Hang a Vintage Awning by Yourself

I’m heading out to Texas in another week and so excited to be taking my vintage trailer, Glinda, back out on the road again.  I’m even more excited that I have doubled the living space in my tiny vintage trailer with the purchase of an awning custom made for Glinda by Tin Can Awning.  Since I have a vintage travel trailer, I can’t just run down to the local camping supply store and pick up an RV awning.  Vintage awnings were originally taken down and set up at each stop.  Vintage travel trailers have an awning rail where you slide the awning into the rail tube and then extend the outer edges of the awning to stand with awning or tent poles.

Jean with Tin Can Awnings helped me pick the perfect fabric for Glinda.  I wanted a fabric that was weather resistant, fade resistant, and full of fun color and personality.  We found the perfect fabric at Fabric.com called Rollingmeade Cosmo.   Jean and I discussed some options such as the double scallop border and trim and she got busy creating my custom awning.

My awning arrived and I was excited to try it on Glinda.  Only then did I realize the original vintage awning pole tips were broken and I only had two where three were needed for this awning. Thankfully, I now have a Bass Pro Shop nearby and I finally found some poles that would work.  I had researched awning/tent poles before I went there and Bass Pro Shop website said they had so many in stock.  Unfortunately, when we arrived, the poles I wanted were not to be found.  Even their store scanners claimed to have them in stock, but the store could not find them.  The store did have another pole model that was slightly more expensive than those I was looking at.  However, my dear hubby expressed to the manager how we came to this store for the express purpose of purchasing poles their website claimed were in stock.  The manager agreed to give us the upgraded poles for the lower price of those we were shopping for.  Score!!!

With new tent/awning poles in hand with a new awning, I was ready to hang it and see what Glinda looked like in her new outfit.  The large awning was heavy though and is ideally installed by two people.  However, after a little research, I found other vintage owners who had found ways to hang an awning by themselves.  I took advice from a few of these posts and was able to devise a way to create a pulley system that would allow me to hang my awning alone and in just a few minutes.

I shared this on Periscope this week.  If you are not following me on Periscope yet, please do.  I plan to share more on Periscope from my travels and adventures on the road.  You can find me on Periscope @cherylboglioli.  I’ll be using Instagram @cherylboglioli to share photos and quick peeks from my travels.  Stay connected and travel to Texas and Oklahoma with me.

In the meantime, here is a playback of my live Periscope showing how I was able to hang my vintage awning by myself.

Looking forward to meeting new friends and sharing my travels while Living The Art Life