Our Pop-up Camper Remodel

 

    In my twenties I always said I was a camping purist- I liked camping in tents and I swore I would never get a camper. Well now that I'm in my thirties and a mom of two I'm singing a bit of a different tune. We are planning a what looks to be amazing trip to Glacier National Park. I started planning this trip a year in advance and looking into where to stay. We typically stay in air bnb's but I have recently become a bit disenchanted by them because of how high the additional fees are. I was finding the prices to be astronomical and deduced that the only way this trip would be feasible for our family was to camp. 

    It was at this point that I decided to dive into the world of campers. With a 3 and 1 year old I knew that in order for everyone to actually get some sleep we needed a bit of an upgrade from a tent. I decided to look into a used pop-up camper. We needed something realtively light because we wanted to be able to tow it with our Toyota Highlander. I spent a few months watching facebook marketplace and eventually I was able to find one that we liked- a 1993 Coleman Destiny Cedar.  We drove two hours and purchased it and limped it home. 

Overall it was in very good shape but there were some things to fix and it needed a little tlc. This is the inside of the camper before we did anything to it. 

1. Deep Clean 

This thing STANK. I took off all the curtains and washed them with Oxy clean odor booster- that was the only thing I found got rid of the musty smell. 

I also took out the mattresses and used my carpet cleaner to deep clean them. The water was absolutely disgusting! I let them dry out for a few days and they smelled so much better. 

From there I took a magic eraser to the canvas- I read online from others that this worked well on the canvas and they were right. I also vacuumed the entire camper scrubbed it with dawn power wash. 

We also let it air out for almost 2 whole months before popping back down. I think this helped immensely. 

2. Remove two of the cabinets. 

We decided to remove the top cabinet that contained the sink and the range. From my research most people said they never used them and that often they wished they weren't there. We were also concerned about cooking in the camper and it catching on fire. We decided to remove that cabinet and we replaced the top of the bottom cabinet that it sat on for added counter space in the camper 

We also removed a small cabinet next to the door as you enter the camper. This way we can store a rubber maid tote during travel in the camper and it also allows for more floor space. 

3. Re-upholster the cushions 

Originally I was going to save the cushions- my plan was just to run my upholstery cleaner on them. But as I began to inspect them I realized there was a lot of tears in the material. We took off the fabric and let them air out for a few days because they stank. Then we purchased duck cloth which is known for it's durability and water resistance and re-upholstered them. I think they turned out great!

4. Replace the floor

Ok I will admit this was purely cosmetic- there was nothing truly wrong with the floors- it was a sheet of vinyl floor. It was just very dated and it was white. With two kids I feel like having a white floor is the silliest thing ever. So we tore it out. We painted Kilz mold and mildew on the subfloor because we noticed a little bit of water damage near the door. Then we purchased peel and stick vinyl planks from Home Depot. I was going for more of a blonde oak but my husband had half of it laid down before I was able to see it. It's a little more gray then I would've like but it also looks so much better and I'm not willing to change it now. Of note I wanted to put in LVP instead of peel and stick- I feel like peel and stick is against everything I've ever learned in home remodeling but my husband pointed out that with the towing of the trailer that the LVP would constantly be moving and have many cracks in between the pieces. So peel and stick it is. 

Before 

After

5. Make a counter top 

We purchased a simple plywood board and stained it to use as a countertop for the cabinet where the sink and stove used to be. This allows us to have much needed counter space!

6. Turn the full size bed into a king size bed. 

This was completely my husbands idea. We were not looking forward to sleeping on a full sized bed. We just knew it was going to be tight and uncomfortable. So my husband had the idea to raise the cushions that make the couch bed and that would make our bed into a king size bed. This I have to say has made camping so much more comfortable- especially because our kids are still young and usually someone ends up with me by the end of the night. 

7. Replace the wheels

I didn't get any pictures of this but we did replace the wheels on the camper. The previous owner mentioned to us that he thought one of them had a leak because he had to keep putting air in the tires every year. We figured they were at least 20 years old so it was time for some new tires. 

Overall we are very happy with how it turned out! We probably put a little more money into it than we needed to but we also wanted to be comfortable and were willing to spend a little extra money.