Jet van der Graaf (in her daily life she’s a designer at a magazine) has a dream: traveling the world in an old camper with her boyfriend and her two sons. The nineties camper van has been purchased and work continues day and night to pimp the in- and the outside. Jet shares her tips, doubts, decisions and moments of bliss with us.
And then you find yourself staring down a big, brown hole…
…Which is the interior of the camper van you’ve just bought. And if, like me, you haven’t been blessed with pots and pots of patience, you can easily loose heart at moments such as these. How can we ever turn this into something? Where do we even start?
Luckily Michiel simply got started: the best way to tackle ‘big obstacle’-fears. Ripping out the stuff that needs to go, getting all the grease off and putting a first coat of paint on everything that needs painting… Which is pretty much everything! So if you walk into the camper halfway through all of these demolitions it can kinda freak you out, aaaaaaaaaargh!
We got some advice from a real painting pro, which is why we opted for a high quality base coat and water based two-component lacquer. A lacquer so strong it can actually handle my family of men on these few square meters 😉
We’re turning the alcove, the double sleeping area above the cabin, into the boys’ room. And to give the camper van that homey feeling we’re painting it the same light blue color as the kids’ room in our apartment. It makes it feel bigger and it’s a nice fresh color for this relatively small space. I’ve painted grass and stuck on some stickers depicting woodland creatures all around, just above the mattress… A little of the outside inside. Our eldest son Roemer was very taken with his new diggs and is proudly showing off his new bed to his friends!
We’re also sowing herbs in two ‘hanging balcony bins’, the kind we can easily hang out of our camper’s kitchen window (only when we’re stationary, obviously ;-). Roemer especially enjoys sowing and growing stuff and it’s a great, playful, way to increase his involvement in this project. In a while he’ll be able to make his own pesto on the road. Personally I put a lot of stock in healthy eating healthy and organic food, and getting our own mobile herb garden makes it easier for me to keep track of that…
And I imagine that once we’re on the road, and the kids are tucked away asleep in their forest beds, Michiel and I will just linger outside under a balmy, starry sky, nice and romantic at our picnic table! So I needed to tackle that as well 😉
Luckily there are scores of cute types of oilcloth to cover the table and the seats. Very easy to do with a staple gun and, oh lucky me, very fast results. Candle (or moon) light, an olive or two, glass of cava… I am completely over the moon with my camper van plan again.
Summery greetings,
Jet
