Yes, the pop up camper is finally finished. It actually has been finished for a while, but we haven’t had a chance to set it up and take pictures. This past weekend, we finally got to take the camper out for a quick little overnight trip at a county campground. It was close, the weather was pretty nice, and we had a great time with good friends. Before we packed up, I had Mr. TypeTwoFun tackle breakfast so I could snap a few “after” pictures of the finished camper. I took about 10 minutes to clean the camper up quickly, and then set up for the shots. No, the camper doesn’t usually look like this when we camp… well, except for the beds{I love cozy beds!}, but it was so much more homey and pretty all set up. Mr. TypeTwoFun was rolling his eyes the whole time, but the girls and I love it. So here you go… we’ll show you our camper’s “glamour shots.”
Here’s my kitchen area, which also doubles as our bathroom area. I just love the way the creamy, off-white cabinets lighten up the whole space. I was sure that we’d have issues with everything showing dirt, but the cabinets and walls have held up surprisingly well. I give them a quick wipe-down with a damp sponge every once in while, but that’s it. They are really easy to maintain. Want to know how we did it? Here’s the post on how we painted our cabinets. We mainly cook outside on our outdoor stoves, so the indoor stove serves as a kitchen/bathroom counter space most of the time. A removable towel bar hung over one cabinet door gives us a place to hang dishtowels. The area actually has enough storage space that it remains pretty tidy–even while we are camping.
This is the master bedroom area. I love cozy beds { Have I already told you that? 🙂 }, so I use lots of pillows and fluffy comforters. We already had most of the bedding, but the duvet covers and shams came from Ikea. I love that place for bedding. The bedding is really inexpensive, well made, and soft and comfortable. I love that I can remove the duvet covers and pop them in the wash when they get dirty. We all sleep so well in the pop up camper. I put together a post hereon how we make our camper beds feel like home, because honestly, I would rather stay in the camper than a hotel. That’s how nice they are.
This is our “bathroom” area. We have just started to appreciate thecassette toilet. It’s been helpful for late night potty breaks, especially when the campground bathrooms are far away. Who wants to trek across the campground in the dark? 😉 We also use this area for storage. In fact, we recently built some tension rod shelving to hold all of our bathroom essentials. You can find that post here.
Here’s another view of our kitchen and dining area. I’m really pleased with how the cushions bring the space together. The colors of the cushions tie in with the palette of countertops and table and make the whole space seem warm and inviting. I seriously had to kick the kids out of the camper several times, because they just wanted to curl up on the dinette cushions and hang out. I made slipcovers for the cushions, and if I ever decided to change the color scheme, it will be so easy to make new ones. If you want to see the tutorial on the cushion covers, you can find it here.
We used Rustoleum Countertop Transformations kit on the dining table and countertops, and I have never regretted our choice. The finish is durable, and we’ve had no scratches–and believe me, the kids can be rough on things. You can read all about our countertops here. Although we wanted to figure out a more custom leg for the dining table, in the end, we just used the existing legs. They are pretty sturdy anyway, and we don’t use the table all that much. We like to eat outside as much as possible, so the dinette usually serves as a bed for kid #3.
At the other end of the pop up is our girls’ room. They love this space, and we’ll often find them playing cards or reading here. They can also pull the privacy curtains shut and use the bed area as a dressing room. I used leftover fabric from the curtain valances to make tie backs. They secure with Velcro closures and are easy to remove when we shut the curtains at night. I love the system we used to hang them (which you can read all about here) because it makes it so easy to take them down for cleaning.
You might remember this long cabinet was falling apart when we bought the camper. We couldn’t get the drawers to shut, and there was zero storage space in the cabinet where the wheel well was. We used MDF to construct a new cabinet, and this new storage space is rock solid. We store our games, trailer repair supplies, first aid kit, and all our dishes and cookware here. We have a lot of storage space in those little drawers, and I love it. It makes packing for a camping trip a breeze. You can read about some of our storage solutions here.
We’ve come quite a long way in a few months. If you don’t remember what we started with, you can catch up here. I’m sure we’ll never stop tweaking and improving the camper, but I’m pretty satisfied with how much progress we’ve made. Just look at the huge difference a little paint and hard work can make.
Not bad, eh? The best part is that we really didn’t spend a lot of money on the makeover. Our roof repair was our most expensive project. We borrowed from the current color scheme of our home, so we used leftover paint and bedding from the house. Using what we already had saved us money on remodeling supplies, but it is also comforting because it feels like our home away from home. We can travel and see places we wouldn’t be able to afford to visit if we were staying in hotels and eating out, and that is probably my favorite part about this whole thing. The camper allows us to have some great family experiences on the cheap.
What’s your favorite part about camping in your pop up trailer? Visit The Pop Up Princess Facebook Page and tell us what you love about camping in a pop up. And if you happen to have a picture of your camper handy–feel free to post it! I’d love to see what you’ve done with your space.
Happy Camping!
