That Time We Remodeled Our Class C RV

Gooooooood morning, everybody! We're writing to you from Sarasota, Florida and it's an absolutely GORGEOUS day. Vanessa and I are preparing to head north at the end of the month, first stop Ocala National Forest. We want to do some hiking, soak in the springs, and possibly paddle a spring run. Anything to keep us active and in sync with Mother Nature.

We've been getting Maude ready for the big launch, although most of the RV remodel was done a few weeks back.

We struggled for a long time to find the right RV, especially because we were particular about the inside. Really particular. Probably obnoxiously so. We found a lot of low mileage rigs with the body shape and size we wanted, but the insides were extremely outdated. With our already tightly-budgeted-resources, we couldn't justify renovating the inside of something from the sub-floor up.

Thankfully we found Maude, and the inside didn't need a major overhaul to make it more modern for our taste. The inside just needed a makeover rather than an entire renovation. So let's talk about that time we decided remodel our Class C RV.

First, let's look at Maude when we bought her.

We were really lucky that Maude was in the shape that she was design-wise. There weren't any major areas that needed to be remodeled ASAP. Everything was clean and in "newish" condition. There were no leaks, holes, or damage of any sort. Huge sigh of relief.

However, we knew there were things we wanted to change right away. Like the wallpaper. I have this huge gripe with RV wallpaper when it comes to design aesthetics. This wallpaper in particular wasn't hideous by any means, but it still was not what I wanted to look at everyday. It was way too busy with these awkward muted, earthy tones. This was my #1  we-need-to-fix-this-first project.

So, we painted.

After a long debate over the type and color of paint, we chose a very light gray in eggshell. Needless to say, we completely underestimated the time it would take to paint a 24 foot Class C RV. There were SO many nooks and crevices, it took us about 4 days to get everything squared away. Multiple coats and a lot of painting tape later, Maude was so much brighter and cleaner. We were beyond thrilled with how it turned out.

We were on such a high, we decided to take out the RV couch. Hah. Well, actually, we were thinking aloud about how much room it was taking up and if we really would be using a couch. The thing was, Vanessa and I didn't even have a couch in our beach bungalow. Primarily because we didn't have cable. So there was no need to plop on a couch and watch TV, because that wasn't an option. (We didn't have cable because we decided it distracted us from other things we loved (ie: being outside, longboarding, going to the beach, reading, etc.) We also did all of our hosting outside on the deck. So we thought, "what if we took out the RV couch altogether?"

So we removed it -- entirely. The bolts and screws underneath were not complicated to take out, and after doing so, the couch just kinda...slid out. Heavy, to say the least, but it was taken out and left a HUGE amount of space for us to play around with. We're going to write a post extensively about removing an RV couch, so stayed tuned for a more in depth look at that process.

There was a ton of carpet that we decided to remove (with our fingers crossed the entire time.)

What we found underneath the couch....and after we ripped up the carpet....was this beautiful slab of wood in the slide out.

Really we had no idea what we'd find under there, but it was a breath of fresh air to see this perfect wood floor. So, no need to re-carpet. We stained the wood a rich mahogany and added a silver metal edging to finish it off. Currently, our slide-out serves as a little reading/meditation area complete with our favorite Buddha statue. More decor to come.

Next, we wanted to cover up the dinette fabric and make the dinner table more our feel. Ultimately we would like to reupholster the seating and replace the dining table, but we'd rather hit the road first then spend all of our money on aesthetics. Vanessa used her design prowess to fancy up our table and turn it into something we'd love sitting at meal-after-meal.

From there, we wanted to make the bunk as comfortable as possible. We knew that we'd spend a majority of our downtime, after long hikes and physically demanding days, unwinding in our bunk and needed it to be as welcoming, warm, and soft as possible. We bought a faux-down mattress pad online which was an amazing addition. We already had the 1800 thread count sheets and the faux-fur blanket. We turned our sleeping quarters into heaven on Earth.

We wanted to spruce up the kitchen a bit, but didn't know where to start. We love love love the white subway tile-look, but didn't have the resources or time to put up tile-by-tile. Not to mention the cutting that would be involved to fit the tiles around the kitchen fixtures and windows. So, we found the next best thing: Peel & Stick Mosaic tiles from Smart Tiles. These tiles were a Godsend and so extremely easy to apply. It made a world of difference in our tiny kitchen.

We added some succulents and called it a day.

Now, our RV renovation is by all means unfinished. There are still a few necessary things we want to tweak along the way. But we also want to get on the road. This first initial remodel of the RV was with the sole purpose of making Maude feel like home. So far, home is exactly what she feels like.