Ryan’s RV

This is my son Ryan’s RV. Last fall he announced that he wanted to buy an RV to live in. My reaction? SAY WHAT??? He was moving to Austin, TX where the cost of living is super expensive. Before making a long term commitment, he wanted to live in that community to see if he liked it. Buying an RV would allow him to live there very inexpensively during this trial time. So he went shopping.

My BFF Rox’s in-laws were selling this cute RV. It was a little smaller than he wanted, but was well taken care of, was a fixer upper AND it was the right price. All of which fit Ryan’s criteria.

For me it had all of the rooms he wanted, was in good shape AND it had two doors. You know – fire trap… second door was an escape route. Could I be anymore of a worried Mom?

I should tell you that Ryan will be blogging his RV renovation journey. Coming soon! I will be sharing a four part series of just the highlights of the reno.

Today: Part 1! I will start in the “living room”. This is a picture of the before. The color scheme was very 80’s.  Remember the color Colonial Blue?  All of it was in great shape – just  old. Ryan decided that he wanted something a little more BOHO. Which surprised  the heck out of me! He’s my kid who thought the stitching on a solid brown quilt was a pattern! Ryan’s RV turned out masculine with a hint of fun and whimsy. Just like him!

So here is what we did :

1. This cabinet folds down into another bed. He didn’t need the bed, so he removed the mattress and is using that for an office storage space. All of his TV components  and office supplies are stored there.  In a small living space you use every available space you can find!
2. We painted the walls a very light warm gray. It made such a HUGE difference. It looks cleaner and bigger.
3. We made new curtains and covered the old cornice boards. We found the paisley pattern first and then using the colors in that fabric we chose two more accent fabrics to match. The tie backs are an accent trim that I had left over. Too dang cute! We used the old curtains as a pattern, except we made them wider. So at night, he just removes the tie backs and the curtains close all the way over the window for privacy.
4. Using an epoxy paint in dark gray, we painted over the almond table. The whole living area was cute, but this was the game changer!
5. We recovered the sofa/ bed cushions. I love these color combinations together.

This room is a work horse. He eats there, offices there, and if he has company the sofa makes into a bed. He didn’t have it installed yet, but if you look to the left hand side you will see a cabinet behind the sofa cushion. There is a door there for storage. Ryan  has plans to mount his computer screen in this area, which he also uses as his TV, on a swing arm! Clever, yes? He can sit at the table to work, swing it out to watch tv from his bedroom at night. It is also out of the way when he eats.

One other thing that we did that made such a huge difference was paint the  white plastic around the lights. Over time it had yellowed. It just made the room look old and dirty. We did this to all the the plastic inserts in the ceiling. It really made such a difference.

Ryan was going to replace the flooring with a faux hard wood. Since he decided not to paint all of the walls he was afraid that it would be too much wood.  He is still thinking about what to do with the floors, so he left them alone.

I have to say that Ryan’s RV turned out way better than even I had envisioned! It is so cute. By the time we were done I was ready to take over the trailer and make it into a Queen hang out. Plus, I loved the time we spent together working on this. Nothing better than time spent with my boys!

Until next time….

                 Tammy

Hey you! See anything that you liked? Pin it!