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BakedTaters · 05-23-2008, 07:33 AM

We have been contemplating our colors or a very long time now, and we would like to go with a dark blue in our front living/bedroom area. I have heard that it would feel too confined, but many designers claim a dark color can make walls disapear. There are a LOT of windows in there, and my curtains would be white, I thought that would lighten it up. So what did you do? Got pictures?
-Steph&B

Mel · 05-23-2008, 07:56 AM

Is the wood in your Airstream dark or light, and what about the floor? Any pictures to share?

In our Safari we went with a deep turquoise for the upholstery and very bright curtains, and that paired with a bright floor (yellow and white) and medium oak wood makes for a bright interior. Our Caravel has dark green tiki barkcloth upholstery and off-white curtains, also paired with a light floor and medium wood, and it's fine (see photos in my signature).

One benefit of dark upholstery is it hides dirt when camping!

Maybe take a sheet in the same shade as the upholstery you're considering and drape it over the seats to get an idea of how everything will look when pulled together? Bottom line, it's your trailer, decorate it how you like!

BakedTaters · 05-23-2008, 08:22 AM

WOW you have done a fantastic job! Congrats! Are all those toys yours!? I'm so jealous! Your pictures really help. I love how bright and cheery it is! Which makes me wonder even MORE about the dark blue walls!!

We are just getting the new sub-floor in, so this really is a clean slate. The possibilities are endless, and that's what is making it a hard choice. I know it's a small space, we can always re-do it, but painting over that dark blue paint might take a few coats, and there are already a few coats on there -the original beige, a white paint that was peeling and then another white paint on top of that. Brenden is really wanting to take the wall panels off, turn them around and rivet them back in, but I thought that would put them through a lot of stress and rivet holes, not to mention we want to live full time in there, SOON! We have thought about the floor and have about a dozen ideas on that too, (another tough decision, we want to do it right.) Since we have nice marine grade subfloor we thought just paint that and do a covering later if we want. Armorpoxy seems interesting, and comes in variety of colors and flakes to mix. My favorite idea right now is a light gray paint with silver glitter flakes- maybe it would look like shiny and match the stainless steel kitchen counters we have? I don't have any good pictures really because nothing besides the sub-floor is in, the stainless steel counter/table is currently set up in the house- the kitchen floor needs some rot treatment before we install anything.
I guess sometimes you just have to go for it and if you don't like it, do it again!

Mel · 05-23-2008, 08:31 AM

Thanks for your kind words! No, not all the toys are ours, as many of the pics were taken at rallies. I can barely keep up with the toys we do have!

Somehow I missed in your original post that the walls were going to be dark blue - I was picturing upholstery (sorry for the confusion!) If I were painting, I would probably want to get as much of that current paint off as I could, even getting down to the original vinyl and sanding and prepping that with a high quality primer.

I'm intrigued by your floor ideas!

BakedTaters · 05-23-2008, 08:40 AM

Reading back on it, I never really stated "walls" which would have saved confusion, sorry!

We are getting an IKEA folding couch/bed and- (who would have guessed) we're unsure of the color! Ha! We were thinking of the brown cover for sofa and when it's laid out a very bright floral (but not too fancy) sheet set/ quilt. Another curtain idea was using an IKEA sheet set that comes in white and orange modern floral print. Orange and blue go together right? Still undecided between that and plain burlap to keep it simple. I have already invested in red kitchen wear, so your yellow floor is looking really good. Is that stick on? It looks fabulous!

BakedTaters · 05-23-2008, 08:52 AM

Stole your Flickr idea to post these

Flickr: S&B's Airstream's Photostream

Silver Threads · 05-23-2008, 09:21 AM

check out you tube and search for airstream. i saw on there a while back where someone had painted their interior, i think it was a dark green but it will give you an idea. Good luck on your project. Cant wait to see what you come up with.

Inland RV Center, In · 05-23-2008, 11:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BakedTaters

We have been contemplating our colors or a very long time now, and we would like to go with a dark blue in our front living/bedroom area. I have heard that it would feel too confined, but many designers claim a dark color can make walls disapear. There are a LOT of windows in there, and my curtains would be white, I thought that would lighten it up. So what did you do? Got pictures?
-Steph&B

Solar gray Solardomes and Astrodomes, let in far more
soft" light, that adds to the decor.

White covers are OK, but they let in some light, but it's harsh.

Then there is the fiberglass vent covers, that let in a small amount of light, that's "brown."

