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!