updating/makeover for our pop-up, would like some advice

Wow. Lots to do! Before you do the curtians, maybe look up reflextex and pop up gizmos on the portal for some help with the cold!

Yes paint the cabinites, clean , lightly sand , prime then paint. Use a paint for cabinites. It will work just not be as durable as wood.

Ive seen the rustulium kits for laminate, it might look good. Others just paint theres and add a top coat of polyurethane.

Take pictures and share!
Good luck , and im in nj also!

 

I’m not a sewer so I used jersey crib sheets to cover my cushions. The Pak n Play sets are a great fit.

 

As far as what to cover your cushions with, this will be a personal preference and your family. For me, I have dogs and a kid who camps with me so I wanted something durable and somewhat water resistant/proof. I'm also looking at making a slip cover so I can easily take it off to wash if I have to as well. If your family is not as hard on cushions as mine you can just make a permanent cover with just about any fabric. Although if you have cushions that may be used a lot you may want something like upholstery fabric or something a little heavier. I personally may cheat and use a heavy duty shower curtain to save money. Hopefully it could last under my family's abuse. My curtains I just used blackout curtains from Walmart trimmed to fit. Worked great and the blackout feature is nice in keeping it warmer/cooler, but love your idea if actually attaching the solar material to the curtains. Just not sure how the material will be if you sow through it.

 

When I got both my clipper and FnR, the cushions were in good shape so I couldn't justify spending money recovering them. But, I really wanted a different color for the material. So, I use throw blankets and cover the cushions with those. Easy to just pull off for washing or changing out, but by tucking them under and between, etc., they stay in place well. Lots of fabric choices for throw blankets out there and plenty of price range.

For curtains, there are different choices depending on what you want. For my clipper, the original were fabric roller blinds. I really liked those but the Herculon fabric was disintigrating with every touch. So I just bought new fabric for the rollers.

For the FnR, the curtains were attached using sew on C tabs. Since the windows were smaller (but a lot of them), I bought cloth napkins in a fabric I liked and hand sewed the C tabs on them. No hemming or anything necessary. Folded the top over a bit if the napkin was too long for that window or turned them sideways - the pattern was a vine look, so turning them in different directions wasn't obvious.

A friend ended up buying blackout fabric, cutting it to fit her windows and attaching them with velcro. She just pulls them off during the day, and sticks them up at night. So, lots of options out there to match your sewing skills and desires.

I've never bothered painting the "wood" cabinets but I did change out the drawer pulls in the FnR. Just that made a huge difference (went from brass to pewter) in the final feel of the space.

 

On my FnR, the pulls were just standard cupboard pulls. There is a separate catch mechanism inside the cupboards to keep them closed. You should be able to add those catches - either the magnetic or the roller style easily enough I suspect. You could also use child safety catches. Then you could change out to any pulls.

Do a search on amazon for cupboard catch and you'll see the various styles - then you can find the style that will work best for you.

 

You could also paint the old ones.

 

I know everyone is doing it, but I would really shy away from painting your cabinets. Especially painting them white. It's one thing to paint wood cabinets in a kitchen where they only get looked at and opened by the handles; but cabinets in a popup are meant to be kicked and climbed over. Also, as you mentioned before, they are not wood, but wallpaper covered wood. The cabinet doors and drawer fronts are made from MDF and covered with a wood grain paper. The cabinets themselves are plywood covered with wall paper. Yes you can paint it, but there really isn't a good way to do it. The best you can hope for is that you get good adhesion to the wallpaper. As for the counter-tops, most are MDF covered with Melamine. Getting something to adhere to a material that was designed for that opposite of that purpose would be hard at best. My fear is that you would go through all this work and the paint would scuff and scratch with normal wear and tear. Now if you plan on replacing the cabinets and counter-tops, that's a different story. Then I would use a whitewash stain with a semigloss polyurethane coating and those cabinets will last longer than the camper. As for counter-tops, I've always been partial to butcher block, but there are some hard drying epoxy coatings that can get pretty close to the look of marble/granite counter-tops. I hope I didn't burst your bubble. Good luck.

 

This is what I have on my current camper. The lock I think is called a thumb turn cam lock or something like that. My problem is I have to remember to lock it before before transit. Which I almost never do.

 

The paint will be fine, as i said not as durable. When i moved into my new house 2 years ago i painted a similarly cheap cabinate. It still looks good and gets daily where and tear from the kido. I used bonding primer, stuff that adhears to anything, and reguler paint. This paint isnt as good as the special cabinate paint. The idea was to replace the cabinaite, but alas there is no need.

 

I made new curtains for my old PUP using some blackout curtain panels. I was able to remove the mounting tabs from the old curtains and sew them on the new ones. It's a Jayco, so they use this type:

https://www.amazon.com/JR-Products-...+curtain+tabs&qid=1553265696&s=gateway&sr=8-1

For my NTU PUP, I also want a cosmetic upgrade! But DH says he really likes the green color scheme. So our compromise is that I'm going to leave the solid mossy green curtain panels and make a new valance in a coordinating color, but more modern fabric.

For cold weather camping, I really like using the anti-fatigue foam tiles under the mattresses. It adds both insulation and more comfort to the beds. Like these:

https://www.harborfreight.com/4-piece-anti-fatigue-foam-mat-set-94635.html

 

Yes, they stay in all the time. Of course it depends on how much extra space you have in yours. My old PUP had very little extra space and I was still able to fit two layers under the mattress.

Makes a huge difference! I'm a side-sleeper and I was finding that during the night my hip bone was just digging through the mattress. The foam tiles really made it tolerable for me. And they help keep you warm too. I got mine at Harbor Freight and they were way cheaper than any other place I found them. They have them on sale even cheaper sometimes so keep an eye on their ad.

 

Check out thepopupprincess.com. She has a tutorial on painting your popup cabinets. Good luck with your makeover and don't forget the pictures!

 

I recently read that king size pillow cases fit nicely over dinette bench seats. I haven't tried it, as I am moving to vinyl for ours, but sure sounded like a great idea!