The Roof of our Pop Up Camper

Our pop up has the wonderful ABS roof.  That great big piece of plastic that cracks, breaks and is not fun to repair.  About five years ago there was a crack, that turned into a tear which the wind caught on a hunting trip and ripped the ABS roof off.  Luckily my husband was able to catch some of it before it blew off completely.  At that time we decided to grab rolls of white duct tape and repair the roof.  We taped the edges down where it ripped and then layered the tape over and over.  Amazingly it has held up for five years.  We have done small repairs with more duct tape.  It seems to have worked quite well.  And then I saw the Pop Up Princess ABS Roof Repair and I got excited about all the ways we can fix this roof.

 

I did more research about what to do, as ours is not quite as simple as just repairing cracks.  We went to our local trailer store and found some RV/Trailer Roof repair paint.  We didn't know what it would do exactly was so we only bought two small cans.  We also bought Henry Elastomeric Roof coating at the hardware store to put over the top of the roof repair to do a final seal.  

We had to take off all of the duct tape in order to paint on the roof repair. It took a couple of nights for us to remove it all and then we used Gorilla duct tape to seal the edges where the roof  had come off.  We then painted the roof repair over where there was no ABS roof plastic.

Because we had some bad weather we had to move the camper into our garage for the next step of the project.  We did three coats of the Henry Roof Coating.  And we had to wait a full day before painting on each coat.

This is what it looked like after one coat.

And after three coats, it looks so good!

My husband just came back from a hunting trip and the roof stood up to some weather and traveling.  I will let you all know if we run into any issues.  But so far it looks like this may have worked.

Updating the Curtains

Pink!!!  Can you see the PINK!! Ugh!

Enough exclamation marks :)

So this was the biggest eye sore to me in our pop up.  It just made it weird inside.  Really no other explanation than weird. My husband says that it doesn't really matter to him what it looks like inside, but it so matters to me.

I was very excited to get started. 

My first thought was to buy fabric and sew the curtains.  But I came to the same conclusion that I did with my cushions...too much $$$!  So I started looking around at stores for curtains.  I went back to our colors in the cushions but knew that I could go with just about anything.  

I found these tan thermal curtains for a steal at a local store.  They are lined on the back, cooler in the summer, warmer in the winter.  The length was perfect to cut in half and sew the bottom so they don't fray.  At the same store I found the cutest valance and my curtains were almost done.  I just needed to find some curtains for the beds.  I found some green curtains and I was just so excited to start.  I got the longest length 84" and halving it, the 42" length was perfect making them not too long or short.

Our camper has these wonderful tabs that the curtains were hooked/sewed onto.  I used this idea from The Pop Up Princess.  My sister and I spent a sweltering hour gluing the hooks onto each and every one of those tabs!  I used JB Weld and the small command hooks.  

 When I was up looking at the tabs, I found this opening in the canvas.  I was a little stressed because it was a big hole and enough for bugs to come in.  I hate bugs!  The Velcro was gone and the seal was down and unable to move while the camper was fully popped up.  So I got some new fabric Velcro and while the pop up was partially up I climbed in and put the seal back in.  Closed up nice and tight again.  Hopefully no more bugs and cold coming through.

 This is what the pop up looks like with all those curtains down.  It looked good...no pink afterglow!

Since the curtains were down I decided to try something else.

We had those black streaks on our windows and used this idea from The Pop Up Princess to wipe and clean the windows and canvas.  It worked great and was very pleased to see the before and after pictures.

At first when I was doing the curtains for the beds I just sewed the drapery hooks on and was going to put the valance above.  But it didn't seem that it would work.  I then cut the valance in half and sewed it to the top party of the curtains and it turned out looking really good.  

I also used what fabric was left from my cushions and made tie-backs.

Sewing the curtains and drapery hooks was a very long process.  I borrowed my sister's rotary cutter to cut them all in half, used my sewing machine and sewed the bottom.  I even sewed some curtains together so we didn't have to worry about them parting all the time.  I had to hand sew those drapery rings.  It was a long project, but I watched a lot of movies (Netflix loves me)  and finally got them done.  

(This picture above makes these tan curtains look a little pinkish, but they are tan.)

