I love seeing reader remodels. Nothing makes me happier than hearing your makeover stories, and the one I get to share with you today is particularly special to me. A few months ago, I got an e-mail from a reader named Amy, who wanted to remodel her pop up camper, but was a little unsure of her abilities. We e-mailed back and forth for a few weeks, while Amy picked out fabrics and worked up the confidence to get started. Once she got rolling, though, there was no stopping her. Amy and her husband completely transformed their little pop up, and I got to see the updates every couple of weeks along the way. I was so proud of her when she sent me the final pictures of her newly remodeled camper. After e-mailing back and forth for several months, I really feel like Amy is more of a friend than just a reader, so, without further ado, I’ll let my friend, Amy, tell you her story. 🙂
What a process this has been for us! We bought our 1997 Jayco 1207 in mid November. I didn’t get any pics at the time because it was so cold out when we brought it home that I was in a hurry to get it vacuumed out (it had TONS and TONS of Japanese Lady Beetles and flies all over it) and take out the curtains and cushions. I wanted to sew the new curtains and cushion covers over the winter, but I was kicking myself later when I realized I only had the two before pics that the previous owner had taken of it when he placed the ad on Craigslist. They aren’t very good and don’t have much detail, so remember to take your “BEFORE” pictures!
Picking out the fabric ended up being a lot longer of a process than I had anticipated. I mean… how hard can it be to pick out fabric? I really, really loved Larissa’s color scheme, and I kept being drawn to colors similar to hers. After several long hours spent in the Walmart fabric department, I finally settled on some fabric. They didn’t have all the material I needed, but they assured me it was easy enough to order it. After a couple of mixups in the order, I was told the fabric was discontinued. Now, I was already well into my curtain and cushion projects at this point, and I started to panic. We were able to find eight more yards of my cushion fabric at a store about 100 miles from me, and Walmart shipped it to my store for free. The problem was locating the curtain fabric! With the UPC code in hand, I was able to locate my valance fabric online at Fabric.Com. Whew! Disaster averted. 😉
The curtains were pretty easy. I enlisted my grandma to help, since she had about 60 years of sewing experience. I ended up being able to sew most of the curtains myself, once we got the process down. The valances were a little harder, because we didn’t know how I would be able to make them gathered. I took the length of my camper ceiling and doubled it to get the cutting length of the valance. My grandma had the idea to do a basting stitch about 1/2 inch from the top of the valance and another basting stitch about 1/2 inch down from the first stitch. After it was all stitched, I had to pull both row of stitches slowly so as not to break any thread. The valance panels were really long–24 and 16 feet in length–and we needed to gather them without breaking any of the basting stitch thread. When it was all gathered I used a sticky back Velcro and stuck it to entire length of the valance and then ran it through the sewing machine to guarantee that it wouldn’t come off.
The old valances were just stapled to the roof because the curtain track is RIGHT at the roof line, but I was not doing to do that with my new valances. We had to figure out a way to hang them without going that route. We decided the best way would be to use a piece of wood 1/2″ x 1/2″ with a 90 degree angle on it. We screwed one side of the wood into the ceiling (with short screws so as not to go through the roof) and then put hook Velcro across the other side. It worked out perfectly!
Once we got the valance figured out, we weren’t sure of the best way to hang the curtains. We liked Larissa’s idea of using Command hooks on our tabs, but it didn’t work for us. We ended up taking all the tabs and just using a heavy duty staple gun to staple them to the curtains. Not our first choice, but it works well, and you can’t see the staples with the valance hanging over the tops. I also don’t think it will tear the curtains all, which was what I worried about most.
When it finally got nice enough in Wisconsin to open the PUP, we got to work on the inside. We decided that we wanted to remove all the cabinets so that the flooring was nice throughout the whole camper, including inside the cabinets.
The original floor was just laying on top of the plywood, so it was super easy to get it out. Since the floor was out of the camper, it was a good time to paint the walls. We love the color of our kitchen, and we had some paint leftover, so we decided to go with that for the walls. The color is called Spring Fawn.
We went with a peel and stick vinyl plank flooring and also used floor adhesive to make sure that it wouldn’t come up over time.
For the cabinets we decided to go with Zinsser primer and Benjamin Moore Satin Impervo paint in white. We cleaned the cabinets, but my husband was in a hurry and didn’t remember to sand them first. Thankfully, the primer adhered to the cabinets without a problem.
My husband then painted them in the yard and garage so that they would dry quickly. We reused the hinges that were already on the cabinets and just spray painted them silver. We also spray painted the cover for the furnace with white spray paint.
After getting the cabinets put back in, it was time to start on the counter tops. I love the look of Larissa’s counter tops, but the transformation kits are expensive and hard to come by now, so we chose to go with Formica. We purchased particle board and cut it to the size of our countertops, then glued it down. We used 3M Spray 90 adhesive for the Formica, which we bought in sheets at Menards for fairly cheap.
On the counter next to the sink was a built-in stove top that we didn’t want. We preferred to have more counter space and extra storage, so my husband built a drawer to put there instead. We added a door and attached a plastic storage compartment under the sink, and now we have somewhere off the counter to put a sponge or scraper. There was not a fridge in the camper originally, only an icebox. We got a $40 dorm fridge at Pawn America that fits perfectly, and my husband just “built it in” so that it won’t slide all around or move when you open it.
