Mandi shares her creative inspiration at Vintage Revivals. Her style? “Fearless DIY.”
She says about her design skills,
I was and still am just a regular SAHM [stay at home mom] that was sick of being scared of decorating. So I started a blog and started decorating at the same time. I knew nothing. If I can do it, you can do it too.
One of her more recent projects was renovating a 1973 Bell Travel Trailer nicknamed, “The Nugget”.
She had been looking for a vintage trailer for over two years, and finally found one this past summer.
Mandi visited the seller and got a first-hand look at her potential trailer.
When you are shopping for a vintage trailer there are a few things to keep in mind. They are ALL damaged. All of them. Usually it is water damage, and everything that goes along with that happy situation.
There can also be problems with the exterior siding, the frame, the electrical, the tires, and that doesn’t begin to include the cosmetic issues. I went into this meet and greet knowing that I could handle certain things, but having met a few other vintage campers that were severely damaged, I knew what to run away from.
Read more of her tips on buying a vintage trailer here.
This is what the trailer looked like when she picked it up from the Craigslist seller.
It didn’t appear to have been touched since the early 70s.
The renovation took four months of hard work…
…but when they finished – wow!
Looks like the perfect camping spot.
You can see more pictures of the trailer remodel at Mandi’s website.
Quite true. A perilous camp site. Keep am eye out for clouds on the nearest mountains. A storm there means flooding here tomorrow… or sooner. Nice remod on the Bell
OUTSTANDING!!! what a labor of love and talent…..my wife, who like LARGER trailers, was also impressed and may now reconsider a smaller unit….
Thanks D for your good eye. I wonder if she knew it was a washout when they parked the trailer there – could have been scary especially with the rains in CA this fall/winter.
About the 1973 Bell Trailer renewal by Mandi… excellent work, very well done. But the picture that says
“looks like the perfect camping spot”… my first thought was ‘you might have a problem parking your newly remodeled trailer in a wash out in the desert. I’ve heard that washes can very quickly fill and you don’t even see it coming, or think the rain is even close, but it flows from the mountains. wow. Find a better spot to camp than that. Maybe I’m wrong about the location, but that’s my first response to the picture.