The Great (Panicked) 11-day RV Makeover of 2017

I did it! FINALLY. I got around to redecorating my RV, for REAL.  It was definitely the right time for an RV makeover.

I mean, I don’t really much care what my place looks like if it’s just me. However, I also DO like some style. RVs are notorious for their total lack of style and creativity. I’ve just been lazy about re-decorating my RV.

I had 11 self-imposed days to get it done. And somehow, I made it happen.

Let’s jump right in.

Not The WORST RV Interior I Have Ever Seen…

Here’s what it looked like when I got it.

Not HORRIBLE, for an RV interior, I mean. Not grandma’s house, but totally lacking any color. And it’s dark.

So, let’s take a look at my previous attempts to, um, ahem, ‘decorate’ my RV.

A brown carpet here, a yellow towel there, a beige comforter up there…I might have made it worse.

And recently, I got REALLY tired of this happening after every single move…

The dang curtains would come off their mounts. This had to be corrected. Here, I attempted to cover up the horrid peeling cushions using blankets. Not a good look at all. All carpets gone. Yellow pillow here, a white pillow there. This is the epitome of giving zero fucks.

This was back in the early days before my booth vinyl started to peel off, and I still had WAY too much stuff. (literally EVERYTHING you see here but the dog has been thrown away or given away.) Hmm, a couple of bright pillows that don’t match the floor carpet at all. Where’s the table? On the floor under the carpet. Don’t ask.

So, I decided, after knowing my rig might be viewed by hundreds of thousands of people 😬 that there was NO better time for an RV facelift!

RV Booth Cushions

SO, first thing was first, I took the cushions to get re-upholstered. I took them to P and M Custom Upholstery in Indio, Ca. They specialize in RV upholstery.

Because I mean, just look:

Yeah. Peeling cushions. I’d had enough of the brown sticking to my thighs and ending up on the floor. Not to mention it was just horrible looking.

Last time they will look like this. 

Considerations for the RV booth were these, but I went with an off-white😬:

These were two decent contenders. The green was just too dark. I really wanted to lighten the place. The other would have worked, possibly better than what I picked which is basically an off-white. The Girls are going to give it a run for its money! I suppose I will, too. #messy

RV Curtains And Valances

Next, I hit the RV interior makeover, first removing the curtains, the HORRIBLE ‘valances’, and the mini blinds.

Wasn’t so hard, just needed to fill the holes for cosmetic reasons afterward. But actually, my new curtains do cover them.

These cheap ‘Wal Mart’ rod hangars don’t hold the RV curtains on very well. I suppose you could jerry-rig them somehow, but they look very crappy without the crappy valance covering them, too, so…

Really RV manufacturers?? Cheap crap! On a good note, removing it all was as easy as unscrewing screws with a screwdriver.

No more mini blinds! (Except for the big window. Keeping it till I find something to replace it with.) One side of my aging mini-blinds would always be ‘dropped’ after a move.

Shopping For New RV Decor

THIS part is fun, but at the same time, totally exhausting. I went into EVERY Target, Ross, Hobby Lobby, Marshall’s, Wal Mart, and more within the Palm Desert borders and beyond. Oh yeah, let’s not forget Bed Bath and Beyond. 🙄 I would bring stuff in, try it, think about it, mull it over, and change my mind and have to return it and get something else.

 

Shopping is not really my thing, being a minimalist and all. Ugh! This is all stuff I got and much of it I took back or am taking back. It was a full-time job!

Still Not Perfect

So I videoed my thoughts as I was still pondering what I needed to do. This is a mid RV remodel take-a-look:

 

Shortly after this, I realized I had the perfect inspiration piece. One of my new favorite things. I LOVE the colors in this and decided to match everything to these colors:

After this revelation, choosing RV decor became a LOT easier.

Taking Off The UGLY-AS-F RV Border

So the border finally HAD to come off. I had a little fun removing the RV borders. THIS made the BIGGEST difference of all! WOW! My walls just came out looking so much more contemporary, bright, and de-cluttered.

First, it was fun…

 

…then it got weird and fun.

 

Removing RV border wasn’t hard at all. I just got under them and started slowly pulling it back. I didn’t prep them with anything. I only had to use some 3M auto decal adhesive remover to get the residual glue off.

 

 

No problem! I had to go pretty slow though, or removing the RV border would tear and fail.

Here’s the before and after’s of a couple of spots where I took off the RV border…

 

 

SO much better! Sometimes it came off a little harder than others. Didn’t take much more time, just a little patience.

Picking And Hanging RV Curtains

I only went through one set of curtains before picking my final choice. It wasn’t hard to figure out pretty quickly that the less colorful curtain on the right didn’t quite match up to my Wild And Free color muse. The one on the left matched perfectly.

I only cut into one panel before figuring out I didn’t really like the less colorful curtain and went out to find something else. Glad I found the Del Rey, on the left!

 

However, the curtain tops weren’t right for an RV- the grommet top, so I had to get creative.

