However because our budget only allowed an older RV - boy did we have to compromise on the interior and how it looked. It was super mid 80s looking with ugly brown paneling for the walls, brown and light blue striped fabric for the cushions and brown shag carpet. The previous owners had redone the kitchen with more updated tiles - but it was still just more shades of brown.
But knowing how handy Mike is and how thrifty I am I was pretty sure we could whip this camper into shape with a little shopping and a lot of elbow grease.
The first thing Mike did was replace the carpet with wood floor laminate. So much cleaner and brighter! Then we painted all the brown paneling with a pale warm yellow.
For the kitchen, Mike pulled out all the brown tiles and replaced it with faux tin ceiling tiles. We were lucky that once we painted the walls the light butter yellow that the terracotta colored counter tops actually looked great together.
For the light fixtures I had found these gorgeous patchwork mirrored umbrellas in Little India. Mike was able to jerryrig them has hanging lampshades.
I found the perfect fabric for the curtains at the thrift store! I found 4 pairs of these 1940s barkcloth drapes that had the best scenic imagery on it. Gorgeous pattern of trees and hillside - like the outside is inside - in deep jewel tones of blue, magenta, green and gold.
All that was left after that was to get the cushions recovered. We trekked downtown to the fabric district with a swatch of our curtains in tow and found the perfect deep raspberry upholstery fabric to recover them with.
The final touch was adding a bit of art. The U.S. Map was a vintage puzzle that I took the pieces out of and then painted the inside with chalkboard paint. The blue panel is going to be a place where we can decoupage souvenirs from our trip!
We're so excited to take our updated boho retro camper on our first cross country trip next summer!!
