It's Mobil Home Makeover Time!

It's time for an Update

With the "Tiny Home" craze going on these days, I just realized that I live in a home that is "trendy", lol!  We were able to realize our dream of buying some acreage about 4 years ago.  The home was beautifully maintained, but to be completely honest, well, it's a single wide mobile home, so, there you go.  It was originally built in 1975 - again, that should explain a lot.  Anyway, last year, I painted the office paneling white to brighten up the teeny tiny room.  It was the only room in the house that still had the original paneling - you know, 1970's super dark paneling.  It turned out really cute, very farm house, if you know what I mean.  Mike liked it so much, that he agreed the rest of the house would look really nice painted white.  Well, it's been a year now.  I've been buying paint a couple gallons at a time when it was on sale, so I'm just getting around to this HUGE job.  First, I have to pull down the fake, shiney, super thin, knotty pine paneling covering the original dark stuff.  Here's a pic of what I'm talking about:

I have to admit, in this pic, it doesn't look too bad, but the truth of the matter is, in real life, it looks REALLY FAKE!

I've gotten one wall that leads from the kitchen to the hallway done (except the trim).  

 

I don't know about anyone else, but I think this is MUCH prettier!!!  This angled wall leads to the hallway, and is going to be my "Command Center"  I'll have a large wall calendar, a pin board, 3 altered clip boards and maybe a chalk board.  At least that's the plan so far, lol!

The next step was to work on the hallway.  The previous owners had added a wonderful mudroom extension off the back side of the mobile home.  I'm SOOOO happy for that space.  In fact, I use the mud room for my painting area when I'm working on signs.  The reason I mention this extension is because when I went to pull the paneling off in the hallway, I noticed there wasnt any of the original stuff behind it.  I'm assuming it was removed when the pass through to the mud rooom was cut out.  Anyway, I was stuck with the fake knotty pine, BOO!  I proposed an idea to Mike (that I was sure he would HATE), and he gave me the green light to try.  I took a small section and papered it with old book pages.

I'm sorry the pic isn't very good, but the hallway is REALLY narrow.  I had to stand in the mud room entryway to get this pic.  I still need to put trim around the door to the office, (it never had any)  but otherwise this is what Mike came home to that evening.  I was shocked that he liked it enough to give me the go ahead to finish out the entire hallway!   On the other side of the office door is the opening for the furnace.  When we moved in, there was a piece of paneling screwed to cover the opening.  It was REALLY UGLY!!!!  When we replaced the flooring last year, I took the ugly panel out and just left it open.  Honestly, this was by far, better looking!!!

I wasn't totally sure what I was going to do to enclose the furnace, but I had a few ideas rolling around in my mind.  I finally decided to bring in a vintage window screen I picked up a few months ago.  I was thrilled to see that it fit the opening PERFECTLY!!!   The screen was tearing out, but that was ok because I needed to put a solid piece in the opening to hide the furnace anyway.

 I pulled the framing off the back that was holding the screen in.

The back side is red, the front is kind of grey green.  I decided to leave the original paint, because the grey green blends nicely with the old book pages.  Here's the finished door:

The wrinkles in the paper in the door will flatten out when the paper finishes drying.  I'm very happy with this solution.  It is SOOOOO much better then what was here when we moved in, and also better then just leaving it open.  

The only thing left for me to do is to trim out the door ways.  Since there wasn't any trim to begin with, I'll have to get creative.  I'm doing this renovation on a "nearly zero" budget, I'm really hoping to not have to spend money on trim pieces.  Once I figure out the trim, I'll post updated photos.

I've got to go now, cuz if I don't start pulling paneling down in the rest of the house, I'll never get the painting done.  I don't have much time to finish this update, so off I go!!!