unzip. However, because I know the trick, I CAN do it, so not all is lost. It really is quite functional and I'm pleased with it because this is the hardest thing I've sewn yet aside from the jacket of my husband's Halloween costume last year. The fact that I was able to finish it is a testament to my ability to persevere, and also to my stubbornness.