Our rolling cabin had, in my humble opinion, a very dated interior. The curtains were a heavy maroon fabric with gold embellishments in the shape of crazy flowers. Something I would imagine seeing in a French bordello parlor. The theme was carried through the "great room", to the bathroom, and into the bedroom.
The first thought I had was, "Those just have to go." When I started inspecting the window treatments, I realized this could be a huge project, because each wooden valance was covered with padding and cloth. Added to that, the window blinds were mounted inside each valance. It would require removing each valance, stripping off the cloth, and stapling new cloth smoothly over each valance.
Maybe I'm lazy, but I decided to simply cover each existing window treatment with curtain material we actually liked. I tackled the bedroom first. I covered the existing valences with a cheerful blue spriggy pattern. I also created a kind of slipcover for the headboard in blue.
In the "great room," I scoured the internet for a cheerful, but earthy material. This really brightened up the window treatments.
However, the dinette cushions had a stripe of the ugly maroon/gold fabric in them. I tried a few different things, but ended up making slipcovers for the cushions out of a neutral colored cloth.
Both the great room and the bathroom had wallpaper borders to complement the old décor. For the bathroom I found a border with little cabins on it. When I tried to strip off the old border, it was stuck on there so well, I doubted I could get it off without making a big mess of it. So I put the new border right over the old one! (Don't tell anyone!)
It was harder to find a border for the great room that actually blended in with my new colors. I ended up buying a roll of contact paper (!) that looks for all the world like old farmhouse bricks. I just love it.... looks like it's always been there.
We have other modifications to do. I'll keep you posted!
