A few months ago, I received a message on Facebook from one of my readers, Ramie. She told me that she was so inspired by our pop up makeover, that she was going to give her own camper a makeover. I was so excited to hear her say that. I’m pretty partial to the pop up way of camping, and I always love to see a good makeover. Not only did she use many of the tutorials here on The Pop Up Princess to complete her renovation, but she also documented her progress on her own blog, Glamping With Boys. Wanna see what she’s done with her camper? Take a look…
Ramie started with a pretty standard Coleman pop up camper. They pretty much all have that fabulous 90’s look going on — fake oak cabinets, yellow linoleum floors, outdated color schemes — you know the look. 🙂 But it’s nothing a little paint and elbow grease can’t fix!
Ramie and her very handy husband primed and painted the cabinets a pretty white. They also replaced all the hardware with gorgeous oil rubbed bronze fixtures. Then they replaced the flooring using the exact same flooring we did in our pop up camper! Doesn’t it look so much better already?
To refinish their countertops, they used the method we did here. Most of their countertops were still in good condition, but they had a few warped ones. That’s where Ramie’s hubby came to the rescue and cut a few new countertops and a new table. Then they used the Rustoleum Countertop Transformation kit to refinish all the existing countertops and coat the new ones.
Don’t they look amazing? And how about those curtains? Gorgeous, right? Believe it or not, they started out as shower curtains. Ramie couldn’t find exactly what she was looking for in the fabric section, so she bought shower curtains at Target, tea stained them to age the bright white, and made curtains out of them. What a genius idea!
Next on the list were those tired dinette cushions. I remember being so intimidated to take on that project! Ramie tackled it like a pro. She used coordinating fabric from Hobby Lobby and the measurements from my camper cushion tutorial to make beautiful covers for her own cushions.
It makes such a huge difference, doesn’t it? I love the colors she used. It is amazing that even though we used some of the very same techniques and products, our campers are still unique and reflect our own personal style.
Look at those oil rubbed bronze fixtures… aren’t they just the icing on the cake? I love the way they contrast with the white cabinets. Gorgeous! 🙂
Such a fabulous transformation, isn’t it? I love how much more calm and relaxed the camper feels now. It’s the perfect place to unwind after a long day… and we all know that when you are camping with kids, there are plenty of long days. 🙂 Ramie and her husband did such a great job, and I know they will be making lasting memories with their kids in their “new” camper for a long time to come. Thank you, Ramie, for allowing me to share your camper’s transformation here.
If you like what you see, don’t forget to hop on over to Ramie’s blog, Glamping With Boys, to get all the details.
And keep those camper makeover pictures coming! You guys are awesome!
Happy Camping!
Larissa, your tutorials were AMAZING!!!! And so completely inspiring and helpful. Thank you for starting and maintaining your blog for all to see and be inspired from!! If you ever want to camp in Texas, we’d love to join y’all!!! And yes, the calmness of our “new” camper is incredible. Love getting away with my boys!!
Thanks, Ramie! We just may take you up on that camping offer. We may very well be headed your way this summer! 🙂
Oh I Love it!!!
Man these pop ups are so much fun! Love seeing other peoples as well! She did a great job!
Didn’t she, Cassie? I love seeing all these pop up campers. There are some pretty handy people out there!
This is beautiful! Shower curtains as camper curtains = no worries about mildew…. SO SMART!!!
Beautiful Job…I love the color combination 🙂 Have Fun
I SAW YOUR TRANSFORMATION A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO. YOUR WAY OF WRITING MAKES IT SEEM LIKE YOURE RIGHT THERE DOING IT TOO!! RAMIE DID A GOOD JOB TOO! WE HAVE AN OLDER COLEMAN POP-UP THAT WE HAVE NEVER GOT TO CAMP IN YET. SICKNESS AND LIFE GOT IN THE WAY. MY QUESTION IS, DO YOU KNOW HOW WE CAN PUT AN AIR CONDITIONER IN? I THOUGHT OF JUST HAVING A SMALL REGULAR ONE SITTING ON SOMETHING, BUT, MY HUSBAND WOULD LIKE TO PUT ONE IN THE CAMPER SOMEWHERE. WHERE WOULD IT GO THE ROOF IS NOT CAPABLE OF HOLDING ONE? AFTER SEEING YOUR MAKE OVER AND HOW WELL YOU EXPLAINED EVERYTHING, I CANT WAIT TO GET A HOLD OF OURS!! THANK YOU SOO MUCH FOR THE INSPIRATION!!!
Thanks for the compliments, Gina. I’m blushing. 😉
Ramie did do a great job, didn’t she? I just love how calm and inviting her space is.
