I often hear from readers who are eager to give their pop up campers a new look, but just don’t think it is possible because they can’t sew. I love showing peoplewhat theycan do with a little hard work, even if they’ve never sewed a stitch in theirlives. I’ve featured several makeovers here on the blog from readers who couldn’t sew (like Shannon’s “No-Sew” Makeover), and I always love it when a reader sends in their own take on the “no-sew” makeover. Katie and her husband, Josh, recently sent me pictures of their own (mostly) no-sew makeover, I knew I had to share it with you. It is adorable. Here’s Katie herself to tell usall about it. 🙂
JOSH & KATIE’S POP UP CAMPER MAKEOVER
Josh and Ihad been looking for a pop up camper for little over year. It was very important for us to find one that had a functioning bathroom, since we have two little kids. We also hadto find one that fit into our garage, since we live in a HOA community. When we came acrossour PUP–we named her Sandy–we knew she was the one. She had everything we needed and more, andshe fit into our garage with twoinches (literally) to spare.
Sandy was in decent shape and everything worked fine, but she was extremely outdated and smelled pretty bad. I knew I wanted to give her a makeover, so Josh and I started by giving her a good cleaning. I used Woolite, like Larissarecommends for cleaning (you can see that post here), but added a little bit of bleach to get rid of the smell. I also used 303 Multi Surface Cleanerto get rid of the many black streakson the canvas, and it worked great. Our vinyl windows had a couple of tears where the seam met the zipper. I purchased some ofthisvinyl cement, and it worked like a charm to fix the rips. There were also a couple of small tears in our canvas, so I boughtsome Tear-Aid canvas patcheson Amazon, which also worked very well.
With everything clean and repaired, Josh and I moved onto the fun stuff. We painted our cabinets with Sherwin Williams Snowbound Semi-Gloss paint. We used one coat of primer then two coats of paint. I spray painted all of the original hardware to save money. I also coated it all with a clear coat to preventthe paint from chipping off, and we used a high heat spray paint for the heater grate. For our countertops, I found a kit online called Giani Countertop Paint Kit in Bombay Black. The kit cost $75 and was more than enough paint to cover all of our counters. It was very easy to apply, and I’m in love with how they came out. To finish the kitchen area, I painted our refrigerator with chalkboard paint and made a cutevinyl sticker for the front.
We installed plankvinyl floors from Home Depot in Stony Oak Grey. The floor itself wassuper easy to install, but Joshapplied quarter round trim to finish it off, and that was hisbiggest challenge in thisremodel. It was so worth it in the end, though.
The curtains and valances were my biggest challenge, since I do not sew. I spent many nights on Pinterest trying to figure out how to make curtains without having to sew anything. I finally came across an amazing product that I instantly fell in love with called Steam-A-Seam. This stuff is AMAZING! I hemmed all of the curtains, madevalances,decorative pillows and curtain drawbacks all using Steam-A-Seam. For the curtains, I purchased black out panels on Amazon and cut them to the sizes I needed. Then I hand sewed the original curtain clips tothe new panels.
I used an idea from Dawn’s Bohemian Pop Up Camperto hang my valances,since my pop up didn’t have any valances originally. To make the valances over the bathroom, I used the left over fabric pieces from the curtains, andcut them in strips, and layered them with the valance fabric for visual interest. Again, all this was done with Steam-A-Seam. Amazing, right?
I used the wrapand staple method to upholster the bottoms of the cushions, but I splurged on the cushion backs and had a local upholster do these in a fun polka dot fabric for us. Since I can’t sew, there was no way that I could tackle the cushion backs myself, so I convinced Joshto get them professionally done. I purchased all of the fabric at Hobby Lobby and used 40% off coupons. Once they were finished, I applied ScotchGuard to everything like a madwoman. Because we havetwo little kids andtwo dogs that travel with us, it was crucial to make sure everything was as stain protected as possible. 😉
Our table should look familiar, since I borrowed another one ofDawn’s ideas here as well. I spray painted the legs with Rust-Oleum Painters Touch Ultra Cover Seaside spray paint. I purchased the same decal Dawn did on Etsy and used Mod Podge to seal it.
I used chalkboard contact paper to cover our camperdoor and then usedmy handy Silhouette machine to makecute camping themed vinyl stickers. I also used decorative contact paper for the bathroom walls. The decals on the bathroom door were made with my Silhouette machine as well.
I’m so thrilled with how it all turned out. We had so much fun with our remodel and learned a ton about pop up campers, thanks to the whole experience and this blog. We can’t wait to enjoy Sandy and create wonderful childhood memories for our kids in the years to come.
Isn’t that amazing? When I first saw Josh & Katie’s makeover, I could hardly believe Katie didn’t know how to sew. It turned out so beautifully! So if you are one of those people that didn’t take Home Ec in high school, don’t despair. You can still turn your PUP into a beautiful home away from home with a little hard work and creativity. Nice job, Josh & Katie! Thanks for sharing!
Disclaimer: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. The Pop Up Princessis a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking toAmazon.com. This means that if you choose to purchase an item from a link in this post, The Pop Up Princess earns a small advertising fee to help pay for future projects and posts… so thank you! 🙂
Happy Camping!
)
