Our DIY Pop Up Camper Makeover: The Reveal!
I’m so excited to share our DIY Pop Up Camper Makeover Reveal with you! We gave our little pop up camper a bright and airy new look with less than $400. Come take a tour!
Finally, after a couple of weeks of hard work and literal sweat, our Pop Up Camper Makeover is complete! We took this 15 year old camper from dark and dated to fresh, bright and airy. This post has all of the pretty pictures of our camper after our $400 makeover…if you want to see more detail of how we completed it, including supplies, make sure to read our Camper Makeover Details post here!
First, here’s a look at what our camper looked like before the makeover:
If you want to see more before pictures of our 2004 Forest River Rockwood Pop Up Camper, as well as our design plans, visit my first camper post here. We were lucky that there weren’t any structural issues to deal with, allowing this makeover to be all about brightening it up and making it our own.
Here is what our Pop Up Camper looks like now!
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 the bones a fresh new look and I think we did just that!
DIY Pop Up Camper Makeover Tour!
Let’s start this little tour at one end of the camper and work our way to the other end. This end of the camper is made up of our king sized bed, as well as one dining banquet (that also turns into a twin bed)
Camper Cushion Reupholstery
The bright, new reupholstered cushions really freshen up this space! I was a little worried about using such a light fabric for the cushions, but we really wanted a light and bright space. Admittedly though, budget did come into play on this one as well. I searched for outdoor fabric and while there was plenty (in many patterns that I just didn’t like), outdoor fabric is very expensive! Instead, I searched the upholstery section and found this light blue velvety textured fabric meant for couches, which also happened to be deeply discounted at $5 a metre! It’s durable, but it’s also easy to clean. In fact, on our first camping trip last weekend I cleaned off some chili one of the kids had spilled and it came out with no problems so that’s great!
I used a NO-SEW method to recover/reupholster the cushions. This method uses wood backings and a staple gun. It was easy, economical and perfect for this non-sewer! I think they turned out great. To see how I reupholstered the cushions, you can read my NO-SEW Camper Cushion Upholstery tutorial here!
The Countertops and Tables
We wanted to recover the countertops and tables in the camper to match the bright cabinets, so we tried using contact paper. 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 love how they look, however, they are not durable. They will work for now, but we will eventually try something else, like either painting them or replacing them.
Now moving along…let’s have a look at the other side of the camper…this middle space is made up of the ‘kitchen’ and another banquet area (that also turns into a twin sized bed).
Painting Camper Cabinets
The biggest impact in our camper is definitely the newly painted white cabinets. I can’t believe how much of a big change the white paint made…look how bright everything is! When choosing the paint we were actually hoping that it would be a little darker grey, but I do love how they turned out. We made sure to use a durable paint so that we could easily clean off scuffs and dirt that are an inevitable part of camping. You can read more about HOW WE PAINTED OUR CAMPER CABINETS in this post here!
Little Details
There are always many more details in a makeover that get overlooked until you have to deal with them. Things like cabinet hardware, nooks and crannies and little things that needed painting…things like the fridge, furnace grate and fire extinguisher holder. What to do about curtains, lighting and decor. So many things! You can READ MORE ABOUT THESE DETAILS HERE in our camper makeover detail post! But as you can see, we kept things pretty simple but cute.
The Flooring
One of our favourite parts of our camper makeover is the addition of the new flooring! We opted to use a vinyl hardwood peel and stick flooring that we placed right over our existing linoleum. The process of laying it down was quite tedious, but it was worth all the work because the flooring looks amazing against the white cabinets! Then I finished things off with some cute throw rugs to warm things up. I’m in love. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THE FLOORING.
Now Let’s Decorate!
Once all the big tasks were done, all that was left was the really fun stuff…the decorating! For a lot of the decorations I ‘shopped’ around my home for things. I used dishes and cushions from my summer patio for the camper…all bright and cheerful to match!
I also bought a few 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.
SO pretty.
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 OUR BUDGET IN THIS POST HERE.
We also learned a lot during this process, including a few things we wouldn’t do again, but overall, we’re thrilled!
Our DIY Pop Up Camper at Night
I wanted to show you how our camper looks at night with the lights on and all the beds out…it’s super cozy.
Now there’s nothing left to do but enjoy our new-to-us camper! We’ve already had it out camping, and we also have plans for a couple more camping trips by fall. SO exciting! I hope you enjoyed my DIY Pop Up Camper Makeover and feel inspired to decorate your camper too!
PIN IT HERE!
If you made it this far into my very long reveal post, thank you so much! I hope you love what you see…but more important, I hope you leave feeling inspired to maybe tackle a little trailer makeover of your own, it’s cheaper and easier than you might think!
All of my Camper Makeover Posts can be found here:
- Our $400 Pop Up Camper Makeover Details
- How to Reupholster Camper Cushions: A NO-SEW Method
- Painting the Camper Cabinets
- The Before (before pictures and design ideas)
Want more camping inspiration? Follow my Camping Board on Pinterest!
Happy Camping!
Its absolutely awesome Jo! well done!
Thank you! It was a fun project!
Looks so, so much better! Love the little pops of colour. Hope you’re able to find time to enjoy it while summer is still here.
Thank you Shauna! I love how easy it was to completely transform it…and now it’s time to get it out camping!
J!!!!! This looks amazing! Awesome job, love your touch ups. When your counters fail, you should be able to just cut a sheet of arbourite to fit and printer around the edge.
Thank you V!! It’s been really fun to see such a change…it’s amazing what a little paint and some new fabric can do! And great idea to use arbourite for the counters.
we just got a pop up and it needs some “pop” will not start until next spring however your blog has given me many ideas thanks so very much .ps this is the first time i have seen your blog but will not be the last
Hi Nancy! I’m so happy you found my blog…and our pop up makeover! I do hope you give yours some “pop”, we’re loving how fresh and new ours feels!
It is stunning! Great job.
Thank you Janice! It was a fun makeover!
Beautiful makeover Jo-Anna!! Such a bright and happy space! I’ve always wanted to makeover ours but just never have! Happy camping!!
Thank you so much Kendra! It’s been such a rewarding project…you should do yours!
What an absolutely fabulous transformation. It could almost convince me to camp once more. 🙂
Thank you Laura! It definitely make camping even more fun!
We just got a camper and I’ve been looking for inspiration to give it a “pick-me-up.” Your popup is absolutely adorable!! Where did you get your string lights? The ones I’ve found are those little tiny led ones (like 3/4 inch.) Is that what you have or are yours bigger?
Hi! I bought those lights at Walmart years ago…they’re not LED, just regular indoor string lights. These ones do need to be plugged in, as they are not battery powered. Hope that helps, and have fun with your camper!
Great job! Question: Where did you source the pop up trailer? It’s hard to find those nowadays.
Hi Lisa! We had good luck through Kijiji
Hi Jo-Anna,
I was wondering if you did something to the canvas to get them so white, it looked yellow in the before pictures and so bright and white after your beautiful makeover.
Hi Patti! I’m so sorry I missed your comment! We didn’t do anything to the canvas, I think it’s just the lighting. This is on our list of things to do though, so I’ll update the post if we find something that works!
Hello there, my question is did you paint the inside canvas or was it cleaned to the end result. We like how even the canvas looks brighter. Do you have any suggestions?
Thank you so much! Beautiful job!
Hi Kayla! No we didn’t paint the canvas…I think it just looks brighter because of where we took pictures…it was really good lighting. There are a few spots though that we’d like to clean up and I’m looking into different canvas cleaners so I’ll post those when I find something that works!