Fifth Wheel Bedroom Remodeling Project

It is not all fun and games on the road.  Sometimes you just have to tackle a project or two.
 
Shortly after we arrived in Moose, Wyoming, we started a bedroom remodeling project. Mary is highly allergic to dust mites; and, of course, the way recreational vehicles are decorated, the cornices are padded and upholstered.  In our fifth wheel the slideout in the bedroom also has padded fabric inserts. We've been traveling for six years in our fifth wheel and since it is almost impossible to clean the padded upholstery, we decided to get rid of it.

The old television

Bedroom before remodeling - note the 
green fabric on the sides of the slideout

Mary decided that we (meaning, of course, Lee) could remove the cornices and remove the green fabric that has never matched anything and is very dark. Then we could wallpaper them instead. Of course, it ended up to be quite a bit more complicated. There were a million staples in each cornice which had to be removed.  

The bedspread that we are replacing isn't actually that old but it just fell apart.  The lining starting coming apart right from the time we brought it home.
 

Lee removing staples from a cornice

They are lined with staples

Just a few that were removed

 Then once the fabric was removed, we ended up with cornices that were of really low grade lumpy wood. Lee first sanded off the big lumps. Then he painted each cornice. After that he applied a wallpaper liner to get rid of any other lumps that would be seen once the marbled wallpaper was in place.
 

Lee putting a liner on a cornice

We let the liner dry over night. Then the next day we applied the first coat of wallpaper on the cornices and the slide. Lee did the corners and Mary did the rest of the cornices. The marbled paper Mary used was dark on one side and light on the other so when Lee hung the paper around the slide, the top and right side looked dark and the other side looked light. So, Mary decided that she would make a layered look by tearing paper. She applied light paper over the darker spaces and some darker paper over the light spaces. It came out looking pretty good.  She did the layered look on the cornices too.

Lee wallpapering the masonite boards he cut 
to fit in the area around the slide

Smoothing out the paper

The slide after the fabric was removed

First board attached with new paper

All boards are now up

Lee is reattaching the trim boards

Mary is wallpapering the cornice boards

One with wallpapering and tearing done

Of course, because of the layers, we decided we needed to Mod Podge the layers of paper to make sure they didn't peel. That had to dry a day. Then we applied a polyurethane sealant over everything to get rid of the tackiness. Then, of course, Lee had to hang all the cornices. 

Cornice is hung

Lee is putting up a wire molding to hold the cords for the electric mattress pad.  He did this on both sides of the bed.

The finished product

Well, he still had to add the polyurethane coat to the slide

We have to say, it looks great like maybe the fifth wheel came this way.

The other thing that Mary wanted was new shades that were easier to raise and lower. She ended up ordering room darkening regular roller shades that were very inexpensive but filled the bill. You can't see them when they are up and, since Mary always likes privacy, she found some window film that went really well with the new cornices and put that on. Now we have light in the bedroom with privacy.

In the bathroom we took out the old Venetian blinds and put up the new cornice and the same privacy film. We tested it by looking from the outside in at several times of the day and night and you can't see in all at but the bathroom is now a lot brighter.  Of course, the cornice in the bathroom wasn't as large because it didn't need to be to hide the blinds.  So, we may make a bigger one when we get to Texas.

Mary put together a wall plaque for the bathroom

The next project was replacing the old television with a new flat screen. Since we played most of the time that we were here in Moose, we didn't quite get that done. Lee spent yesterday fixing it so that we could move on without it falling down and being destroyed. When we get to Texas, he can fix it the way it should be done. 

New Television

We are pretty pleased with the results. Now, of course, Mary wants to tackle the living room but for that we have to start with a new couch and chairs. Then we'll have colors and can go from there!!