Installing a Tin Roof Wall

Using recycled roofing tin to update a wall in a Vintage Airstream, Argosy or Trailer.

One of the walls in our Motorhome has the original Airstream wallpaper and just begs for an update.

While on vacation in the Western North Carolina Mountains, we came across the Otto Depot. There we found a lot of different options for updating our Motorhome wall but the option we fell in love with was old tin metal roof pieces. It was $1.50 per linear foot. We bought 20ft which ended up being way more than we needed.

So this is the Wall that sorely needed updated. I really have a love-hate relationship with this classic Airstream wallpaper. The groovy 70’s chick in me really loves it but otherwise, it is ugly. Every other Vintage Trailer update we do always ends up “girly” and I promised to stretch myself with making this more “manly” to appease my husband and son. I think I am achieving a good mix for all of us.

The How To’s…..

Again, we bought our Vintage Roof Tin from The Otto Depot.

Once we got it home, we measured the wall, piece-by-piece. Since this is a Motorhome, the widest piece is 35.5″. We decided to hang the tin horizontally vs vertically because we liked the look of the lines better. This is a personal preference.

The cuts were made one at a time, fit into place on the wall, adjustments made as necessary and then four coats of clear coat on both sides. We wanted to keep the patina and rust so we did not clean up the tin and decided to seal it instead. This part took FOREVER because we could not move on to the next piece until all four coats of clear coat were dry (for fit/measurement purposes). This is an all day product, folks!

We used screws instead of rivets to secure to the wall.