Pop Up Camper Makeover

This is not really teaching related but I had to share my pop up makeover!

My husband has wanted a pop up camper and has been combing sale sights for a few years now! I was not totally sold on the idea of a pop up and kept holding off until one day I finally gave in to a convincing argument. He found a great deal on a pop up and it came from a wonderful family! We drove out and picked it up. 

Bringing Coleman home!    

For the most part our new pop up (the boys named it Coleman) was in great condition...bUT I just wanted to make a few updates. My husband is in the Air Force and gone quite a bit so I did all the updates by myself while he was gone on trips. 
Thank you to The Pop Up Princess for so many cool pop ups to check out and inspire me.

Here are some pictures of Coleman in the beginning. 

 The first thing I did was take down all the old curtains and valances. I made sure to keep all the plastic tabs that connect the curtains (I did reuse those). 

Next, I took the covers off of the beds and the cushions. I recovered the cushions but kept the originals under the new covers. 
I threw the old covers in the washing machine and I laid the pads outside to air out. I sprayed the pads from the cushions and beds with a water/vinegar mixture and sprinkled them with baking soda once they were dry. 

 IMPORTANT! Make sure you remember where and how certain things go on the cushions and in the camper. 
I took photos! 

NOW, I CLEANED and I CLEANED. I wiped down everything and cleaned out all the cabinets. 

The first update I did was to paint the stove top. I just used a white appliance epoxy and spray painted. It turned out great and was so easy to do.

Now onto the fun parts the curtains and cushion covers. Here are the fabrics, rugs and colors I chose. 

The curtains by the beds. 

For the bed curtains I found a throw I liked at IKEA. I bought two and just cut them in half and hemmed the ends. 

 For the curtain tie-backs I found napkins on sale a World Market. I cut strips and hemmed them up!

 TA-DA all done!  

 Now, the regular curtains. This was the easiest job of all, I stumbled across blackout curtains at Walmart that were exactly the length and color that I wanted-I didn't have to sew a thing!!! 

The only difficult part with the curtains was deciding the best way to reattach the plastic tabs that hung the curtains. I tried a few items and finally ended up with safety pins. 

 The cushion covers!! Well, these were not that easy. I have okay sewing skills, but these took a few hours and lots and lots of measuring and remeasuring. I found this post to be very helpful! I followed this tutorial to sew the boxed corners. 
I bought my fabric at IKEA. 

Here are some pictures from the cushion process. 

For my next project I made a cushion to go along one of the sides. I found the foam and fabric at my local Michaels Craft Store. 
I followed the same tutorials as I did for the chair cushions.

What came next was not easy but I am so happy I did it...the floors!

 I headed to lowes and picked out my color and style. I chose Stainmaster Peel-and-Stick Stone Vinyl Tile it is $1.28 a piece. I used about 44 sheets in all. I soon figured out that pop up camper floors are not even. To start I just cleaned my floors really well. I did stagger mine, which was a lot more work BUT I am so happy with the way it turned out-SO HAPPY! 

Here are some before and after pictures of the floors. 

 I found my rugs at World Market!

After the BIG things were done I started installing some personal touches.

Bear Bottle Opener found @ Amazon

Paper Towel Holder Found @ Amazon

 My shelf, I love this shelf. I found the shelf at Target and the tubs at IKEA. The shelf lays right under my table when it is time to put the camper down.
I store all of our food in the tubs while we are camping.

 That is my makeover! We love our Coleman!
Here are some more before and afters!

BEFORE

AFTER :)

Click the picture to get your Crochet Mason Jar Cover

Crochet Mason Jar Cover found @ Etsy

Read here to see how I organized our pop up.

Here are some pictures from some of our camping adventures so far!

Giant Checkers found @ Amazon

 Bottle Bash Game found @ Amazon

Campfire Popcorn Holder found at Amazon

 

HP Instant Ink

Have your heard of HP Instant Ink? 

Do you print from home? 

Do you love printing in COLOR? 

I do, and I was totally spending a fortune on ink. When I was in the classroom and I needed to print in color I either printed at home (which cost a fortune in ink) or I paid about .20 cents per page. Now that I am homeschooling and running my little home business I really print at home and in color... a lot. 

I was spending about $30 to $60 a month on ink.

BUT, I found the HP Instant Ink program. 

I was ready to jump on board until I discovered my printer did not qualify (you do have to have an eligible printer), OKAY I was out-forget it I was not buying a printer to save money on ink. I went two more months and in that time I spent on ink what could have bought me two eligible printers…grrrr! 

I gave in and hunted Amazon for an eligible printer that was a good price.

I got this printer but actually called HP and they overnighted a refurbished one for around $50.

The reason you have to have an eligible printer is your printer uses the Internet to let them know when to send more ink. 

Follow along to see how the process works! 

Step 1

Here is the list of eligible printers. 

Step 2 

HP has 3 plans.

If you do go over it is only $1 for each additional 15, 20 or 25 pages (depending on your plan). AND if you do not use all your pages in a month they rollover to the next month.

You don not pay shipping or any extra fees-just your monthly total!

I use the 300 page plan which is $9.99 a month. I do go over sometimes. Here is a screenshot of one of my months.

I went over my 300 pages this month but only had to pay $1 extra. SO...for about $10 I printed 340 pages!

The rollover part is amazing! 

If you have the 50 page plan and do not print at all that month the entire 50 pages will rollover. 

Step 3 

Step 4

Step 5

This part is awesome-your ink will just show up in the mail when you are running low.

This program is awesome and I promise you will not regret it! Right now HP has a coupon code for your first 6 months FREE!

Just enter promo code 6freeink at checkout! 

Here are some eligible printers from Amazon.