Route5

—this post contains Amazon affiliate links—

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.

Ecoart Peel and Stick Tile Backsplash

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!

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We needed to name our van and we had several names on the table, but sadly, I can't remember most of them. Liam, the snarky thirteen-year-old, wanted Vanessa. "Get it?" he said. "VANessa." He thought it was hilarious. I thought it was too obvious. It came from the kid who hated our choice for the door panels so I have a hard time accepting any of his suggestions, let alone letting him name our beauty.

This picture is a fake. The van is real. The silly niece is real. Obviously the Friends cast didn't come to Ontario to pose in our van 😆

It came down to two choices: Gretchen or Pearl.

Of course, there's no rule that says you must name your vehicle, but this pretty lady is part of our family now, and like every family member, she deserves a name to be proud of!

Video transcription [FILMED on AUGUST 3, 2019]:

Okay, so, we're having a little - not debate - but discussion about what to name this rig. And I don't know why it's been such a struggle, but we're just really not agreeing. Which isn't so abnormal for us. It took us almost two days to name Liam. So, I mean, this is kind of our MO - that's okay. Last night I proposed the name Gretchen, which I really like. It was in a list of top names from 1981, so that seems appropriate. And Gretchen means Pearl. So, when I explained that to Scott, he was like, "Why not Pearl?"

If you watch Friends, there's this episode where Joey buys a boat at auction and realizes he can't pay for it, so Rachel helps him try and convince Mr. Beaumont - who was another guy at the auction - to buy it, telling him he could name it after his wife. And it would be called 'The Pam'. [Friends Video Clip] So that's what I hear with Pearl. "Pearl." And yeah, that's alright, that seems appropriate.

A little lightbox mounted over one of the jump chairs lets everyone know who our lady is ❤️

Now, the idea of Gretchen just seems ridiculous. Like when we were sure Liam was a Hayden until the moment of his birth, and now we can't believe we entertained such a thought.

Have you named any of your vehicles? I'd love to hear the story behind your choice!

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Montreal is beyond gorgeous. We could have bi-passed the city on our way to the east coast, but a huge piece of my heart belongs to Leonard Cohen and it was important to me to visit his grave and pay my respects.

The Shaar Hashomayim Cemetery is in a beautiful residential area where palatial old homes stand proudly on heavily treed streets, where poetry whispers through the leaves, and stone walls hold long histories.

We parked against the curb just outside the gates, shadows casting warm shapes across Pearl. Leonard's grave is just inside and easy to spot. I was moved to see the tributes left by others, and I laid my own small stone on his grave, following the old Jewish custom like so many before me had done.

On the day his death was made public, I cried at my dining room table. I tried to explain to my children why he was so precious to me. I tried to share the reason his words have power; how when I read them I feel like I’m being seen - not just to my soul, but right to my guts. How I curled myself around his final album - the one he recorded from his death bed - the one where he was too weak to even fully sit up - and I let his pain leaks over me and I accepted it as his final love letter to me. But the thing is, there is no final. Because he is forever. Heaven may have brought his soul a beam to travel on, but I’ll stand in his stead, daring the boldness of joy in the face of mortality.

This detour added hours to our day of travel, further exacerbated by own trip downtime to see the 9-storey Cohen mural painted on the side of a Crescent Street building. Little did we know, but the Montreal Pride Parade was happening at 1pm that day. We tried to get out of town at 12:30 only to discover the street we needed to cross was blocked off for the parade. We were sent on a massive detour.

In short, our seven hour travel day turned into eleven. ELEVEN! 😳

And the roads! Oh, the roads in Montreal! Pearl worked hard there! Not only are there many hills and valleys, but the ruttyness and bumps wreaked havoc on our poor girl! Cupboard boards kept flying open, things were falling, and finally one door ripped right off the hinges - YIKES! Thankfully no one get hit in the head, but it did mean we had to make an emergency hardware store stop for some eye-hooks to try and keep the remaining doors intact.

"Vanlife!" Zander would say, every time somethings new crashed open. We kept a good sense of humour about it all. And now we're having conversations about rebuilding all the storage inside. But that's a story for another time.

Would we go back to Montreal again? OH YES! Our few hours within the city limits proved that it's a beautiful city worth a much longer perusal.

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[this post contains Amazon affiliate links — any purchases you make through these links will put a little gas money in our pocket]

It wouldn't have been terrible to travel in the van as is. There is something charming about the original decor and as someone who is in love with the vintage aesthetic, I want to be sure anything we do is a compliment to that sentiment.

