Falu Rödfärg

Falu Rödfärg- Swedish red paint, made of flour, linseed oil, and iron oxide. From the very beginning, I dreamed of this red colour for the walls of the Carabane. Getting the paint proved to be a difficult mission, since I had it delivered to a friend's place in France just before the borders closed due to the epidemic. To bring it back, I crossed into France at an unguarded gravel road border with my bike, biked the last 4km, put the 25kg of paint into my backpack and then biked back into Switzerland! It felt very adventurous.

I was very happy to put the wood cladding up. The Carabane had stayed too long with just a rainscreen.

Here's how I made the boards fit the curve of the roof. I tried different techniques but this one gave the most satisfactory result.

1. Trace the outline of the roof on the back of the board

 2. Offset the trace by 2 cm (because I wanted a 2cm ventilation gap between the roof and the boards)

3. Score with a knife (to reduce splintering on the top surface when cutting with a jigsaw)

4. Cut with a jigsaw

5. Push the tongue-and-groove board onto the previous one.

I cut out the boards first and made sure they fit before taking them down and painting them, because I wanted to paint one coat on the back side as well as on the top and bottom edges.

The second coat was put on after the boards were back up.

I love the red colour. It almost glows in low light, and looks good in both rain and sunlight. I find it pairs well with the aluminum roof.