The cushion covers seemed like they were going to be the hardest part for me. First, I made patterns–I took Larissa’s advice and used freezer paper to make them. With the help of my husband, we were able to measure the cushions and draw up our patterns. We even did it for the curved cushion. I had assumed that, with all her sewing experience, my grandma would know how to sew them. Come to find out, she was very intimidated at the thought of doing anything like that. She had never sewn covers for anything before. She wasn’t fond of doing zippers either. I showed her a tutorial that I had printed from a link Larissa shared on her blog, and we went to work. I took out the zippers from all 12 of the original cushion covers because that I knew they would be the right length for the new covers. I also didn’t have to spend a ton of money on new zippers. My grandma helped me with the first couple covers, which to my surprise, turned out really well. It actually didn’t end up being nearly as hard as I had thought it would be. I zipped out 3 more covers rather quickly all by myself ! 🙂
For the pillows, I got a free one on a Facebook group and the other I got at a rummage sale for $1. I just made simple pillow cases all on my own. For the tie backs, I used the same material as the valances and sewed the middle of them onto the side of the curtains. Then I put pieces of Velcro on each end so that they can close and open easily.
I’m so happy with how the whole thing turned out, and it didn’t end up being hard… just a little more time consuming than we had originally thought. It’s totally worth it, though.
Thank you, Amy! Isn’t her camper transformation amazing? Let’s take a look at those BEFORE and AFTER pictures again.
I’m so impressed. What I love most about Amy’s makeover is that she and her husband customized it to fit their needs. If you notice in the “BEFORE” shot, she used to have a pump faucet in her camper. They added the double handle faucet, took out the cooktop, added a dorm fridge, and made a little sponge drawer cubby. All those little things really help make the camper your own. Great job, Amy! Enjoy the summer in your “new” pop up camper. 😉
Keep those transformations coming. You guys are awesome!
Happy Camping!
I’m in the process of redecorating ours…completely inspired by your blog. Anxious to get it finished!
Awesome, Cindy! I can’t wait to see it. 😉
Love the drawer under the sink with sponge cubby. That is now on my list! Pick up my very first PUP on Monday!!!! 😀
Just finished cleaning our new-to-us 1994 Jayco. This weekend I begin renovations with a lot of inspiration from your blog! So excited!! 🙂
Awesome, Rochelle! Can’t wait to see it! 🙂
We are about ready to start on our pop up! I would love move info on how you replaced that fridge! Was there serious electrical work to do or is it just a simple take out old/put in new? 🙂
(I’m wondering because you hard a normal fridge and not a fridge made for a camper)
I am starting to work on our PUP remodel and am exctied to start! I have gotten lots of great ideas and how too’s from your site! We also have the pump facuet which I dislike very much. Was it hard to change?
I can’t wait to see all these pup remodels! I love them and can’t get enough and now that mine is done it’s more fun seeing them because I’m not stressing about what we’re going to do! 😉
The fridge wasn’t hard to do, but my husband did add an electrical outlet behind the fridge so that it could be plugged in easily. It only took a few minutes to do. He then added a strip of wood across the front bottom to hold it in place otherwise it would move when you opened the door.
The faucet was an easy change but since we bought a cheap faucet with both hot and cold, we can’t turn the hot on or it will cause water to pour into the underside of the sink since the pump only had one spigot. My husband tried to block it but he can’t seem to figure out a way to do it. It would be a really easy fix if you got a faucet with just one turn on knob.
Thanks, Amy! I’ve seen where people replace the pump faucet with a reverse osmosis faucet. I always thought that was a great idea. 🙂
Just discovered your site. So many great ideas! My family wants to redo our camper (a 1998 Coleman Sun Valley), and I was wondering how we could do the floors. I guess it’s not that hard to remove the sofas, counters and stuff? I’m so paranoid about things not fitting in exactly as they were before. Especially with our stove/sink counter, which you lift from the floor. But this was a great read!
We didn’t have any problems, Beks. I would just make sure you label everything and take LOTS of pictures. It really helps when you are putting things back together. I can’t wait to see what you do with your PUP! 😉
I love your ideas. I going to redo ours
Awesome! Can’t wait to see it, Donna!
Amy,
I followed your progress on the pop up portal…finished product looks awesome! Congratulations and enjoy!
Didn’t she do a fabulous job, Genie? It looks amazing!
Love the camper! I also just purchased a 1994 Jayco and was wondering if Rochelle ever posted pictures of her remodel?
This is hands down my favorite remodel. (not that I didn’t like the others) My Pop-up is set up almost exactly how this one is. This post was so helpful! Especially the details about the flooring and counter tops. It will probably be a while till it is finished and ready for me to post pics, but eventually I will get post them.
Isn’t Amy’s remodel awesome? She really did do a fantastic job! I can’t wait to see yours, Kassandra! Make sure to send me pictures! 😉
I just purchased a popup and love looking at all the makeovers! I am so inspired by everyone’s work, We are slowly remodeling and making decisions, thanks to all of you I know it can be accomplished.
I am literally sitting here with my valance and different ideas on how to attach this booger. Larissa your blog has tons of helpful info and I am so thankful you posted this remodel! We have had our PUP for a month and have been completely remodeling since we got it but the valance has stopped me in my tracks!
My valance issue was similar, the original
was stapled to the ceiling. 🙄
I am going to run outside and see if Velcro will work on the curtain track! Briliant!
Loved the idea about the counter tops too! Our isn’t in bad shape but too light for my cabinet plans.
I’m curious how much fabric was used for the curtains, cushions and valance. I’m thinking about redoing mine and we have a similar set. BTW it looks great!