RV Curtain Hack

YouTube to the rescue! I found someone who made their own holes in the BOTTOM of the curtain for their RV, which already had a loop seam which I could insert the rod through.

I made vertical holes which the rod would fit through, fairly close together, about 2-3″ apart, and weaved the curtain rod in and out of them. You have to make sure you count them out so the rod ends up OUT of the last hole.

It worked perfectly! I haven’t done anything with the bottom as far as hemming, but I do have the iron-on adhesive to clean them up and keep them from shredding. Maybe. Someday. I will maybe finish the job. Maybe, maybe not. 😂

The one issue I ran into was crap behind the RV walls that wouldn’t let me punch all the way through. This got rather annoying and left me with a LOT of holes in the walls. This was not cool, as you can tell by my seriously annoyed face.

 

Pillows And Decor

This is the fun part IF you end up getting it mostly right. I went through two different bedspreads. I kept trying different pillows for the bed. Left to right, I tried these. I finally ended up with a great combo that match my muse pretty well. These? Mostly just not enough ‘punch’ or color for my travel trailer makeover.

 

I got some letters which will spell out ‘something’ 😁 over the bed and painted them yellow with an acrylic paint. Frames were chosen for their whimsy and color. My RV makeover started to all come together!

 

With the frames, I had to remove the ‘stand’ that comes with them. How? Well, I basically just ripped them off, then hammered down whatever was left. I adhered them using command velcro strips. Worked perfectly!

Removing The RV Vinyl Decal

THIS has also been a long time coming. I don’t care for all the stupid decals RV manufacturers put all over RVs. My RV vinyl decals don’t do anything for my travel trailer, and they are fading badly.

More importantly, I needed to get my CampAddict.com new RV vinyl decal on my house on wheels for the upcoming Xscapers/Escapees convergence in Quartzsite, Az. (We are doing a presentation there on full-time boondocking, and want to have a Camp Addict presence.)

I started trying to remove my travel trailer vinyl decal with just the warm sun and a razor blade. This proved to be a HUGE PITA.

Goo gone didn’t help one bit. Nor did my 3m auto adhesive remover.

Looked for a solution. Finally settled on a heat gun. THIS worked WONDERS!

 

After a few good passes and pulling, the rest of the decal came off EASILY. You can see to the left, the ‘Sling’ part, that has way less adhesive still stuck to the rig.

ALL GONE! Getting the remaining glue off the rig was no fun. Not easy at all. I used this 3M auto adhesive remover (worked wonders over the goo gone) and at times a razor blade to scrape the adhesive. Removing vinyl decal from RV of mine was complete.

(Click on the product photos to purchase)

Finally, I got the Camp Addict logo on. Very pleased with it!

Here it’s set up, ready to apply…

…and the final result. 😊

WOOT! My rig, finally personalized.

I will also remove the ‘woosh’ from under the Camp Addict logo, as well as the Sling Shot vinyl from the front and on the other side. Why not? It’s fading and looks like hell.

Exterior RV Clean Up

I had not washed my travel trailer in about two years. Yep, something happens when one lives exclusively on dirt roads! You give up. It doesn’t matter anymore. I stopped washing it. But, for TV, THIS THING WAS GOING TO GET CLEANED UP!

I took it to a manual car wash and did the obvious.

Then I sprayed the tires with this Black Magic tire cleaner/shine.

I did the same for the black wheel wells above the tires and it’s amazing the difference it will make. The wheels just cleaned up nicely, no product applied or necessary.

I HIGHLY recommend the cleaning product called ‘LA’s Totally Awesome’ (referred to commonly as ‘Awesome’) to help clean your RV. If you have black streaks on RV, this stuff WILL get it off. It removes discoloration and stains like you wouldn’t believe on your RV. It shined up the crappy decals that weren’t super faded. It’s good stuff. It’s an ‘as seen on TV’ product.

I also used the tire shine/spray on the black tongue and it really darkened it back up. I should re-paint it at some point, but for now, this did a really great job of making it look tons better. Sprayed my tire cover and battery boxes with it as well.

Before And After Photos of RV Makeover

Ok, here they are, the final results of my RV makeover! Zing, zing, zing!!

Panoramic Of Whole RV

Booth Area

RV Bed Redecoration

Misc Shots/Areas

Living area

Ugh, the FLOOR! Gots to change that next. Maybe the counter tops as well.

 

View From Bed

 

RV Bathroom

 

View From the Booth

Conclusion

What’s next? Well, you might already know I want to downsize my RV size to an 18′. Still, that’s likely a year away or more. The only other improvements I want to do are to put in a new floor and take off more of the ugly, unnecessary decals from the outside of my travel trailer.

That’s all! Still looking at the options of a Casita that has been totally remodeled inside, a T@b 400, or maybe a tiny Airstream. Who knows. I have plenty of time to figure out the right rig for my lifestyle and needs!
Thanks for reading and watching, there’s, uh, much more to come. 😁