Our $400 Pop-Up Camper Makeover

All the details of our bright and airy $400 Pop-Up Camper Makeover!  Including floors, painting cabinets, cushion reupholstery and more!

Our camper makeover included painting the cabinets, laying new floors, recovering the cushions and recovering the countertops. I also bought new bedding, floor rugs, string lights and some cute decorations.  But the main focus of this project was to give our camper a fresh new look and I think we did just that!

In this post I have summarized everything we did in our camper makeover, into one easy-to-find information post.  Here you will find quick links to each of the projects we worked on to complete our pop-up camper makeover.  Everything from how we painted the cabinets, to how we recovered the cushions, what flooring we used and more!  Here are the details of our $400 makeover.

Last summer we purchased a new-to-us 2004 Forest River Rockwood Pop Up Camper.  This camper was in excellent shape, it didn’t need any structural changes, all it needed was a little love and freshening up.  So we set an initial budget of $1000 for paint, reupholstery, flooring and decor, and after all this we only ended up spending a total of $374!!  It’s amazing what can be done with not a lot of money!  Make sure you go see the FINAL REVEAL with all of the pretty AFTER pictures of our Pop-Up Camper Makeover!  CLICK HERE TO SEE THAT! In this post here though, I’m sharing a more in-depth look at all of the things we did to makeover our camper.

Painting Camper Cabinets for Less than $100

The biggest and brightest change we made to our camper was repainting the cabinets.  Although a very tedious job, the results are SO worth the effort!  You can CLICK HERE TO READ MORE about how we painted our cabinets, the products we used and more tips!

Freshening up the Drawers

To freshen up inside all of the drawers and cabinets, I cleaned everything with soap and water, then I lined the insides of all the shelves and drawers with a polka dot shelf liner I found in rolls at Walmart.  We decided not to paint the inside of these spaces, and instead we just cleaned and freshened them up. I like the feeling of everything being clean…and they look nice when you open up the drawers too!

Cabinet Hardware

When making over the kitchen area of the camper, my husband and I weren’t sure what to do with the hardware like the drawer handles, pulls and hinges…do we replace them?  Do we paint them?  Do we leave them?  In the end, we opted to keep the original hardware which is gold in colour and I’m really happy we did.  I love the look of the gold in here, it matches nicely and saved us a tonne of work.  When we painted the cabinets, we did remove the hardware, just to make the painting job easier.

Easy NO-SEW Camper Cushion Reupholstery

One of my most favourite updates to our camper are the newly reupholstered cushions.  I used an easy NO-SEW method and we absolutely love the results!  You can CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL TUTORIAL and to see more pictures of the finished cushions.

The Curtains

Thankfully the original camper curtains were in great shape and neutral enough in colour to keep.  The curtains were one thing that I was really happy to not have to replace (I can’t sew and I didn’t want to hire someone to make new ones if I didn’t have to).  The original curtain material is a thick cotton in a deep shade of navy blue that I knew I could easily work into the design theme I had in mind for the makeover, plus dark curtains are best for sleeping!  Which was such a relief, because I didn’t want to have to replace them…it would have been a big expense and taken a lot of time.  So I just removed the original patterned valances, then I washed and ironed the curtains.  They look brand new and are perfect in this space.

Pop-Up Camper Floor Makeover

To complete our camper makeover and achieve the look we were going for, we opted to place down vinyl hardwood peel and stick flooring.  Instead of replacing the existing flooring, we decided to just place the new tiles right over the existing linoleum.  I don’t have a tutorial to share with you on this, as you just really need to do it yourself and figure it out as you go.  The process of laying the flooring down was quite tedious, as we had to cut around a lot of little corners and edges, but it was worth the effort.  Flooring Tips!  Make sure to clean the old floor surface really well with TSP before laying down the new tile.  And have a really good utility knife with extra blades.  Oh, and make sure you have a few extra tiles in case you make a mistake cutting.  The Flooring We Used:  From Lowe’s:  Cryntel SelectionsPlus Stormy Grey 2-mm Peel-and-Stick Luxury Vinyl Tile

I LOVE the new floors…they look amazing against the white cabinets!

