July 13, 2013

Vintage Caravan Interviews - Gerry McMaster

Well here we are my lovelies…We are now up and running with the
VINTAGE CARAVAN INTERVIEWS…

…and here is my first Contributor which is the lovely Gerry McMaster…

—– oOo —–

My name is Gerry McMaster and I live with my hubby in Melbourne Australia. We
have a 12 1/2 foot,1970’s Coromal caravan we bought about 4 years ago. We bought
it off a couple from all the way across the other side of Melbourne. It was in a
very good, original 70’s condition. Very drab though!

I was inspired by Happy Harris’ blog featuring her vintage caravan. I just loved it sooo much. At the
time, my husband was working a fly in/ fly out job and we wanted to go skiing on
his days off. We have a ski field only 3 hours from here. We decided to leave the van at a caravan park in a town near

the ski fields so we could just drive up and stay in our little van and go skiing. The setting is
so lovely, surrounded by green rolling hills and of course, mountains in the
distance.

It took about a month to transform the van, we sanded down the walls and applied ESP as an undercoat first. Then painted all
the walls white to brighten up the whole van. Then we did the same to all the
doors, only after the undercoat, we painted the doors with bright red gloss
enamel paint. The doors took a lot of coats, and it was very messy! I love them
though! After the painting, the real fun began! I really wanted to get some
Laura Ashley fabric into the van. I love Cath Kidston too, but her products are
not so easily sourced in Australia, and I’m not so good at ordering online.

I bought 2 Laura Ashley tea towels which I used as my kitchen curtains, I had to
cut them down a bit to make them fit. I also bought a beautiful reversible
feather duvet from Laura Ashley. As we have twin beds in the van, I cut the
duvet in half and sealed the open seem with matching red tape. The spotted side
is for my hubby and the floral is mine 🙂 I embroidered matching pillowslips,
spots for him, flowers for me.

I added some matching cushions, some I embroidered. I also covered the dining
seats in bright red fabric and added embroidered and crocheted cushions to
complement the red. I do all the crochet and embroidery. I also collected a lot
of cotton tea towels with red stripes and made curtains out of these for the
dining area.I added a bit of embroidery to the central panels, which added some
interest. I think adding a bunting in a vintage van is almost compulsory!

Not sure what style I’ve decorated it in. Maybe a toned down Happy Harris style?
I just love her style  🙂 We have taken it on a few beach holidays as well,
which were so much fun. We have taken it on a long drive over to the East coast
of Australia and also taken it for short weekend trips down the coast from where
we live, only an hour and a half drive to beautiful beaches.

I have also whiled away many an hour crafting in my little van 🙂 My favourite
thing about the van is its coziness and brightness. It is my happy place! I am
itching to do another one, maybe in a more muted, shabby chic style?
Cheers Gerry.

Thank you Gerry for contributing to The Vintage Caravan Interviews, she is a gal after my own heart…I think she has done a brilliant job of decorating her 1970’s Coromal Caravan don’t you?
Sadly Gerry does not have a Blog or a shop to go over and say hello, So Come on! leave Gerry a comment here and tell her what you think of her wonderful caravan decorating…she will be ever so pleased and so will I 😀

Bye for now my lovelies