Bunkhouse Renovations

If you have been to an RV show or dealership to tour RVs you probably have seen the outdated interiors in these brand new rigs. This Grey Wolf definitely didn’t disappoint in the tacky department. We decided to paint and renovate the bunkroom space for the kids, to brighten up the very small space and add more storage. The bunkhouse in this travel trailer does not have any slides. In its original form it has two bunks on each side and a small end table with a cabinet at the front wall, between the two lower beds. There were not any ladders for climbing to the top bunks, nor were there any guardrails on those top bunks. We have three kiddos, so we knew we could use one of the bunks to add some much necessary storage for the kids clothes, toys and games. We chose to eliminate the bunk above the outdoor kitchen, because that is the one space that did not have a window and was a little bit tighter of a bunk than the lower bunk on the other side. We removed the mattress from tht bunk and divided the height in that space with a sheet of plywood cut to the same size as the bunk bed space. Ryan then used the supports for that large shelf to make a built in ladder for the top bunk on that side. He also added a vertical plywood board on the outside of that space to allow us to mount a small TV for the kids to watch movies and play the Nintendo Switch on rainy days. Part of this space is also where we ended up storing all of the gadgets to run the WiFi through the trailer. Steph painted the entire space white; the walls and all of the wood. We used Dutch Boy Platinum paint which has a primer mixed into the paint. It went on very well with two coats of paint. We did not do any extra priming or sanding prior to painting and the Dutch Boy paint adhered well to the RV walls and bunk bed wood. We also threw out the old dated dark brown curtain, window valances and blinds in that space. We made our own custom curtains for each window and a large curtain panel for the doorway. We added a rope ladder for the top bunk on the other side of the room. We chose to buy new mattresses for the three bunks. We went with 6” memory foam narrow twin mattresses from Amazon. They are great quality mattresses. This mattress worked perfectly for the lower bunk. However, in hindsight, we wish we would have bought the 4” mattress for the upper bunks to give the kids on top a little more space away from the ceiling. Also, due to the front of the trailer being curved, we had to cut about 6” off the end of each of the top mattresses to make them the right length to fit in the beds. We also made guardrails for each of the top bunks with some 1x3 boards we had laying around from previous home projects. We used regular size twin bed sheets on their beds and the kids got to pick out their own fleece blankets to make their own space unique. We added some small wooden storage boxes from Target and several Command hooks for jackets and hoodies to complete the room. We bought some plastic storage bins for the kids to use for their clothes. Though tight, the space felt much larger once we lightened it up with the white paint and new window curtains. The kids were super excited about their new space and our first RV adventure!