It’s time to show you some more progress on the Glitter Glamper!
As I mentioned in my previous Glamper renovation posts, my goal with the Glamper is to make it what I need it to be, yet still preserve the original birch paneling inside. The birch inside the Glamper is in amazing vintage condition, however, it just makes for too dark of an environment for me to work in, which is the purpose of the glamper!
I special ordered some tin ceiling tiles from Menards, which took a few weeks to get. I didn’t want the cheaper glue-up tile, because I don’t want to damage the wood with a bunch of glue or foam tape. So, I went with real tin. I also couldn’t use your standard tin ceiling tile nails, because they would be too long, and likely could poke through the roof of the camper, which would be disastrous!! I also felt that shorter nails still probably wouldn’t cut it, being that this is a MOBILE ceiling that will be riding down the freeway, bumping as it goes, and I didn’t want the nails to work their way out. So, I decided on some small screws, just 1/4″ long, enough to catch the wood. If I ever want to go back to the original birch, I’ll have some small holes to putty, but that’s a lot better than paint!
The first thing you have to do with a ceiling like this is find the center of the trailer, and start from there. I measured the ceiling and marked the center with a piece of tape. My son helped me hold the first tile against the ceiling while I drilled tiny pilot holes through the tin and attached. From there I was able to complete the rest by myself.
I used my ruler, sharpie and tin snips to cut around cabinetry where needed. I highly recommend wearing gloves…I did not take my own advice and got quite a few cuts on my hands, but hey, no pain no gain, right? This spot shown above left with the exhaust fan/window and sink light fixture was the toughest for sure! I had to take apart the fan and the light partially, and cut around two cabinets, all in one piece. But, it turned out great!
To keep the feel of the canned ham shape, I wanted the ceiling tiles to continue down the front and rear curves to the floor.
In the rear of the camper, however, there is a curve that is just too tight for these tin tiles to bend. Even if I could get them to flex that much, the paint would chip off really bad. I found some plastic material that would make the curve to fill in that space, and while the pattern isn’t an exact match, I think it looks much better to continue the white field down to the floor. I might eventually do the same thing to line the tiny bathroom!
I still had a couple trim pieces cutting across the white above, so I covered that up with some adhesive backed silver glitter vinyl.
Cleaning up the edges of this in a curvy camper is tricky, because you can’t just bend crown moulding around the curves. I really just needed something decorative that was wide enough to cover the corners, so I ended up finding some 1/2″ diameter silver twisted cord online. It turned out great! The trailer originally has some vinyl piping all around the corners, so that’s what made me think of something fabric in nature.
The back wall is the one place where I used a piece of actual trim, since it was a straight section. The rest was rope..glittery silver rope, of course!!
I first measured the entire length I would need, so I’d know to order 17 yards of trim. When it arrived I used a hot glue gun to attach it around the camper, taking care to keep the glue mostly on the tile and not on the wood, again, to preserve the original finish. (though hot glue peels right off the wood too if needed)
The last little bit of tile that needed to go up was on the front wall, which I had held off on because there was no wall. I removed the original birch panel because it had some rot in the corners, and I had to access the dented corner to make some repairs. So, last week I picked up a sheet of 1/4″ birch plywood at Menards, measured and cut it to fit, installed it and stained it! Yes, I was going to cover it up with tin tiles anyway, but I still wanted to preserve that complete look of the original birch walls underneath. So, I did it right as if I were going to finish it with wood, and then added a few tiles. If I ever want to go back to original, I just have a few small holes to putty! Overall I think it turned out great! I achieved my goals of brightening up the space while preserving the original wood, and achieved the cohesive look of a continuous arch of white paneling from front to ceiling to back, keeping all the sides wood.
This was a big project and the tin tiles were crazy expensive. But, I am really happy with how it turned out in the end!! So many more projects to show you and more to start on, but I’ll leave it at this for now! Stay tuned for more!
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