When we first popped up the camper the canvas was the first thing I noticed. Not just because it is the “walls” of the camper (which were falling down), but because it looked like a crime scene. Their had been a horrible leak in the roof of the camper and the red curtains had bled on everything and when the main color of the canvas is grey the stains will stand out a bit….so let’s dive into Week Two of our Camper Renovation: How to hide a murder (no just kidding) How to Renovate The Canvas.
When we first decided to renovate the camper I must have looked at dozens and dozens of videos on how to get out stains (whether mildew or transfer stain from the curtains), It was on there that I found what products to use for cleaning mildew off of the canvas without ruining it further (thinning it) and what we would use to restore it.
Now I will say that I was happy we had already pulled the canvas off of the camper because I knew this was going to be a workout and the thought of trying to clean this while it was still installed was not making me a happy camper (yep I meant that pun in all its glory). I say that because they say “try not” to get the bunk ends wet when cleaning the canvas. I’m sorry…HUH?! I mean are there magicians out here cleaning these canvas that I don’t know about?! But anyway, let’s begin shall we.
The Magic (removal)
This is the magic. The gift sent down from the heavens. The coveted spray. Ok may be not all of that but it should be.
This is Starbright Mildew Stain Remover (I found it cheapest at Walmart), does it get the stains out No…. but it did fade them a lot but more about that later we’re focused on the mildew right now. Let’s begin.
You will want to lay the canvas as flat as you can while you’re working on each section and you will need to be able to rinse the section you spray and clean DIRECTLY after you clean it (VERY IMPORTANT). I will say that you really don’t have to scrub it that much because the base of this product does have a bleaching effect on the canvas, but it doesn’t bleach the color out of your canvas it only gets rid of the mildew (as you watch it disappear right before your eyes). So the steps look like this:
- Spray with Product
- Let sit for maybe a minute or two (at the most)
- Scrub LIGHTLY with a SOFT brush
- Rinse with Water VERY WELL
- I than used a Microfiber Cloth to wipe it down “dry it off”
I than draped it and let it finish drying overnight. This is where I noticed that it did take quite a bit of the stain out as well which made me happy!
Painting
When it comes to this next step I will say that I went back and forth about this. I read so many stories and watched lots of videos about the pros and cons of painting your canvas. But the pros I saw showed how it held up after a few years and I thought well lets give it a try because I knew we didn’t have the money to get a new canvas and there’s no way I was going to keep looking at the murder scene.
This is the paint we went with:
It is Valspar Defense acrylic exterior flat paint. Protects against Mildew, algae and is made to handle the weather. It covered our horrible RED stains in one coat and you will want to use a paint brush to apply it. Using the brush verses a roller allowed for the paint to be brushed into the canvas, where as rolling it would have just applied to the surface of the canvas in my opinion. I didn’t apply it to the outside of the canvas because it didn’t necessarily need it I mean why add more work.
It dried pretty quickly and that was while it was a humid day so even though it will feel dry I would still place fans in the camper and wait till the next day to move on. I also read comments about the canvas needing to breathe so you don’t get condensation while you camp. We didn’t run into that problem, we use a fan in our camper and we also leave our windows unzipped a little around the entire camper during the night. Which is suggested regardless if you have painted your canvas or not. The result is so great though!
Sanding
SANDING!!! I know I know…..you’re probably thinking Melissa you have no idea what you’re doing! No, but what is it we always say… No we don’t know what were doing but we’re going to keep going until we do. That’s how we learn around here people! Now using a 220 EXTRA FINE piece of sanding paper LIGHTLY wipe the canvas down. When you do this it will be a light wiping (sorta like when you take a dry dish towel and wipe a clean counter off). It will make it soft to the touch again and it doesn’t change the look of the canvas nor does it affect it either. There you go you just painted your canvas! Look at you learning new things!
Weatherproofing
We have now reached the last step and I can agree with you it’s tiring. Well I’m tired so be tired with me it’s ok. Every time we looked into what to use for the weather proofing it always went back to this brand 303 Fabric Guard for outdoor fabrics or as I like to call it my umbrella while I slept.
It’s extremely easy to use, no mixing, and it works! For our little camper we used about half a this. You will want to make sure that there isn’t going to be any bad weather because it has to cure for 72 hours before you can close up the camper. So check that weather report people, we’re at the finish line let’s not slack off now….please!
It is pretty straight forward. I just put it into a pump sprayer and sprayed it onto the canvas. Now it does say DON’T let it get onto the vinyl trim or the vinyl window sections so to prevent that they suggest using a piece of cardboard or something to block them while you are spraying the canvas. If it does get on the vinyl than wipe it off immediately with a dry paper towel which was easy enough. I did two coats because we’ve had our camper for sometime and I knew that it had been awhile since it had been weatherproofed. So it wouldn’t hurt and it was overdue but you do you.
After 72 hours it was dry to the touch and it actually had the same shine to it that the vinyl trim did. It also looked pretty snazzy if you ask me and here you go! Even hubs had to stare at it when he came home from work….heh heh
This was a project I was able to knock out in a weekend minus the weatherproofing drying time. It made a huge difference in the camper and I don’t regret a single thing. Not painting the canvas or that it got rid of the evidence from the crime.
In closing I want to thank you for always coming and hanging out in our little corner of the world. We hope you come back next week because we are going to tackle the cabinets and show you how we decided to bring a color that some friends just said “Why?” into the camper.