The door panels were in poor shape. The veneer covering was pealing in many places and it just looked shabby. We had a picture in our mind of turning them into something really fun and special and thought this would be one low-cost way to put our own touch on the van.

You can see where the veneer is pulling away and that the panel itself is a bit chipped up. Definitely time for an upgrade!

Our only real stipulation as we went searching for fabric was that it had to have some orange. We'd decided to keep some of the original orange shag carpet in the driving section, and the exterior of the van has an orange stripe. We wanted to match that, so we took a trip to the fabric store!

Stepping into Fabricland is like stepping into another dimension. There's a whole sewing culture that we're completely unfamiliar with and our strange project...well...the woman helping us had a hard time getting her brain around what we actually needed.

When we first started wandering through the hundreds of choices, the orange drapery caught our eye because it was staring at us from its roll on the rack. Literally. "It's got eyes," Scott said. We both liked the colours and the pattern, but because it was the first thing we noticed, we continued on. We eventually settled on an outdoor fabric because we thought it would be easier to keep clean. It was an orange and white zigzag and was kind of a safe choice. (Or as safe as you can get when orange is involved.) It turned out there wasn't enough for what we needed and it took us no time at all to agree: the eyeballs win!

Of course, there aren't actually eyeballs on our fabric — but once you see something it's hard to unsee it. (Like the bathroom paneling in my childhood home. There was one knot that looked like a woman holding a baby and no matter how I tried to not see it, they were always watching me when I went in there to do my business. 😳) So whether you see eyes or not, we feel really good about our choice. I'm so glad the zigzag didn't work out. It wasn't really what I'd envisioned and I know I'd have regretted it had we gone forward. But our final choice? Whew! So happy! (I couldn't find the same pattern we chose online, but I did link up a couple other hippie-inspired options by the same company, Mill Creek, at the bottom of this post.)

Confession: we were a little surprised by the cost of the fabric and quilt batting is certainly NOT cheap either. But was it worth it for the change it brought to the interior? OH YES!

How to update your van door panels (like we did)

You Need:

1/4" mahogany plywood sheet
pencil
skill saw
drill
sandpaper
quilt batting
fabric
sewing scissors
spray adhesive

We began by removing the existing panels and using them as templates to cut out new pieces from a sheet of 1/4 inch mahogany plywood. All edges were sanded smooth so there would be no catches when we wrapped them in fabric, and holes were drilled in the same spots they appeared on the original panels.

Using the old panels as templates for the new ones

Cutting out the new panels

Drilling holes to make installation easier
We lay quilt batting flat on a table, lay a template on that, and then cut out around it, leaving about an inch excess for wrapping.
Using a spray adhesive, we attached the batting to the front side of the template, and wrapped the excess around to the back, again attaching with spray adhesive.

A note about spray adhesive: wear gloves! My fingers were a wreck after this project - though I was able to get all the glue off using baby oil.
We followed the same procedure for the fabric. We were sure to line up the straight edge of the template with the straight/factory edge of the fabric to ensure our pattern stayed straight. Spray adhesive worked wonderfully here as well. We were sure to pull the fabric as tightly against the batting as we could to achieve a clean look with crisp edges.
We reattached the panels. We could feel the pre-drilled holes through the fabric and so we knew where to put each screw. It was a bit of a battle to re-attach to the doors because the thickness of the fabric - especially in the corners - was hard to push through. But it was definitely worth it in the end.

We are so happy with how it turned out and feel like that change along has had a huge impact on the hominess inside.

Next steps?

We're installing a new floor and recovering(ish) the back seats. Ish because I'm cheating and not doing a "proper" recover. One: because I don't really know how. And two: because we need it ready for our first trial camp next week! So excited to try sleeping in this thing!

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[this page contains affiliate links and any purchases made through these links will give me a little bit of gas money]

If you buy yourself a vintage vehicle, it goes without saying that you must make sure that vehicle remembers where it came from.

[Side note, if my van is vintage and it's younger than me... what does that make me???😱]

Every era has its own style and we all know the 80s is no exception. Slouch socks anyone? Much of my childhood was spent in the 80s, but my parents kept the radio on CBC and we didn't have a television to spit MTV into the basement, so I entered adulthood rather uneducated when it came to music. Part of Scott's role as my life partner has been to bring me up to speed — and he's done a great job of it — and while 80s music wouldn't be at the top of my list, there are some gems in there. And I refuse to take our beauty beast out on the road without a little taste of her own era.

