*brave face* YEP! Here she is; Betty! Our VW campervan in which we are going to be ACTUALLY LIVING for the next quarter of a year.
When I was a wee lass we used to spend the summer holidays travelling around Europe in a campervan. Whenever we had parked up and walked to a high point, up a hill or castle or something we’d always look down and pin point our little white van and coo “Ooh, look at that LOVELY camper! Wouldn’t it just be the bee’s knees to have one like that?” It was a little (pretty unfunny) family joke but served to remind us how lucky we were, owning such a beauty. We’ve done this since forever.
I’ve spent the morning trying to brighten up our own campervan a little, to make it feel a bit more like home. It has all the original features, which is fabulous, except that they are all grey. Grey, gun metal, with a splash of pale charcoal.
We bought the van with my folks so haven’t been able to spray paint all the cupboards as I might normally but I did want to add some colour to make it a bit cosier and more fun.
Here’s the After Betty:
The thrifty old folk at Money Supermarket gave me a sweet 50 squids to make this campervan our Home Sweet Home as part of their Home Improvement Hero competition. I wouldn’t say we transformed it but we have added our folksy, vintage fingerprint!
Of course, everything here is thrifted or boshed up at home as is our style, which meant that for £50 we could get a fair bit. You’d not normally be able to get bespoke fitted curtains for under £20, that’s Fo Sho.
Handmade Bunting from Etsy from £12
Crochet Blankets from a car boot sale for £5 but they can also be snapped up on Ebay averaging around £15
Melamine bits and bobs from antique shops from £5 (You may get lucky with something cheaper but we searched high and low for YONKS)
Curtains- hand sewn from Cath Kidston Fabric from an outlet £20
Stripey cushion from a charity shop £5
I wanted Betty to feel like a riot of patterns and colour, to put a cheery old smile on everyone’s faces when we glance her way.
We had our first night in it with all four of us yesterday as we drove to the countryside to visit my sister and her family. It went swimmingly which was an enormous relief, considering we have 90 more nights to come! Ramona and her cousins have been playing “campervans” in it all morning (they could have been a bit more imaginative, eh?) so I think the makeover is making more than just me a happy bunny.
And hopefully, we’ll still be cheerful 3 months and 10 ten countries down the line, me very hilariously admiring it from a distance wishing it was ours (Oh! It IS! Aren’t we lucky! *groan*)… watch this space!
PS I’m going to try and blog a bit as we travel in Betty across Europe so if you don’t want to miss a thing follow through Facebook or Bloglovin or even just enter your email to get them pinged into your inbox. I won’t be spamalot, promise!
