COROPLAST PRIVACY SCREEN FOR THE AIRSTREAM INTERSTATE

"What the heck is coroplast?!" you are probably wondering.  Well, much like the word Xerox, it's one of those trade names that has grown to represent the medium itself, in this case namely corrugated plastic, also known as "plastic cardboard" or by a term of greater technical accuracy which is "polypropylene fluted sheet".

If you have ever seen these USPS mail totes, then you've seen a type of coroplast in action.  It's a very light-weight, strong, versatile, and delightfully cheap construction material.  

This is also the same material that advertising and political signs are made of, the ones you see stuck in the ground outside City Hall when you go to vote.  Animal shelters love political signs because, after the election is over, people gather them up and they are used throughout the year to line the bottoms of small animal cages, all for free.   

It was by examining US Mail boxes like those shown above that I realized coroplast would have many potential applications within any small RV, not just the Airstream Interstate.  And one of the first adaptations I wished to make was for a privacy screen between the two jack-knife couch halves, for those times when I or my husband would be traveling and overnighting with a non-spousal partner, such as another family member.  For instance, we have loose plans to use the Interstate to take our daughter on a college tour.  Well, there's no way that a teenager would willingly share an immodest sleeping space with any of her family members, especially her father or step-father.  And frankly, if I myself am going to wake up with someone's morning breath in my face, it better be my husband's and nobody else's.

A coroplast screen addresses my desire for a bit of sleeping privacy by providing a degree of physical separation without requiring structural modifications and without adding unnecessary bulk, weight, or complexity.

Plus, I coordinated it style-wise with the interior of our vehicle, and I think it looks cool.  Once again, you can see the cross-referencing (design element repetition) that I talked about in my ART FOCAL WALL post:  The black color mirrors the window surrounds.  The folds mirror the pleats in the window shades.

This is the view that I get from "my" side of the Interstate.  I wouldn't know whether there's another person on the other side of that screen or not.  

There's the view from the galley.  The screen just sits on the floor and is sandwiched between the two couches.  Simple but effective.   

Most coroplast comes in the white or translucent white varieties that are used to make signs.  I realized that the best color for our vehicle would actually be black, which is a more visually-imposing color (and it would also match the decor).  So I first set out to find this product on the internet.

Ah, it was a sign!!!  I needed a black polypro sheet for my Interstate, and one of the largest national distributors is called Interstate Plastics!
:-)

0.158 inches is the 4 mm thickness, which is the one that works best for this application (IMHO).  

I quickly found out, however, that buying a piece of coroplast on the internet would be prohibitively expensive due to the shipping costs.  I ended up buying mine from a local sign manufacturing shop located less than a mile from my house.  I did not require a full 4' x 8' sheet for this project, but their policy was to only sell whole sheets if a customer was not placing a sign order.  And of course they charged a premium for a single whole sheet, but it was still much cheaper than paying for shipping.  I ended up paying $40 for a 4' x 8' sheet of black.  But if you hunt around, you might be able to find a half-sheet of white or translucent for as little as five bucks (I've seen examples on eBay).

Here are some tips and procedures on customizing coroplast for your vehicle.

As I mentioned in my recent ART FOCAL WALL post, nothing comes into our houses (wheeled and non-wheeled) without first being mocked-up using cardboard.  I knew that I needed a screen in the rough vicinity of four foot square, so I first taped together some cardboard pieces to represent that size. 

However, I quickly decided that having the screen be 4 feet tall would be too imposing.  Those are my knees for scale at photo left.  It did not need to be that high to achieve its purpose. 

See what I mean?  It's too much at this height.  Overkill.  

I cut the mock-up down to 43 inches from 48 inches, which resulted in a more pleasing, less dominating appearance.  That also had the advantage of making it short enough for storage in the Interstate's closet.

Now 43 inches high.  Much better.

This cardboard fitting procedure is a variation on the theme of "measure twice, cut once".  I didn't want to chop into a $40 polypro until I was sure of what I wanted, because that might result in waste.  I want to be able to use the rest of the sheet for other projects.  

To make straight, professional-looking cuts, use a T-square, a very sharp box cutter, and a steady hand.  

After I cut the piece to size, we had to make the accordion pleats, which have to run vertically so that the screen will stand up on its own.  Let me re-emphasize that - the sheet flutes have to run vertically for a free-standing screen to work.

Given that the horizontal width was still 48 inches, we did the obvious math (6 x 8 = 48) and decided that we needed each pleat to be about 8 inches wide.  However, some width is consumed during the making of each fold, so we attempted to make each pleat 7.75 inches wide.  That was just a guess, and we did not end up with 6 perfectly-sized pleats, but it's close enough (there are more rigorous ways to do that calculation and folding, methods that could result in greater precision if that's an issue for you).  

Getting a nice crisp fold is best done as a two-person job, one on each side to bend the sheet neatly over the T-square.  

Here is the final sheet accordion'd up and secured with a Velcro at each end.  I did not weigh it, but it's perhaps one or two pounds.  

And as I mentioned, at 43 inches tall, it fits perfectly in our closet, which is one option for stowage.  I could put sticky dots of Velcro on that wall and just stick it there, for instance.

We plan to add shelves in this closet, but probably only in the back part of the L-shaped space.  I need some remaining space in the vehicle for stowage of taller objects. 

If you don't have a longitudinal couch model of Interstate, you might still be able to adapt coroplast to create a screen that would work for you (for instance, you could make a screen for a lounge seating vehicle by only having the forward portion extend all the way to the floor).  Here is my general advice on fabrication:

• DO NOT run a coroplast screen up close to your heater because that could present a fire hazard.  We have a rear heater and you'll notice in the photos above that, at 48 inches wide, our screen stops 2 feet short of the Interstate's rear doors.  This is OK because it's not my shins that need privacy - it's my face.  Having a shorter screen keeps the plastic away from the heater and also allows the heat to circulate better.  See also our BIG FAT DISCLAIMER.  
• Note that black coroplast is really good at showing dust because of static cling.  This might be a concern to some folks, so you will want to pick your color accordingly.  

As always, this is a non-commercial post presenting personal opinions only.  No retailer has provided any consideration in exchange for being cited.

The Interstate is indeed a small ship, and I guess I've created a sleeper cloaking device of sorts.