Tin Poppy Cabin is a restored 1953 vintage mobile home wrapped in a spacious screened structure in the Larch Hills near Salmon Arm, BC. As of September 3, 2026, the printed rates are $185 per night standard and $215 per night for a single night — double occupancy, minimum two nights, taxes additional.
Images courtesy of Tin Poppy Retreat
It’s called Tin Poppy Cabin — one stay at Tin Poppy Retreat, open from spring through fall, about 25 minutes from Salmon Arm. What makes it unusual is the arrangement: rather than restoring the trailer and leaving it in a field, the owners built a screened, roofed room around it. The nose of the polished aluminum trailer, red awning and all, pushes out from under a long single-pitch roof, and the rest of the structure becomes living space.
The Trailer Becomes an Interior Wall
This is the design idea worth stealing. Inside the screened room, the trailer’s flank — red stripe, corrugated aluminum, original windows and door — stops being an exterior and starts working as a wall. It costs nothing extra and it gives the room a character no amount of new material could buy. The long dining table seats eight under pendant lights, with sheer curtains filtering the light on the screened side.
Images courtesy of Tin Poppy Retreat
The Screened Living and Dining Space
From the other end you can see how the room works: red-and-white checkerboard tile running throughout, plywood walls and a peaked ceiling, and the trailer’s original aluminum door opening straight into the room. A double futon sits in this space for extra sleeping. The honest trade-off is heat — the screened living and dining area is unheated, which is exactly why the season runs spring through fall.
Images courtesy of Tin Poppy Retreat
The Vintage Galley Kitchen
Step through that door and you’re in 1953. The galley runs down one side with the original birch cabinetry and drawer banks intact, a gas range, a full-height fridge, and a water dispenser on a wooden stand. The checkerboard tile carries through from the screened room, which quietly ties the two halves of the cabin together. Note the propane heater vent on the wall — the fireplace heats this vintage portion only.
Images courtesy of Tin Poppy Retreat
A Dinette That Converts to a Queen
At the far end of the trailer, facing a bank of original crank-out windows, the dinette is the classic vintage-trailer trick: two bench seats and a pedestal table that drops down to make a queen bed. It’s the reason a trailer this size can sleep as many people as it does, and the plywood benches double as storage underneath.
Images courtesy of Tin Poppy Retreat
The Private Bedroom
The private bedroom holds a queen and a single, tucked under the curved plywood shell with linen curtains on the trailer windows and a small reading lamp on a wood nightstand. Between the bedroom, the dinette conversion and the futon in the screened space, the cabin sleeps up to seven.
Images courtesy of Tin Poppy Retreat
The Outdoor Shower
The shower is outside, in its own timber-and-corrugated-metal enclosure with hot water on demand, and it may be the most charming detail on the property: a poppy-print curtain and the same red checkerboard floor, open to the trees. Indoors, the vintage mobile home has a powder room with a flush toilet.
Images courtesy of Tin Poppy Retreat
Design Details
- Restored 1953 vintage mobile home enclosed in a spacious screened structure
- Sleeps up to 7: queen + single in the private bedroom, dinette converts to a queen, double futon in the screened space
- Solar powered
- Indoor powder room with flush toilet; private outdoor shower with hot water on demand
- Propane fireplace heats the vintage mobile home portion only; screened living/dining unheated
- BBQ with propane provided; complimentary Wi-Fi
- 14 km of private trails on the property; open spring through fall
- Larch Hills / Salmon Arm, BC — about 25 minutes from Salmon Arm
What Makes This Stay Special
- Wrapping a vintage trailer in a screened room roughly doubles the usable space for a fraction of what a full build would cost
- The trailer’s exterior skin becomes a finished interior wall — free character, zero extra material
- Running one floor material through both halves makes the trailer and the addition read as a single home
- Heating only the insulated vintage core, and leaving the screened room open, keeps the systems simple and the season honest
- Original 1953 cabinetry, windows and the dinette-to-bed conversion were kept in service rather than replaced
Extra guests after two: $25 per adult and $15 per child under 12; children under two are free. Cleaning fee $50. Pets $25 per pet. Check-in after 4:00 pm; check-out 10:00 am. Email info@tinpoppy.ca. Phone +1 (250) 804-3314.
For another off-grid cabin walk-through, see He Built a 10×16 Off-Grid Cabin in the Woods Before Winter Hit. For a forest cabin built from what survived, see She Bought 25 Acres at 21. After the Bushfire, She Built This Cabin From What Survived.
Highlights
- Tin Poppy Cabin — Larch Hills / Salmon Arm, BC
- Restored 1953 vintage mobile home inside a spacious screened structure; sleeps up to 7
- Sleeping: queen + single private bedroom; dinette converts to queen; double futon in screened space
- Solar-powered; indoor powder room with flush toilet; private outdoor shower with hot water on demand
- Propane fireplace heats only the vintage mobile home portion; screened living/dining unheated
- BBQ propane provided; open spring through fall; ~25 min from Salmon Arm; 14 km private trails
- Complimentary Wi-Fi
- As of September 3, 2026: $185/night standard; $215/night single night
- Double occupancy; minimum two nights; taxes additional
- Extra guests $25 adult / $15 child under 12 after 2; children under two free
- Cleaning fee $50; Pets $25 per pet
- Check-in after 4:00 pm / check-out 10:00 am
- info@tinpoppy.ca · +1 (250) 804-3314
- Facebook: facebook.com/tinpoppyretreat
- Pages visited September 3, 2026
Learn More
Tin Poppy Cabin — $185 standard / $215 single night as of September 3, 2026.
Cabin: tinpoppy.ca/tin-poppy-cabin
Rates & Availability: tinpoppy.ca/rates-availability
Contact: tinpoppy.ca/contact
Facebook: facebook.com/tinpoppyretreat
info@tinpoppy.ca · +1 (250) 804-3314
Larch Hills / Salmon Arm, BC
Images courtesy of Tin Poppy Retreat. Pages visited September 3, 2026.
Explore More
- He Built a 10×16 Off-Grid Cabin in the Woods Before Winter Hit
- She Bought 25 Acres at 21. After the Bushfire, She Built This Cabin From What Survived
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- Tiny Cabins
- Off Grid
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Would you take a 1953 vintage mobile home in a screened Larch Hills wrap at $185 standard / $215 single night — solar, outdoor shower, fireplace only in the trailer core?
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Alex
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