What We Started With...

We took our first camping trip in the new popup about a week after we bought it. All we needed to do was load it with our goodies, and hit the road. And by goodies, I mean color coordinated decor so that it would feel like a cozy home away from home! Because my bedding hadn't arrived yet, I just grabbed the bedding from the boy's rooms (because they match! LOL). I bought a blue tablecloth to cover the brown warped table.

If you've ever been in a popup, the overhead lighting is functional. But awful. So I went to Target the night before the trip and grabbed these pretty grey burlap lamps on clearance for $15.00 ea. Great amount of light, and cute. Bonus: I have a cabinet that they fit perfectly in while traveling! I'm going to look at Hobby Lobby for a pretty florette accent that I saw last time I was there. Who knew they made lamp accessories?

In my hunt for new bedding, and all thing organizational for the camper, I found these soft tower bins at Garden Ridge.  Best part? They fold completely flat for traveling. Even better? They were 50% off red-line. $12.50 ea. The boys have a tower, and Adam and I have a tower. No living out of a suit case. Underwear and socks and jammies in the top, shorts in the middle, shirts on the bottom.

I needed food storage containers. Critters come out when they smell food and goodies. I found these Better Homes and Gardens brand seal-tight containers at Wal-mart. They worked out GREAT on the first trip.

I enjoyed bringing my crock pot camping this time! Easy lunch! Next trip will be a little chillier, so a crock full of warm soup will be awesome! And no mess!

The camper was great when we bought it...

we just made it better!

Curtains

The curtains in the camper were functional. Black out fabric on the back, a simple tan color, clean. They were just a little too plain for me. I wanted something funky. And functional. And fun.

After buying the pretty square beige fabric at Hobby Lobby, I brought it home, held it up to see how it all fit together....and I hated it. It just didn't go with the rest of the camper. It was way too yellow compared to everything else in the color scheme. 

After hanging the shower curtain, my mother says "why don't you get a few more shower curtains and use those as your curtain fabric?" Genius! And cost wise, it was only about $10 more to have exactly what I wanted vs a fabric that didn't match. 

We went on the hunt for 4 more shower curtains. I found 3 at one Target, and Mom found one at another. So we had the curtains in hand...but they were still that crazy stark white color. So what do we do?! Tea stain 4 shower curtains in moms master bathtub. And they came out great!!!

Now the next part, I have no photos of. Because in the chaos of baseball games, in-laws coming to town, more baseball games, and a photoshoot, I didn't have time to work on curtains....but my momma did! Or, well, she made time. 

And she didn't bring them back til the very last day of renovations, and they were like the bow on the top of the present, the cherry on top!

If you are cutting, sewing, and hanging your own curtains, there are lots of blogs and tutorials. But the key? Grab the curtain clips. If your popup doesn't have any, this is an AMAZING resource/store:

Coleman Popup Parts

I had to call the other day to ask about a light for the camper that had cracked, and Derek is super nice and FULL of helpful information. Need a part? Not sure what you need? Give him a call!

Dinette Cushions

As soon as we bought the popup, we knew that the dinette cushions would be the FIRST thing that we re-did. They were clean. They were hardly worn. But...they were straight up 1999.

And this does not go with my "shabby chic" theme. The cushions make me nervous. I'm not a seamstress. I'm getting better now that I'm a bit older, but let's just say, pillows intimidate me. And that's the easiest thing to sew! I found the best blog ever: The Popup Princess. As I was reading her posts, I swear it was me writing them. Her thoughts, ideas for their popup were the same as mine! I had found the ultimate resource!! And guess what she had JUST finished: dinette cushions. YAHTZEE!

I followed her blog to a tee. She actually used this sofa cover tutorial from HoneyBearLane.com.
It didn't seem tooo difficult. I mean, I can follow directions. And heck, their were pictures to boot! 

I began my project on a weekend where my Handy Husband was out of town on a hunting trip, and I could stay at my parents house for the weekend (extra babysitting for the kiddos, mom's sewing machine, and a few extra hands to help with cutting, measuring, stitching!)

Step one: Measure

I went off of The Popup Princess's measurements because her cushions were the exact same size as mine. So that made my first step super easy:

 
Step 2: Choose your Fabric

This was the fun part! With bedding pieces in hand, we headed to Hobby Lobby to find fabric. We looked at outdoor fabric, we looked at cotton, curtain fabric...you name it, I held it up. And I found this color combination that I LOVED:

The colors and textures were fun. I went with Duck Canvas because it's sturdy and durable. And it stretches a little. The beige in the Dakota Cadet print matched the bedding perfectly. The blue Dakota Cadet (buy it here: Dakota Cadet brought a new color to our pallet. And the funky design on the square pattern would be fun as curtains. It was all coming together. Soft, light, calm. 

I can't remember the exact number of yards I bought of each. ??? But I used my Hobby Lobby app for 40% off coupon and paid a total of $38.00 for all of the cushion fabric!

Step three: Buy Zipper

Once the fabric was bought, I needed a zipper. Zippers pre-packaged come in a max length of 32". I needed 52". You want it wrap around your cushion, otherwise it's a b*#%& to get those cushions in the cover! After calling around, Hancock Fabrics had plenty of zipper material by the yard. And the zipper hardward.

 

That was it. That's all I needed to buy. I was ready to rock and roll with the cushions. YIKES!! I set up tables in the living room, had my cushions set up next to me, my iPad in hand with tutorials readily available, and I started to measure and cut.  

NOTE: If you have NEVER sewn before, if you do not own a sewing machine, if you do not have the "tools", I do not recommend attempting these yourself. You can have then reupholstered for about $120/cushion+.

 

 

I followed the tutorials step by step:

Cut the zipper first, sew the zipper pieces (contracting color in my case, the blue)

 

Create the zipper "pocket" by connecting the long zipper piece to the remaining boxing strips.

Cut the fabric for the seat and pin the boxing strip to the seat fabric (if you are doing the piping, attach the piping first):

  

After 3 days, a lot of swear words, becoming a professional seam ripper (when stitches did not go right!), here was my final product. It is not perfect, but it works!! And I LOVE them!! They are so pretty and add the ultimate element of "glamping!"

Note: I did not replace the original covers. I just added these OVER. Just another layer of protection, and in case these don't hold up, i have the originals to fall back on!

A HUGE thank you to my mom for helping by encouraging, working side by side with me, and not letting me get frustrated!