On the A/C question… We have a Coleman ABS roof, so we are hesitant to do anything to it. I’ve heard that the A/C units often contribute to sagging and bowing in those models. Our roof is in awesome shape, and we’d like to keep it that way, so no A/C for us. Other types of roofs may not have those issues. I know a lot of people want A/C units in their campers, but that has never been appealing to us anyway. We live in AZ and will camp in the lower elevations during the winter months, but when it gets hot out, we want to be somewhere cooler. Somewhere we don’t NEED an A/C. We were also tent campers before we got our pop up, so A/C units feel like cheating. 😀 Have you thought about a nice floor fan? Those can get the air inside your PUP circulating and help cool it off a bit. I know there are a lot of tutorials about adding an A/C unit to your PUP, if that’s the direction you decide to take. And if you tackle that project, you’ll have to come back and report how it went.
We have on and its mounted in th d ceiling but for just a reg air conditioner i would think u could mout it under the front bed to where it would sit on the frame and tongue area.
Did yours come standard, Marci, or did you add it on your own?
There are a lot of great ideas here about adding one on your own. 🙂
This is beautiful. I love the color scheme. Do you have trouble with the height of the sink faucet? How tall is it?
I can’t speak for Ramie, but you can jump over to her blog and leave a comment there. We have a similar faucet, though. We do have to unscrew the neck of the faucet when we fold the galley down. It is too tall to leave in place, but we are so used to it now that it is no big deal… and I would use the same faucet if I were to do it again. I love the way it looks and how easy it is to wash dishes in the PUP sink. 😀
Where did you find your faucet? I love the idea of putting a taller and dark fixture in our ‘02 Bayside
It’s a bathroom faucet from Home Depot, Shelby! 🙂
hello!
My husband and I just bought and older tent trailer. I don’t like sleeping on the ground and he doesn’t like a camper so it was put happy medium.
Do you happen to know how to replace the mattresses in the trailers? The mattress is very thing, probably only 2-3 inches. I am concerned that if we buy an 8 inch mattress like I’ve seen on Camping World that the trailer won’t completely fold down.
Hey, Tawny! Congrats on the new camper! Ours was a happy compromise, too. Here’s how we sleep comfortably in our pop up camper. We use memory foam toppers. I am pretty sure you won’t be able to get your camper closed with an 8″ rv mattress, and you may have trouble finding one to fit your bunkends anyway. We’ve had pretty good success with our memory foam, but I know others prefer different mattress combinations. Some put the anti-fatigue type mats under their beds and use a combination of either inflatable mattresses and/or memory foam. Ultimately, it’s what works best for you. Good luck! 🙂
Three days ago, I knew nothing of popup camper makeovers, now I am obsessed! I have 1993 popup that would love some love! I have been scouring all the makeovers I can find to try to figure out how folks dealt with the plastic t-trip when painting cabinets. Looks like some folks taped them off and left them, but has anyone sucessfully primed and painted them and had it hold up? WOuld love to get some advice! Thanks much!
Hey, Stephanie! We primed and painted our plastic t-trim, and it has held up pretty well. We used a spray paint that was made to work on plastic. We’ve had a couple of small spots where the paint has chipped off the plastic (nothing major) and we usually take a sponge brush and touch it up here and there. It looks great, but it does require a little maintenance. You can see some of the painted trim in this picture…
You can read all about our cabinet makeover here. Hope that helps. Enjoy your camper makeover! They are so much fun! 🙂
Excellent! That was exactly the answer I was hoping for! Thanks much! I’m off to the hardware store!
You’re welcome, Stephanie!
You’re welcome, Stephanie!
Yall did such wonderful jobs! How do you hang your curtains? We need those in ours for sure!
Every camper manufacturer used a different curtain hanging system. Ramie and I both have Coleman campers. For an in-depth look at the Coleman system, you can check out this post. I outlined how we hung our curtains and valances. 🙂
Quick question. How do you get the pop up to fold down with that faucet as tall as it it? Love the concept and love the redo.
We have a similar faucet in our pop up camper, and we have to unscrew the neck of the faucet and store it in the sink when we fold down the camper. It’s well worth the hassle, though. 🙂
What kind of faucet did you use. Does the camper still close properly with that kind of faucet?
Not sure if Ramie checks this regularly, Jenn, so I’ll do my best to answer. We used the same type of faucet in a different color (you can see that here). We do have to unscrew the neck of the faucet and place it in the sink each time we fold the galley down. It’s really not a big deal, and we are used to it now. I think it is well worth the effort. 🙂
I love the shower curtain around the potty area!! My husband wanted privacy & this is perfect!!
We have the rollup style curtains currently. Do the “push to the side” style curtains get super wrinkled when popup is closed down?
I have just recently started redoing my pop up camper… I have decided to place my curtains with Velcro.. that way at the end of summer I can take them all down wash them and put them away until spring time the next year…😊 good luck.