With '81 names like Journey, AC/DC, Bob Dylan, and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, you can bet we're going to have an all-out sing-a-long party when we hit the road. The kids will groan and beg to change it to a pop playlist (which we will accommodate from time to time; we're not monsters) but we just HAVE to break that baby in with a true taste of her roots.

When we first went to see the Roadtrek, we realized it didn't have a radio at all — at some point it had been removed and the space it once occupied covered up with duct tape.

See the duct tape in the upper right? And check out that classic steering wheel, crank windows, and orange carpet!!!

Our brains were all-van, so we didn't really think about the repercussions. Actually, there's a big part of me that thinks the idea of a radio-free trip is kind of lovely, but I know we'd miss it if we tested that theory out.

We want the ability to listen to music, podcasts, and audio books while we travel so we had some decisions to make. Do we install a new stereo system? Do the factory speakers even work or do we need new speakers too? How much are we willing to spend when we've already busted our budget with the initial purchase? What about Bluetooth?

It just so happens that last week we popped around to various local shops looking for things we didn't know we needed for the van — not to purchase, just to build a list — and we found a very cool vintage-look wall-mount Bluetooth speaker. The Victrola Wall Mounted Bluetooth Speaker with A/C Adaptor and Built-in Rechargeable Battery. I loved it right away and knew the vintage styling would blend in SO WELL with our van's dated interior. The problem was, we didn't know how well the sound would carry through a big vehicle while on the road, AND there was only one left in the store (and it was on sale). So we bought it. We will test it in the van once it's finally in our possession. If it can be heard from nose to tail, great; if not, we'll return it and come up with a new plan.*

Building a Road Trip Playlist

It's easy to create a playlist. Especially if you use an app like Spotify. Just search and add — easy peasy. Because I'm not quite awesome enough to know what songs were released or made the charts in 1981 (I know, I know, you're totally disappointed in me), I googled it and went through a few lists, pulling out the songs I actually liked or could imagine us singing along to.

You can visit the playlist by clicking here, or just listen in below. 🎧

Did I miss any '81 songs you think just HAVE to be added to my list? Let me know in the comments!

*UPDATE: the speaker was not the right choice. We're taking it back and will look for something better. It was too big and the sound was lost in road noise. The van has no AC which means vents and windows are open. The music just got lost in all that. I will post an update when we have something new in place.

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CAMPGROUND RATING

WHERE: OWEN SOUND KOA

OUR RATING: ⛺️⛺️⛺️

Ingredients:

Instructions:

Response from the kids:

CAMPGROUND RATING

WHERE: HAPPY HEARTS PARK

OUR RATING: ⛺️⛺️⛺️⛺️⛺️

CAMPGROUND RATING

WHERE: SAUGEEN SPRINGS RV PARK

OUR RATING: ⛺️⛺️⛺️⛺️

CAMPGROUND RATING

WHERE: CAVENDISH KOA

OUR RATING: ⛺️⛺️⛺️⛺️⛺️

CAMPGROUND RATING

WHERE: Falls & Gorge (or Chutes et Gorge)

OUR RATING: ⛺️⛺️⛺️⛺️

CAMPGROUND RATING

WHERE: MONTREAL WEST KOA

OUR RATING: ⛺️⛺️⛺️⛺️

Products:

Tools:

Our Cost:

How to update your van door panels (like we did)

Building a Road Trip Playlist

About me

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CAMPGROUND RATING

WHERE: OWEN SOUND KOA

OUR RATING: ⛺️⛺️⛺️

Ingredients:

Instructions:

Response from the kids:

CAMPGROUND RATING

WHERE: HAPPY HEARTS PARK

OUR RATING: ⛺️⛺️⛺️⛺️⛺️

CAMPGROUND RATING

WHERE: SAUGEEN SPRINGS RV PARK

OUR RATING: ⛺️⛺️⛺️⛺️

CAMPGROUND RATING

WHERE: CAVENDISH KOA

OUR RATING: ⛺️⛺️⛺️⛺️⛺️

CAMPGROUND RATING

WHERE: Falls & Gorge (or Chutes et Gorge)

OUR RATING: ⛺️⛺️⛺️⛺️

CAMPGROUND RATING

WHERE: MONTREAL WEST KOA

OUR RATING: ⛺️⛺️⛺️⛺️

Products:

Tools:

Our Cost:

How to update your van door panels (like we did)

Building a Road Trip Playlist

About me

Follow Us

Labels

recent posts

Blog Archive

Popular Posts

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