The Hygge Bus Makeover
Although the Egyptian desert mural was impressive and quite the eye-catcher, it wasn't exactly what we had in mind for the Hygge bus. Koen and I decided to give the old rusty Opel Blitz a makeover and a fresh new look.
Koen's generous Uncle Martin let us use some of his garage space for the renovation. We couldn't have done it without this amazing setup, thank you Martin!
In hopes of gathering inspiration, we sent the plan for the Hygge Bus and blank sketches of the Opel Blitz to family and friends asking them to share their ideas with us. Along with lots of encouragement, we received fun ideas & colorful illustrations in return!
Some of the ideas were a winter scene on one side & summer on the other, a cozy fireplace & fur, bright colors, Dutch orange, and a 70's style peace & love bus. The artists of the group responded with these bright and beautiful buses...
The makeover begins…
Here's a peek into the last 2.5 months of work on the Hygge Bus:
With the garage space and plenty of ideas, by April we were ready to begin the Hygge bus transformation! The garage is about an hour long bike ride from Amsterdam, which was sometimes a challenge, but always well worth the effort. It helped that half of the trip consisted of biking through lush & beautiful Amsterdamse Bos (Amsterdam Forest).
Step 1: Sanding & Sunshine…
APRIL 2014
Step 2: Primer - the blank canvas…
MAY 2014
Step 3: Colors, colors, colors…
JUNE 2014
Picking colors… the hardest part of the project in my opinion. Bora bora, poison ivy, papaya, iceland, elderberry, elephant, etc. How do we ever choose? As you can see, Koen caught me gravitating towards the blue hues (per usual)… if you don't already know, you'll find out what colors we actually chose in the next blog!
The Hygge Bus colors will be revealed in the next blog and stay tuned for the final touches before we depart on the tour in 3 weeks!