Here is a close up of the drapery rings.  One thing that we found when we went camping while the curtains were not quite done.  (Just no valances up).  I was getting really annoyed because the rings pop off of the hooks very easily.  I was going through my bags and came across my small rubber bands and wrapped them around the hooks.  It helped quite a bit.  Just made a colorful addition. :)

They still pop off sometimes but not as easily.  

They look really good and when I am done with the whole pop up I will have better pictures.

How to Reupholster Your Camper Cushions

This was my first big project for the pop up.  I couldn't stand the cushions, they were dirty and the horrible pink and blue paint brush stroke colors were hideous.  I started shopping for fabric at craft stores and couldn't believe the prices for the duck cloth I wanted.  It was going to cost me about $50 to $80 (slight stroke...yikes)!  

I started looking around for other options to use for covering the cushions.

One day shopping with my mom we were just going to random stores and decided to hop into Down East Home and Furniture outlet store.  We were wandering around and noticed some fabric and blankets towards the back of the store.  

And we found this little plastic bag with this cute stripe pattern.

It was a twin sized duvet cover and it was only $20!!

I couldn't have found that much fabric if I tried for that amount.  We pulled it out of the package and checked to see how many cushions it would cover.  Our estimate was all four without a problem.  Holy cow, what a find, and with all the colors I wanted.

My first part of this project was unpicking the duvet apart so I could use all of the fabric.  It took a long time, but a couple movies later it was done.

I had been checking Pinterest for ideas on how to cover these cushions.  I am new to my sewing machine and most of the tutorials were a little intimidating.  I decided to go the easy way.  I wrapped and stapled the fabric over the cushions.  So easy and I must say that a staple gun is a fun little toy. :)

They look SOOOOOO much better don't they??  I am very impressed and I love how the colors are neutral and have so many different options that I can change anything out if I wanted in the future.

Another Look Inside - Before

I was so excited to do this part of the project.  I popped open the camper, went inside and took the before pictures before I started demo.  I was surprised how long this didn't take.  

The pink is just everywhere...and so bad.  My son and I started tearing down the curtains.  Literally, tearing them down.  It was actually a lot of fun. :)  All I had to do was pull down and they came down off of the tabs.  I then took my Norwex cloth and a bucket of water and cleaned everything.  I am going to plug a little for Norwex...all you have to clean with is water, no chemicals and so safe.

These pictures are of the before and after the curtains coming down.  It is a crazy difference.

This is a picture of the thermostat, so old school, ugly brown and hard to work at and get to.  I have an electrician friend who I am hoping will come in and put a digital thermostat so getting the heater to a workable temperature will be much easier.

This is where the thermostat is located...underneath the table and benches.  Why?  I still don't know what they were thinking when they put these things together.

Just a quick look at some of the areas of the pop up I plan on working on.

A Quick Look Inside - Before

I apologize in advance for these pictures, they are not great.  I took these about a year ago while I was just trying to figure out what I wanted to do.  I haven't popped it up for a while. we have had some crazy weather, and I have intentions of taking better pictures soon.  

 

These are the ugly (did I say UGLY and PINK) curtains inside.  Yuck!  I have been dying to get rid of these nasty things for a long time.  This is going to be one of the first things to go.

*shiver* Ugly!

This is our broken sink.  The faucet rubber piece broke off so we haven't had a sink for a LONG time.  I need to try and get this replaced, it would be nice to have a working sink while we are camping.

This is our stove and ugly laminate oak cabinets, with matching ugly brass hardware.

The stove is in good condition, just needs a good cleaning.  I am going to spray pain the black fridge with white appliance paint so it matches everything else in the kitchenette.  Seriously what were they thinking in the 90's??

I am thinking of going with dark brown cabinets in this pop up.  My husband and son beat this thing up during hunting season.  I am afraid of what they would look like after a bunch of men and boys are in there for a couple weeks.  

And now, the cushions.  Also pink and ugly.  I just don't have words for these.  I have seen so many tutorials and ideas for redoing the cushions and I think the easiest way is the wrap and staple method.  I don't have a lot of experience on the sewing machine and sewing on zippers and everything just overwhelms me.  This is going to be my first project for the trailer.  I cannot wait to do it and show you all the changes.  Thanks for following!