Last Updated on March 14, 2023 by Jessica Lauren Vine
If you have an old RV or want to buy an old RV, you’re likely asking, “How do you spruce up an old RV?”
Great question and the good news is that there are a lot of amazing answers that can help you pretty quickly if you aren’t quite ready to do a major RV renovation. However, those big renovation projects are definitely cool and will help if you really want to do things big.
Let’s get into how to make your old RV look better.
1) Bring Your Own Personality Into the RV
This one is super easy if you already have a style that you like for where you already live. You can do similar decorations and really make yourself feel like you’re more at home.
Add some of the colors you like in your home into the RV, and this can help decrease how old your RV looks. Most old RVs have some seriously outdated decor—even more than old houses.
2) Put in a New Backsplash
This might sound like a lot of work—and it can be—but not if you do it the way we did it.
We got some of that sticky backsplash and just made sure we aligned it properly on our RV wall behind our cooktop. It was also a lot easier to wipe down than the RV wall that was already there.
- 12" x 12"
- 10 sheets of self-adhesive tiles
- Adhesive is strong
- Very pretty
- Doesn't stick perfectly all of the time
- Takes a bit of time
If you ever get tired of how one of these looks, you can just switch it out and make the RV look different all over again.
3) Switch Up the Furniture
Besides the outdated look old RV furniture has, you never know what might have gone on with that furniture. Pets. People. All kinds of mess could be stuck in that old RV furniture.
You can look on Facebook Marketplace and other places and find some really good deals so you can change up how the RV looks. Couches are where I would start first off because they’re usually the biggest eyesore in the entire RV.
4) Paint Can Change the Whole Look
Before you paint, make sure you rough up your RV a bit. When we painted our wall, we didn’t do that, and the paint just peeled off eventually. Oops. Beginner fail, right?
Using some light-colored paint can really brighten up the space. A lot of people use white, but I think it is fun to add a bright splash of color, so it looks even nicer.
As you can see in the picture above, that’s a big difference in how our little rig looked before and after the paint job—even if it didn’t pan out like we’d like it to pan out.
5) Change the Floor
As you can see in the picture above, our floor looked like wood. I think that is one of the biggest differences new RVs have vs. the older RVs. Changing the look of the floor to be a wood look vs. what the older RVs had makes all the difference when it comes to sprucing up the look of your old RV.
6) Wall Sconces
We needed a bit more lighting around the table area in one of our RVs, so I put some wall scones up there. However, there was no way to power normal ones, so I just got the kind that are battery-powered, and that sticks on the wall. Pretty cool.
See behind my cat?
How Do You Spruce Up an Old RV? Frequently Asked Questions
Is it worth updating an old RV?
Yes. I think it makes all the difference about how you feel about hanging out there.
Is it expensive to update an old RV?
No. If you use some of the budget-friendly updates suggested, you can get a nice-looking RV for pretty cheap.
Is buying an old RV a good idea?
Yes. If you have it inspected first to make sure there aren’t any problems.
How Do You Spruce Up an Old RV? – Conclusion
Just changing up these few things can really make your old RV look much newer. Let’s face it when it comes to “How do you spruce up an old RV?” older RVs are much cheaper than splurging for a new RV, and you don’t want to spend a ton of money on updates either.
Now you can do these simple updates and changes, and it will make your RV look so much newer than it did before you worked on it.
When Jessica was older and had a family, she took her crew on the road for 2.5 years. They lived in 2 different RVs during that time. One 18 foot long and one 28 foot long. Both pull-behind RVs.
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