Since the very beginning I knew I wanted to find some kind of easy (cheap!) option for cleaning up the kitchenette - making it a little brighter and a little more "me". While I am all about embracing vintage charm, there are a lot of little changes that can be made that maintain that charm, but also make you go, "yeah, this feels like home."

I went on a bit of an Amazon deep dive to find these peel-and-stick tiles and I ordered them WAY BACK at the start of April. As this was near the beginning of the horrid 2020 Pandemic madness, any order that Amazon didn't deem essential, was delayed 😭 - so I didn't see my order until mid-May.

Eventually they did arrive and I was able to get to work.

These were pretty easy to work with, though not without headaches. There aren't a lot of straight lines within the van so I had to make a lot of cuts. Thankfully, in The Time of the Pandemic [dun, dun, DUN!], I had lots of time on my hands to slow down and approach this carefully.

In an ideal world I would have removed the entire window frame, but our pretty lady has had her face out in the world since 1981, and let's be honest here: anyone (or thing) that's been stomping around that long has got a few wrinkles here and there. Pearl's happen to congregate around her screws. Let's call them her laugh lines. Some of her "laugh lines" are entirely fused to her structure. I have no idea how to remove them. We'd have to call in a plastic surgeon and replace her laugh lines with new screws and her crows feet with newborn windows and yeah, that's not in the budget this year.

So I removed the screws I was able to, and for the rest, I tried to manipulate the tiles underneath the frame with a flat-head screw driver as best as I could. You know, like the professionals do it.

Before I go too far, I want you to understand what I was working with. Here's a fancy before shot:

This is at the time of purchase WAAAAAY back in 2019.

You'll notice the sliding panel that once-upon-a-time could cover the kitchen window. It was quite warped and damaged from moisture coming in from outside - or from cooking - who knows. It was one of the first things I removed when we initially got her home and it immediately improved things - letting more light in and cleaning things up. This left us without a window covering, which only poses a problem if you're shy and using the toilet, or getting changed. The closet doors open up to create a little room, separating off the bed at the back and the traveling cab at the front - making a bathroom/change room. We've found that two of our little throw cushions fit nicely against the window and give the privacy we need when necessary, so we have no intention of replacing the slider.

The old propane stove is still there (I removed it when prepping for the walls because we never used it) and that GORGEOUS wood pattern wall covering that is/was EVERYWHERE was not in the best shape in the kitchen zone.

My original intention had been to cover all the kitchen walls with the tiles, but I didn't measure first and only bought one box, thinking 6 10"x10" squares would be enough. Ha! Joke was on me. So I decided to use it only on the backsplash.

My solution for the rest of the kitchen wall was to grab some decals from my local dollar store. They had these long white strips that were supposed to look like distressed painted wood, and while it's not what I originally wanted, I don't hate the outcome.

The white brightens everything up, the tiles can be easily wiped down, and it's just pretty!

The hooks you see in the photo above did not make it to the final reveal. These were peel-and-stick hooks. Stuck on peel-and-stick wall decals. DUH! Of course the weight of the hooks made the paper peel off. The idea of hooks was a good one, but I had to redo that wall. Maybe I'll find some screw hooks down the road.

All in all, I'd say this project was a win. I'm happy with the end result, a brighter, prettier kitchen is just more fun to cook in!