When most people get the urge to go camping, they grab a sleeping bag and a tent and head out to the woods. When Concord’s Paul Mitchell got the urge, he did something slightly more enterprising.
He built a teardrop camper from scratch.
A late-night TV show on the Travel Channel was the spark that ignited a 10-month project that has seen Mitchell – who had no previous woodworking experience – construct a 4-by-8-foot camper complete with flat screen TV and DVD player, stainless steel sink and custom counter in the back. There are college students nationwide wishing their apartments had the same amenities as Mitchell’s creation.
“I saw a TV show on the Travel Channel and said, that looks really cool. I’d like to do some camping, but I’m getting too old for this sleeping on the ground stuff. I’d never really done any woodworking before, but I said, I’ll give it a try. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s just a camper, right?”
Famous last words. As he does with all of his projects – which include the construction of several motorcycles and a current quest to braid a rug – Mitchell threw himself into the camper project. That was last October.
He has spent the last 10 months scavenging for recycled parts and making them look brand new, tossing about $2,100 into a camper that would likely have cost anywhere between $6,000 and $8,000 if he bought one new. The project began the day after he saw the TV show, when he purchased a trailer base from Northern Tool and plans to build a teardrop camper from the internet.
Mitchell wired the entire thing to run on a 12-volt battery hidden discretely under the counter in the tail end, adding a 12-volt light inside, and the aforementioned color TV with DVD player that also runs on 12 volts. He installed a memory foam mattress, a large window that doubles as the door to get in and out and the stainless steel sink, which he purchased for less than $1 online.
The craftsmanship really shines through in the back, though, where a trailer door lifts up to reveal a shiny counter – in which the sink is embedded – made from an old butcher block kitchen table that Mitchell cut and refinished. Not one to waste any materials, Mitchell took a piece he had cut from the table, lacquered it up, stuck a couple of carriage bolts in it and made a bumper that matches the counter’s decor.
There are also pots and pans stored under three kitchen cabinets that Mitchell constructed and refinished to match.
What, no en suite bathroom and home theater?
“I just wanted to do it for the challenge, but it kind of got out of hand,” Mitchell admitted with a wry smile. “I’ve been working on it and improving it as I go along.”
Another unintended side effect is Mitchell’s growing international fame. Thanks to the wonders of Facebook – which do indeed go beyond Candy Crush – he posted pictures of the progress as he went along and was bombarded with followers from halfway around the globe, who are eager to take Teardrop Camper Installation 101 from Professor Mitchell.
“I have like a gazillion followers now, people from Australia and the UK, all over. They email in the middle of the night and want to know if I’ll teach classes, how long does it take, all that stuff,” Mitchell said. “I’m thinking, I barely know anything about woodworking, but I can read a tape measure.”
What he lacks in formal training, though, Mitchell more than makes up for in hours spent tinkering. He’s been handy since he was a kid, which has allowed him to build several motorcycles essentially from scratch, some of which he has sold and others he’s kept.
He’s also not afraid to try new things. When he decided he wanted a braided rug, he went online to purchase one and instead decided to just whip one up himself.
“I found out how much they wanted for them – I said, you want $1,500 for that rug, you must be out of your mind,” Mitchell said. “I said, I can learn how to do that. So I made up a little wooden jig and sat down this winter, and I’m more than halfway done.”
The material used to make the rug came primarily from the Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft store in Concord, one of many local haunts in which Mitchell has become a familiar face. He even has a name for the people he encounters only when spending his afternoon hours shopping for his next project.
“I call them my day crowd, because I go all over the place to antique places and wood places. There’s a bunch of little old ladies that are really nice to me.”
And how does Mitchell reward that politeness? With handcrafted Easter gifts, of course.
“At Easter I made them all Peep mobiles,” he said. “I took Twinkies and added four wheels that are marshmallows, cut a slot out and put a pretzel in for the steering wheel and stuck Peeps on the top so the rabbits were driving the Peep mobile. I made probably 50 of them and dropped them off to my day girls. I even had a T-shirt made that said “The Peep Mobile rules.”
Had he had a few extra hours, Mitchell would likely have sewn the T-shirt himself.
Mitchell isn’t sure what the next project will be, but he and his trusty canine partner, Jesse James, can always be spotted in their workshop on Washington Street, using up a small village’s allotment of elbow grease.
Jesse James, Mitchell said, was particularly interested in the camper project, having sat on the first piece of plywood he put down and essentially never left.
“I pretty much built the whole thing around her, I swear,” Mitchell said.
So what’s next? Definitely something.
“Everyone has always called and asked what I was building next, ever since I was a kid,” Mitchell said. “And now, ever since you can just go on the internet, there’s just a plethora of information on there. You can learn how to do anything.”
