Retro Rollers | Backyard camping in hip vintage trailers

BOTHELL — As one of 12 kids, Jayne Vitulli didn't grow up with a dollhouse. But she has recently acquired the adult version — a vintage trailer named Miss Cutie Pie. And dolling it up has played a central role in her recovery from the loss of a beloved brother and from her own breast-cancer treatments.

Last spring, almost a year after her brother died, Vitulli decided she needed a project.

She chose a trailer, inspired by her four sisters who each have one, and in particular by older sister Marian Burns' 1950s-era Bellwood "canned ham" trailer.

She scoured Craigslist and found a 1965 camper for $400. It was rundown and infested with a bees' nest, but it had an adorable kitchen with an aqua-blue sink, stove and icebox; a bed; and booth seating.

Burns helped her scrub it down, replace the flooring, fix the seating and paint it inside and out. Vitulli shopped for vintage lampshades, Melmac plastic dishes and old-fashioned aprons on eBay. As an homage to her brother Richard Stolmeier, she hung a playful sketch he had drawn.

Working on the camper was cathartic. Her brother would have liked her project, she said, and she thought of him often while laboring on it.

"At the time, I was really struggling," Vitulli said recently, seated by a campfire outside the trailer, now parked in her backyard. "I would come to my trailer and clean it. I would get on eBay and find things from the '50s and '60s to clean it up. It made me happy."

Vintage décor

More than a year later, the camper is dressed in a sunny coat of yellow paint and boasts sherbet hues inside. Vitulli's eBay finds are tucked everywhere: Pink, yellow and blue plastic dishes sit on the table; a vintage handheld mixer rests on the kitchen counter; and aprons serve as curtains.

The icebox works with a hunk of ice stowed inside, the stove is fueled by a propane tank and the vinyl booth — with new seat covers Vitulli had made to match the original material — turns into a bed.

She also found an old-fashioned table fan and a working vintage radio, plus a tiny silver Christmas tree she pulls out for the holidays.

"It's a great big dollhouse," she said. "It's kind of whimsical, kind of silly, but it's my style."

The camper, dubbed Miss Cutie Pie after her favorite dish line, made its debut among the family (which totals 85 with immediate family and spouses) on a camping trip to Leavenworth last year with all five sisters.

Burns came along in her "Cherry Pit" trailer, also decked out vintage-style, with cherry dishcloths, bedding and cups.

Two other sisters have vintage trailers and another sister has a Volkswagon camper van. Burns' husband recently even bought a trailer for his mother-in-law, Kathleen Stolmeier, to use after she hinted at wanting one along with her daughters.

Burns paid $800 for her own trailer two years ago. She fixed up the wood-paneled interior with a cherry theme, and likes to read or nap there. She also set up a trailer campsite at her Lake Forest Park home.

"You don't have to be too fancy to have a whole lot of fun," Burns said.

Backyard camping

Road trips are rare for Miss Cutie Pie. In Vitulli's home, most days are packed with working part-time on her photography and greeting-card business and raising two teenage boys. Plus, Vitulli and her husband, Kevin, are not big campers.

Vitulli, however, was not content to let the trailer just park alone in the backyard. She and Burns created a campsite on Vitulli's property in Bothell.

The trailer now sits adjacent to a rock-lined fire pit, a picnic table and aluminum and metal outdoor chairs. The site is surrounded by tall trees that sway in the wind. On a recent day, Vitulli hung vintage aprons and a water bottle on a clothesline between two trees.

Sit by a crackling fire, roast some marshmallows and you'll feel hours from home.

It's backyard camping at its most cathartic.

"Isn't that what you do when you camp?" she said. "It's getting away and hanging out and laughing and playing cards."

Coming full circle

Their family grew up camping, with all the kids piling into a Volkswagen bus and heading to Wisconsin from their home in Iowa. The trailers are repeating their family's history, said Burns, who has saved nostalgic items like an old laundry detergent pail their mother used to boil corn; Burns does the same today. "It's doing what we grew up doing," she said. "It's not like we invented this stuff."

Nowadays, family get-togethers include their trailers. They celebrated their mother's 81st birthday by a campfire in Vitulli's backyard. Vitulli also brings dinner guests down for S'mores, and hosts Bible studies around the fire.

It's the best way to escape regular life, she said.

"You just need to slow down. I just like coming here."

Nicole Tsong: 206-464-2150 or ntsong@seattletimes.com