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theider_gw

Redecorating a 1985 Mobile Home - Need new ideas!

theider
15 years ago

Hello everyone. I'm new to this forum and I need some designing help with my mobile home. we recently painted the paneling walls (that are no doubt throughout the whole house) and are trying to decide to paint the paneling ceilings or not to? I have pictures if anybody's interested. We have a lot of work to do still - we've replaced the kitchen tile, painted just about every room, redone the spare bedroom completely and remodeled the kids' bathroom all since May (08).

Comments (12)

  • wantoretire_did
    15 years ago

    theider - go to HGTV Rate My Space and do a search for "mobile". There are lots and lots of pictures of all rooms. Enjoy............

  • suesan_2008
    15 years ago

    Love the HGTV site. Thanks! Haven't seen that show in Canada.

    The biggest bang for the buck and effort I found was getting rid of the panelling look and painting the walls. I hired a professional drywall finisher to do just one wall and learned the most effective techniques from watching the process, as well as the tools and materials used. It is really easy and such a wonderful feeling watching that panelling disappear. My panelling was painted too which helped but just didn't cut it.

    Basically you fill the grooves with a fine 90 min "lite sand" drywall mud, let dry, sand with a large round pole sander, hand sand abit around the edges, repeat (the mud shrinks) tape trim & moldings, prime with an ordinary latex primer twice, choose your paint colors & brush paint the edges and roll paint on the rest. I used a scrubbable acrylic paint in velvet sheen. I am so happy with it, it's really not difficult, so I'm going everywhere with this in a 3 bedroom doublewide, even into the closets. The sanding may sound like quite a chore, but it's really not bad with the right tools, and technique to aim the mud into the grooves.

    A couple other simple changes that made a big impact were changing all dated door and cupboard hardware and ceiling lights. I used several low profile plain white fans with lights in several rooms, and did not have to pull out the portable air conditioner last summer.

  • suesan_2008
    15 years ago

    me suesan again - meant to mention that if I had paneled ceilings I'd certainly try the coverup there too. Harder on the neck, but any handy person should be able to help you out . . . It's quite durable; we have trains rattling and shaking the house, but the covered walls remain solid.

  • irisdonohoe
    15 years ago

    I would love to cover our paneled ceilings. Would appreciate any suggestions on how to do this.

  • ronbre
    15 years ago

    I have a double wide and have painted every wall in it..some more than once..and every ceiling..save your paint in case of cracks or separations..my sil had the kind of panels with the strips over..she took them off and filled and painted..and some recracked..she also filled spaces in paneling and some of those cracked..so it can be a problem..sometimes better to just paint..or replace with or cover with drywall.

    Christopher Lowell had a great book called "You can do it small spaces" that tackles remodeling double wides..all of his books are excellent and have really wonderful ideas..but that one is designed around 2 double wides.

    one area to be careful of is replacing plumbing and wiring..double check as some areas of mobile and modular homes have "special" plumbing and wiring made specifically for these homes and sometimes parts are only available at mobile home outlets..there is one about an hour from here and i've used it.

    I'd love to see your pictures..I'm an interior designer and would love to help you with any problems you might encounter

  • irisdonohoe
    14 years ago

    We have a 1992 Pine Grove Manufactured Home and we need to replace the sliding patio doors that the seal has apparently been broken in the glass portion. There is dust and fog?? Is it possible to replace just the sliding doors and not the whole thing? Has anyone done this? Thank you.

  • desertsteph
    14 years ago

    iris - do you mean just the glass? I think you have to get the whole frame it's in also. maybe not change out the opening framing tho. I'm sure something even from HD/Lowe's would be better than what was originally installed in the mfg home (think builder's grade in development homes).

    tho, yrs and yrs ago the x and I changed sliding door into a series of paneled glass windows (floor to ceiling like the patio doors) and 1 regulation door. loved that change!

    I may even do that eventually in my future 'new' mfg home - I noticed that the patio door frame seems ... bent. will find out after it's moved here and leveled.

    "A couple other simple changes that made a big impact were changing all dated door and cupboard hardware and ceiling lights."

    lol! I showed my sister a pic from my future home with one of those cheap glass hanging 'lamps' with shiny gold trim and I said 'that will be going' - and she said 'why?' ... duh. it'll be outa there asap! I love cheap in price... I just don't want it to look cheap.

    I was very happy to see that all rooms except kitchen and baths had ceiling fans and lights! that would have really added up to wire for those and put them in!

    I do need to figure out what to change one of those rectangular florescent lights boxes with tho... got one of those in the kitchen. It'll have to go eventually also.

    I have 2 here in the kitchen -but this place was always to be temporary anyway... it just stretched into 11 yrs... hard to believe I've lived like this for 11 yrs!

  • cmayorga12_yahoo_com
    12 years ago

    With panneling I would either change to drywall or if you go to Home Depot look in the wallcovering section. You will find several patterns and textured thin flat foam that you roll over the panel using spray adhisive,rolls that can make the panneling look like tin,stucco,or texture. Then you paint over it. The same goes for the ceiling tiles.

    I took out the dated kitchen cabints and replaced them with modern cabints from IKEA. IKEA items work well because of the compact nature of their design. I also took out the old closets. I replaced those with IKEA prebuilt wardwobe cabinets.

    Outside I took off the old wooden hand rails and placed metal rails used for decking from Home Depot. I placed a unbrella on the deck and used christas light hidden for outside lighting.

    I also changed the doors to standard house doors by trimming the frames.I also went to a salvage place and changed my kitchen window to a pane window 5' x 5'

    Took the ceiling fans out and rplaced them with multi light track fixtures with LED lights.

    Took out the kitchen cabinet door panels placed them with frosted glass. And inserted mini lights.
    Goodluck with your project.

    From Texas

  • Meraai
    12 years ago

    Have anybody before and after photos of there mobile home after redecorating it? Can you please email it to me?
    zimmie@mweb.co.za

  • Donna Morris
    8 years ago

    Has anyone removed a built in entertainment center that takes up the whole wall? If so, what kind of wall is behind it?

  • Debbie B.
    8 years ago

    I LOVE this forum! I learn so much every time I log on. If ever I had the time, I would love to go through every post and write up a booklet of advice on MHs written by actual owners! It would be so helpful to condense it all down. I actually did read every single post back in October, but I realise not everyone will do that. It definitely wouldn't be for money, just something I would email to anyone who requested it. Would anyone be interested in that? I probably couldn't get to it for a couple of years because I'm writing my dissertation, so if anyone else wants to take it on as a project, I say go for it! While I'm writing said dissertation, I'll also be refurbishing my MH over the next couple of years, and I'm going to document it all on a website and possibly a YouTube channel. I'll let you all know when the site is up! Meraai, are you in Zambia?? I just got home (1st of September) from a year in Zambia!!

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