I rent a mobile home. I painted and stenciled one bathroom. It looks pretty good. For bigger rooms, what do you do with the spaces/panels? Do they spackel well? Wallpaper is not in my budget. Thanks in advance.
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For Tanya Stone & others. Here's several places you can order mobile home repair stuff from. Just describe what you need & they'll be glad to help. I live in Washington State so I buy from these guys in Washington State:
VJ's Mobile Home Parts & Supply
1 (800) 600-6903
1 (360) 273-6903
But if you Google "Mobile home parts" then add your state like "Mobile Home Parts Florida" for example, you'll get a listing of places close to you.
OR: MOBILE HOME REPAIR .COM (click on "books & parts" at the top of the page) You can also buy down loadable books with detailed directions for DIY projects about most anything "Mobile Home". http://www.mobilehomerepair.com
These guys also have a forum where you can read & ask questions about mobiles, plus a decorating section in the forum area: www.mobilehomerepair.com/
As far as "TEXTURE" goes, I'm going to do one of the Brow Bag Wall Treatments (there are many) Just Google "brown bag walls", but before you begin the brown bag wall treatment in a mobile home, first tape all the cracks (or lines) in the paneling with WHITE duct tape. I like the brown bag (or paper bag) technique because it covers a multitude of sins (& wall grooves). If you find the pictures here to dark for your decor (like I do) then you can go back over the walls with either a plain paint, a water base stain, or you can do what I'm going to do: Add one part white Acrilyc or Latex paint (I'm using an Ivory color) to 4 or 5 parts Glaze, (this will make a transparent paint that works like a stain) then with a clean rag or large sponge, wipe this mixture onto the walls in a circular motion.
When it dries, If it's not the color you like, then go back over it again with another coat. Another option: While it's wet, you can also wipe off the top-most areas, this way the color will only be in the cracks (you'll want to wrinkle-up your paper bags first).
You can also buy one of the many textured wallpapers that are made for painting. They even have one that looks like stucco. They have MANY patterns. The trick is, to pre-duck tape you walls with white duct tape, & buy the Thickest wallpaper you can, so it'll cover those wall grooves in the paneling. Buying a textured wallpaper is the easiest & least messy of the ways you can texture your mobile home's walls.
If you do decide to use real plaster or drywall mud, then be sure to only put on VERY thin coats. A little at a time, PLUS, you'll need to rough-up your walls first. The absolute best product to use is Flexall. (it's called something else in the Eastern US). Google " Flexall Joint compound"
HERE'S A PICTURE OF FLEXALL:
doitbest.com/
Christopher Lowell (the famous Designer) swears by Flexall. It sticks to anything & doesn't shrink like most joint compounds do, plus it's flexible. You can also sand it after it gets hard. But let me forewarn you, if you DO decide to fill in the paneling cracks, be prepared for a very long, hard, VERY mess job!. You'll have plaster dust EVERYWHERE. Buy some plastic for your rug AND to cover ALL your furniture! I myself WAS going to fill in all my trailer's wall-cracks, but decided this was just to big a job! Plaster or Flexall can also be PRE-tinted. OR they can be stained after you've put them up. (For more info post me a note on ThriftyFun, as I'm a Decorative Painter by trade)
Also, Reading back to the very beginning of the posts: For nicotine coverage, use a "High adhesive primer" like Zinsser 1-2-3 or Gripper BEFORE you paint, you can tint these (don't use Kills!) otherwise you'll have to put AT LEAST 4 coats of paint on, as the nicotine will continue to bleed through Been there, done that mistake!
As far as getting a sheen with Kills or another tinted primer. Paint over the top of the primer with a clear gloss or semi-gloss GLAZE, OR, you can buy "Artists Medium" this is basically clear paint, or paint without the tint. It comes in all sheens, but it's much more costly than glaze. You can also use a clear glossy water base Varathine. Any of these can be tinted with acrylic artist paint.
There is a lot of cool things you can do with these homes. We purchased a 2100 sq.' manufactured home for 55,000 that needed some updating. Our budget was limited but I feel that we got a lot for our money. First, we removed the tack strips. We filled the seams with a flexible caulk then joint compound.
After we lightly sanded the walls we painted. I used a 1/2" roller for the walls. I did leave the strips on some of the corners for protection. My home did not have much wood work so I did purchase and add some from a store. We did change all of the moldings to white including the kitchen cabinets and fire place. The results were incredible.
We also took apart those fake brass ceiling fans and sprayed on a faux finish ( white, dark brown). I did not do much with the ceiling. I just painted it white and added some fixtures. We got rid of those plastic bathroom sinks. We replaced them with new sinks and faucets for about 70.00 each. I also added ceramic tile back splashes to each counter in the house and new cabinet hardware. I did all of this work myself and the materials ran me around 800 bucks.
I wish I could post the before and after pics for you to see. The house is transformed and it looks like a residential "stick built" home. My friends and family can't believe the results. I do not feel like I am in a manufactured home. It is worth the investment! I would tell everyone to buy a manufactured home. It makes good economic sense in these harder times.
So..... did the joints (between the VOG panels) ever crack after using flexible caulk with joint compound over it? I just bough a fixer upper and want those strips gone but one room was already done by the previous owner and there is big cracks in them. The previous owners used joint compound only
Thanks!
Did you put a kitchen backsplash over the big walls in the kitchen. If so how did you do it?
I sometimes feel like Im the only person o earth who has a mobile home with Sheetrock walls. Ive been removing the battens and taping and bedding the joints one room at a time and its now hard to tell youre inside a mobile home since Ive painted the walls and replaced all the cheap trim and crown. Ive also covered a couple of walls with old pallet boards to be feature walls. My next project is going to be installing end grain wood flooring in a bathroom since I recently found some 6 x 6 wooden posts that I picked up for next to nothing.
To Glinda: For people with allergies, you could probably use this product it's made to use in Schools, Hospitals & Industrial Kitchens. It has an Alcohol Base & the primer is made from Shellac which is a natural product: Zinsser B-I-N ... Just because Zinsser 123 is safe AFTER it's been up & has dried & aired-out for several days, doesn't mean that it's safe for YOU to paint on yourself! ... Another product that's better than Kills is a latex type primer by Zinsser called Zinser Bullseye 123, or another product that I haven't used but have heard good things about is called: Gripper.
* It would be wise for you to have someone else prime for you when the weather warms up a bit & you can open the windows up for several days in a row.
For Laurel: The thin plastic strips cover the tacks or nails where they put the panels of the mobile home together. You'll need to keep these on the walls & ceiling. Believe me, they wouldn't be there for JUST decoration (these builders are way to cheap for THAT!) the strips are there to HIDE something even more ugly than the plastic molding strips. Sometimes the DIY channel has shows on how a mobile home is made. You can get allot of information from one of these shows.
The plastic strip that hides the space in the paneling. What is it called so I can purchase it? And for the paneling after the stripes are put on. What kind of paint texturing would be good?
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