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!

New Fancy Floors

The best part of the camper. The pinnacle of our decorating. The piece that pulled it all together: the floors. 

Again, nothing wrong with the original. Just a little yellowed. But, they were the typical 1990s vinyl flooring. 

White. Dingy. Boring. Vanilla.

We knew we wanted wood-looking floors. I wanted something rustic. Adam wanted something hand-scraped. His original thought was to use the extra pieces from our house (we have two boxes from when we did the new floors in the house!), but those floors have two things wrong.

• Heavy
• Not waterproof

Researched and again, found my friend at The Popup Princess had done their floors, and we really liked em! So we knew that yes, our idea COULD be done! Just had to find the right floors.

I took a trip to Floor&Decor, where I found a tiny selection of vinyl hardwood...and not the locking system kind. The kind that you had to glue down. And for the price, I couldn't justify buying anything extra, adding another step to the process, etc. Again, it's a camper. We have a budget. (FYI: I hate that word. Budget. LOL!)

Adam and I headed to Home Depot to continue looking for what we wanted. Guess what? I found it!! Guess what? It wasn't cheap! HA! Fact: it was the most expense part of our entire renovation. But, we loved em. Had to have em. Simple interlock system. No saw needed, just cut with a box cutter. Really?! SOLD! 

We went with the Allure Ultra in Vintage Oak Cinnamon. $58/box. And we ended up needing 2.2 boxes. In the planning/list making process, Adam's plan was to remove all cabinets, label, lay the flooring throughout the entire camper, and re-install the cabinets. Our concern: what if the cabinets do no fit back in properly? Again, nothing wrong with the camper--nothing pulling up, everything was solid inside. And because these are a simple click n lock system, we can always remove them later on with no damage. So we took the easy way out and he just measured, cut, and fit the pieces in like a puzzle. HA! And listen when I say "easy". THIS is where you need a Handy Husband. This was a tedious job. Lots of measuring. Cutting a tiny cut. Measuring again. Saying a few swear words. Cutting again. Did you know that NOTHING in a 2000 Coleman Timberlake popup is straight? Or square? Or level? True statement.

The floors look amazing. In the end, we added quarter-round to give the floors a polished look, and like the kitchen at our house, we painted them to blend in with the cabinets.

 

Once Adam had every teeny tiny piece of quarter round cut, nailed in, he caulked around the entire camper with that Summertime caulk I mentioned in an earlier post! 

Floors, complete!!!