Marie's history
Marie arrived at Chez Contrebande Bean in December 2020. She was previously used as a horse trailer and then as a motorcycle trailer.
She spent several months "in planning" and then work began in earnest in May 2021. We were keen to reuse as many of her original features as possible. We also sought to recycle or upcycle as much as possible in the project.
Because of her age and previous uses, our starting point was to strip her down to the metal structure. For a while, she was nothing more than a skeleton of metal and roofing. Once we did that, we were able to clean, fill in and repair all of her original structure.
We painted, added insulation, added windows and reused a horse ramp (turning it into a small door in the front). Marie's original plywood walls were replaced with lighter foam insulation panels and storage closets were added to the ceiling.
To create an attractive and welcoming environment, a new giant service window was created to allow it to open fully to the public for events.
Her cabinets were recycled from used kitchen units and adapted to fit around the large water storage tanks on the floor of the trailer. We then added overhead lighting, insulation and electricity and water behind the kitchen units.
To create a unique look inside the trailer, we tiled (with self-adhesive tiles) and created our own map of the coffee-producing regions. We used coffee beans roasted here at Contrebande Bean, and built continent molds to fill with resin.
We approached the renovation of Marie in exactly the same way we approach roasting and making coffee, with a lot of experimentation, love and patience. This project tested our creative and technical skills, and we are very happy to have her on the road and serving our clients.
Marie is available for private event rentals, corporate and community events, and specialty events and markets. Please send us an inquiry if you would like to learn more.
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