The Countertops and Tables

To save ourselves money, we decided to recover the countertops and tabletops instead of replacing them.  To do this we used a method that utilized contact paper to cover the surfaces.  I had read many many many blog posts of people using contact paper to cover all kinds of things including camper counters so we decided to try it.  I bought rolls of contact paper from Walmart and applied them with ease…it’s very simple to apply.  Then to make them more durable I applied 2 coats of Polyurethane.  I love how they look BUT, they are not durable.  Unfortunately after a few uses, the paper scratched.  They will work for now, but we will eventually try something else, like either painting them or completely replacing them.

Table and Counter Trim

We decided to leave the original plastic trim along the tables and countertops, thinking that we’ll replace it at a later date with white trim.  The trim that’s there right now has a line of gold in it that matches the hardware, so they’re fine for now.

It’s All in the Details

Once all the big makeover projects were completed, all that was left to do was decorate!  This was the part I was looking forward to the most.  I couldn’t wait to make my bright and airy vision come to life.  My goal for the decorating was to make the camper cheery and fun, but I also didn’t want to spend a lot of money.  So for a lot of the decorations I ‘shopped’ around my home for things I already had, like dishes and cushions from my summer patio that could instead be used in the camper…all bright and cheerful to match!  I did buy a few new things like string lights and new rugs for the floor, but I didn’t really spend much.  Our goal was to keep spending to a minimum.  Here is a breakdown of the decorations I used (the items with the $ are the things I did buy, the other items I already had):

• Bedding:
  • Yellow Duvets:  IKEA:  1 king, 1 queen: $95
  • Speckled Duvets:  IKEA:  2 twin:  $40
• Cactus String Lights:  Simons $10
• Globe String Lights:  Walmart  $16
• Boho Mat:  Simons  $20
• Jersey Shag Rug:  Walmart  $9
• Cactus Garbage Can:  Winners  $16
• Dishes:
  • Cactus Glasses:  Walmart
  • Plates and Bowls:  Superstore
  • Cutlery:  Simons
• Do Not Feed Bears Sign:  Saskatoon Farm
• Pillows:
  • Tropical:  Michaels
  • Striped and Polka Dot:  Minted

Let’s Talk Timing and the Budget

We’re just so happy with how it all turned out!  The whole makeover took about 2 weeks with us doing what we could on weeknights and weekends.  And we definitely stayed on budget!  If you remember, we set a makeover budget of $1000 but we definitely came in under that at $374 for all the renovation supplies!  You can read more about that below.

Our DIY Pop Up Camper Makeover Source List

Renovation Supplies:  Budget $1000, Total Cost:  $374  !!  WAY under budget  !!

• Paint:
  • Primer:  KILZ Premium Primer:  High Hide Stain Blocker  $26
  • Cabinet Paint: SICO Evolution Paint, Custom Colour in Eggshell  $55
  • Grate and Fire Extinguisher: High Heat Enamel Spray Paint by Tremclad in the colour Aluminum  $13
• Cushion Fabric: Bought at Fabricland: 8 metres for $44
• Cushion Wood Backing:  Bought at Home Depot:  2 sheets for $20
• Contact Paper for Countertops: at Walmart  $18 plus $30 for Polyurethane
• Flooring:  Found at Lowe’s:  Cryntel SelectionsPlus Stormy Grey 2-mm Peel-and-Stick Luxury Vinyl Tile  $100
• Drawer Liners:  Bought at Walmart $18
• Miscellaneous: Staples, brushes, tape $50
• All the decorations I bought, listed above $206

We’re SO IN LOVE with our newly made over camper!  All the work was definitely worth it.  We’ve been out camping several times and are so happy with the changes we made to our camper.  It’s a happy space, but also practical!  If you have any questions about anything in this post, please feel free to ask in the comments below…I’m happy to answer!

A Summary of all of my Camper Makeover Blog Posts:

• The Before (before pictures and design ideas)
• The Final Reveal (all of the pretty after pictures)
• How to Reupholster Camper Cushions:  A NO-SEW Method
• Painting Camper Cabinets

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Happy Camping!