Many of you know that we’ve been working on a large family camper makeover. I’m excited to show you the process! I hope it will be helpful if you fix up a camper of your own.
We purchased our RV right before Christmas last year. If you are in the market to buy one, I highly suggest shopping at that time of year. There were many to choose from on Facebook marketplace. The owners either didn’t have a place or want to pay storage, and/or they needed money for Christmas. We got a good deal.
The camper that we purchased is 30′ long Holiday Rambler. It is a bumper pull model with quad bunks in the back, a master bedroom in the front, one bathroom, and a large slideout holding the couch and dining bench. It was in very good condition. The interior was nice but a bit dated with lots of oak and tan.
I knew I wanted to brighten it up and make it more comfortable and functional for our large family. In case you’re new here, we have 6 boys. I wanted to change the bunkroom to have 6 beds instead of just 4, and add better storage for the boys’ clothing. The existing closet was just a small rod for hanging clothes, with no drawers or easy way to store clothes that don’t hang and keep it organizing for so many people.
Before I could paint, I had to figure out how to prep the walls. There are many videos about prepping walls for painting but I couldn’t find ANY that showed what to do about the wallpaper border. Remove it? Or leave and paint over it like with the rest of the wall covering?
I also couldn’t find any videos specifically showing how to remove the valances and blinds. That might seem obvious but they are made of wood and very securely attached! In fact, as we’ve progressed through our large family camper makeover, we’ve discovered that campers are very oddly put together. Everything is installed as the camper is being built and it’s all very tricky to disassemble without damaging the walls! I intentionally tried to get video of all the challenging parts so you don’t have to figure it out by trial and error like we did.
There’s a short video at the bottom of this post where I give you a little tour of the camper and show what it looked like when we got it. Then I show step by step which part of the wallpaper we removed and how, and how to remove camper valances and curtains.
Here are some before pictures, and the video tour!
Working on your own large family camper makeover? Here are links to all the supplies and tools I’ve used:
X-Acto Knife: https://amzn.to/2EnpfKA
Goo Gone: https://amzn.to/3jJXmfO
TSP Substitute: https://amzn.to/2CGGjLd (I said TSP in the video but when I looked at my bottle for closely it was actually this TSP substitute that I used.)
Dewalt Drill: https://amzn.to/32YC5ZN (This is the current version of the set that we use. The impact driver works well as a second drill, especially if there are two people working together.)
I have more video clips already filmed so be sure to check back here and follow me on YouTube so you don’t miss the next steps and the exciting reveal at the end!
If you have any questions or tips to share about camper renovations feel free to comment here.