Andy

ckelly617 · 12-06-2008, 11:58 PM

Did you ever paint? We just painted the bathroom "Battleship Gray". I didn't want to use Epoxy so we used Marine paint. There were only lik 5 colors to choose from. I love it! I thought it would be too dark, but I am so happy with it. Personally, I like the darker colors. Light colors can be kinda boring sometimes. Like you thought about going for it, but were too scared to jump in. That's my opinion anyways. Our bathroom in our house is a dark brown and I think the dark color makes the room look larger.

Lothlorian · 12-07-2008, 04:41 AM

I have to agree with Andy about solar domes. I decided to change out all my vents and upgrade them with new vents with motors and lights. I put the fantastic fan in the back and two white vents with lights in the front.

My wife had been saying the same thing you were posting in here. The walls were to dark and she wanted to paint them. Once I put in the new vents and the sunlight shined in on the walls it did not look dark and dreary anymore. It made the whole interior jump with beauty and style. We put in a ligher laminate floor with wood grain marks that matched colors on the wall. This light floor and the solar vents for our old vents with upgraded lights made a world of difference.

I am am a big believer in making the coach your own but I feel for myself if I keep the interior as orginal as possible I can sell it easier if I need to.

I will post a picture for you to look at. This picture has all the curtains closed except the bathroom where the light is shining in and the vista windows. The rest of the light comes from the vents above.

Lothlorian

nunya001 · 12-07-2008, 06:37 AM

For what it is worth - I ended up with blonde hardwoods and the walls are a light 'cream in your coffee' and the ceiling strip and end cap were done in a semi gloss bright white - these were before I put furnishings in which helped soften it up considerably

Ed Emerick · 12-07-2008, 08:24 AM

This is the inside of our 68. Greens and Yellows seem to keep it open inside.

goransons · 12-07-2008, 09:25 AM

Ed that's beautiful! What species of wood is that and what kind of finish/finish process did you use?

76sovereign · 12-07-2008, 03:47 PM

We wanted to spice it up a bit so we went with the Benjamin Moore Aura Low VOC paint. (means no to very low fumes) Awesome color selection no matter what color you chose. The way their system works is no matter what paint color you choose it will compliment the other colors you choose. You could pick pink, purple and orange and they would look great together, You have to go to a BM store and have them show you what I mean.
If you double click on the plugin picture you can see the detail in the vinyl looks like leather.

Also I have a more detailed description on the Blog link below.

Happy painting.

Ed Emerick · 12-07-2008, 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by goransons

Ed that's beautiful! What species of wood is that and what kind of finish/finish process did you use?

That is supposed to be Mahogany and we used the Formbys refinisher. The wood was in great shape when we purchased the trailer.

The interiors of our trailers are the wife's area, I just do the grunt work!

Inland RV Center, In · 12-08-2008, 06:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lothlorian

I have to agree with Andy about solar domes. I decided to change out all my vents and upgrade them with new vents with motors and lights. I put the fantastic fan in the back and two white vents with lights in the front.

My wife had been saying the same thing you were posting in here. The walls were to dark and she wanted to paint them. Once I put in the new vents and the sunlight shined in on the walls it did not look dark and dreary anymore. It made the whole interior jump with beauty and style. We put in a ligher laminate floor with wood grain marks that matched colors on the wall. This light floor and the solar vents for our old vents with upgraded lights made a world of difference.

I am am a big believer in making the coach your own but I feel for myself if I keep the interior as orginal as possible I can sell it easier if I need to.

I will post a picture for you to look at. This picture has all the curtains closed except the bathroom where the light is shining in and the vista windows. The rest of the light comes from the vents above.

Lothlorian

One more step, to a "FINAL" finish.

Clean the walls so that they are chemiclly clean.

Apply 2 coats of Future Floor Acrylic.

More light, makes the walls and ceiling show their true texture, and the cost? About $10.00. Yep, $10.00.

Advantages? Far nicer looking walls, much more light, and "NO" maintainance is ever necessary, along with no smell after a couple of days.

Then have before and after photo's taken at one end of the trailer, and showing the the other end.

Takes maybe a weekend, to do it right, but then you have completed a job, that will never need any attention.

And I will bet that "MAMA" will even be happier.

Andy

76sovereign · 12-09-2008, 11:32 AM

Do you have a link to the Solar Domes and Astro? I looked on Andy's site ( I always check there 1st) and typed in a search but didn't come up with anything.

Bev1940 · 08-30-2015, 08:56 AM

I painted the interior of my 1978 used a good primer first and then painted walls and ceiling cream white. My Son-in-law put in a laminate floor and I made new curtains and a couch cover, made a big difference! I just painted over the orange and yellow flowers on the bathroom wall put 2 coats of primer on first and used bathroom paint in a light sand colour, NO MORE FLOWERS! I read were some one had used paint for plastic that worked well on their shower I going to do that next.