10 Before & After Photos That Will Inspire You to Paint Your RV Interior
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Ashley Mann spent three years living full time in a 38-foot, 5th-wheel RV with her husband Josiah and their cat, Kitty. Her favorite thing about RV life is the challenge of finding the perfect way to organize a space, and she loves seeing all the creative and clever ways people come up with to customize their RVs.
Are you on the fence about whether or not it's a good idea paint your RV walls or cabinets? Or trying to decide between buying an older RV to save some money or getting a newer one with a nicer interior?
Take a look at these before and after photos of RVs with painted cabinets and walls to get RV paint ideas and to see what a difference fresh paint and decor can make!
1. Travel Trailer Painted White Throughout
When Danielle and Jason purchased this 2011 Forest River Wildwood travel trailer in 2021, they were immediately hooked on RVing. They decided to renovate the camper to make it their own, painting the cabinets and walls white throughout for a “light and airy” look.
Danielle says, “Never in a million years did I imagine we would purchase a camper or renovate it! This project has brought joy back into my life and now we are happy campers!” You can see more photos of this RV as well as the fifth wheel they upgraded to on their Instagram page, @inspiredcamper.
2. Dark RV Cabinets With White Walls
If you're not a fan of the all white look or are worried about keeping white RV cabinets clean, painting RV cabinets a darker color can look great too, as you can see in the RV makeover before and after photos below. The couple who own this 1993 Jayco Eagle Series 300BH renovated it to be able to travel affordably with their three kids. Their goal is to visit every national park in the U.S. To see more photos of this RV, visit the owners' Instagram page, @thesearebetterdays.
3. Lola RV by the Sea
This 1991 Ford Dolphin 3450 named “LOLA RV by the SEA” was renovated the Schleichers, a family of five who love to take it to the beach. At first they were a bit intimidated by the idea of buying an older motorhome, but it passed a mechanical inspection, they decided to bring it home and give it some TLC.
4. Replacing Faux Rock with Painted Shiplap
Alura and Wesley, the owners of this 2010 Jayco Designer 35RLTS, live full time in it in the Florida Keys. They decided to do a bold makeover on the living area to make it exactly what they wanted, including replacing the faux rock with wood planks, turning the glass cabinets into shelves, and painting the whole thing a beautiful shade of teal.
5. Class C RV with Cheerful Updates
Below is a photo of a Class C motorhome renovated by its owner Kelsey Flanagan, a solo RVer and life coach living the RV dream with her dog Murph. You can follow their adventures and see a full tour of her motorhome on her Instagram page.
6. Painting Pop-Up Camper Cabinets
A pop-up camper makeover is a fun project that's a lot less work than renovating a big fifth wheel. You can find more pop-up camper paint ideas at ThePopUpPrincess.com, which is where I came across these photos of “Poppy”, a 2003 Starcraft Gemini Constellation the owners found locally on Craigslist. You can see more photos of the whole renovation project in this blog post.
7. Rear Kitchen Transformation
RV owners Kaydee and Trevor decided to leave their 9-5 office jobs and become full time RVers after 2020 caused them to reevaluate their lives. After purchasing this 1999 Thor Komfort they completely renovated it, including painting the walls and cabinets white.
In the kitchen, they added a faux brick accent wall, replaced the window treatments with bamboo shades, and removed the upper cabinets and replaced them with a shelf and some woven storage baskets. You can follow Kaydee and Trevor on TikTok at @followingthefridells.
8. RV Interior Facelift with Painted Dinette
The dinette shown below is in a 2010 Newmar Ventana Class A Motorhome that's home to a family of four plus their two English bulldogs. The owners said, “For our renovation, we wanted to work with what we had and give more of a ‘facelift' to the outdated interior rather than completely redesign the layout. We're not renovators by trade so this is our home to live in.”
They chose to leave much of the gorgeous maple cabinetry unpainted, but they did paint the walls white throughout, replaced the ornate slide-out trim with pine, and gave their booth dinette a makeover. You can see more of the ways they turned this RV into a home on their Instagram page.
In the picture below you can see their kitchen with cabinets unpainted. See more photos of RV makeovers with unpainted cabinets in my article Ideas for Updating RV's Without Having to Paint.
9. Class A Motorhome Before and After
Sometimes painting the cabinets in a high-end Class A motorhome can feel a little scary because they are usually made of beautiful solid wood, but the full time RVers who live in this motorhome decided to renovate the interior while living in it! They painted the walls and cabinetry and replaced all the trim with reclaimed wood. The owners say they love all the changes they've made to their rig to make it feel more like a home.
10. Baby Blue RV Cabinet Makeover
This 2015 Keystone Hideout 29BKS was renovated by Chris and Tiernee Schatz, a couple who together own Wayland Ventures, a professional RV renovation company that does client camper renovations as well as renovating campers to sell. You can read about the details of this renovation on their blog, and follow them on Instagram to see more of their gorgeous RV renovations.
How should I repair all the holes left by screws when removing elements of the windows and the dinette? The vinyl creates a bump around the holes which will always show unless properly dealt with. I don’t really know what to do with them. Thank you.
Hi Janet, I am planning on (finally!) getting around to this very project myself soon! I plan to do a blog post about it actually, but what I suggest is using a tool or kitchen utensil with a blunt, rounded end (maybe the handle end of a screwdriver) to push the vinyl into the hole until there’s nothing sticking out farther than the wall, then fill it with spackling and sand it smooth after the spackling dries. Then you should be able to paint over it using the same painting tool you used on the surrounding area (for example, if you used a roller on that area, go over it with a roller) and it should blend in pretty well.
Wood filler or wood putty
Thanks for featuring my RV makeover! So many fun ideas here.
Never , never , never paint natural wood because once you do it becomes a maintenance issue….
Natural wood cabinets have a character all their own and they age beautifully…
I know it sounds tempting to freshen up your interior with a different color, but, once you do this there’s no turning back….. and when it chips or fades you’ll have to deal with it all over again….
That’s my best advice…. Make your own decisions, but, I would advise you not to do it.
THE FIRST THINGS WE DID
REMOVE COUCH
REMOVE TABLE AND CHAIRS
REPLACE BOTH
BOUGHT A REGULAR SIZE REFRIDGERATOR
USE OLD ONE AS A PANTRY (GREAT IDEA)
WE ARE VERY HAPPY WITH EVERYTHING
ALL ROOMS ARE PAINTED TO OUR TASTE
ALL WALLPAPER IS GONE AS WELL
HOW can I forget …..new steps to enter our place and they are handmade by my husband and up to code
Those look great!