How can I brighten my camper without paint? (pics included)

By Elaine Knight
Page last updated: 15/03/2022 | Next review date: 15/03/2024
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Elaine Knight
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In this short guide, we will answer the following question: How can I brighten my camper without paint? We will share with you our simple but cool ideas to make your camper look brighter, more spacious and trendy!

How can I brighten my camper without paint?

There are several ways to brighten your camper without using any paint! Here are just a few cool ideas that we are going to discuss in this article:

  1. We will tell you how to decorate the metal parts of your camper without any paint;
  1. Learn how to use vinyl wallpaper;
  2. Brighten your camper with self-adhesive vinyl flooring;
  3. Camperization details: edging, profiles and knobs;
  4. Use exterior vinyl to brighten your camper;
  5. Tips on choosing the best camper decorations.

Now that you know there are plenty of options to brighten your camper without paint, let’s get to work!

How to decorate metal campers without paint

If you want to decorate the metal sheet that has been visible inside your camper and thus improve the decoration of your home on wheels, surely our advice to cover those parts with carpet will help you.

For these cases where the sheet is not only less decorative, it can also be a weak point where we can worsen the insulation of our camper van by creating large condensations in those small pieces of visible sheet metal, a great trick is to glue carpet or felt.

Installing it is relatively simple, although it takes time … A template is made of the area to be covered, cut into the carpet and glued with a special contact glue for this type of materials (and it can be instantaneous). And that is it!

Note: Whether or not you put carpet on, you should cover any part of the sheet that is visible, to prevent condensation from forming inside the caravan. More info on this, in the article on insulation.

Brighten your camper with vinyl wallpaper

Do you think that improving the decoration of the caravan just with varnish or paint gives it a somewhat bland look? Or maybe you have painted a piece of furniture and you didn’t like how it turned out? So maybe it’s a good idea to think about wallpaper.

You can put it practically anywhere, like outside or inside a piece of furniture (line it inside), or on the plywood wall, or even on the table.

In addition, the installation is quite simple. You have two options, stick it with wallpaper glue (for which you will have to put weight on it for 12 hours) or with instant contact glue (which sticks within a second of touching the surface). The only complication is when you have to make small cuts to fit for example a button or a hinge, but with patience, the result is quite good.

Brighten your camper with self-adhesive vinyl flooring

And how can we decorate the floor of the caravan? Most plywood does not have a great finish or is not fully treated to withstand the wear and tear to which a floor is subjected that a motorhome or caravan can suffer (cold, heat, humidity, pets …).

Therefore, a good option to protect the floor and also “beautify” the final result of the compensation, is to use sheets of self-adhesive vinyl flooring.

There are vinyl floors that are quite resistant to humidity and friction, in addition to being not too expensive and there is a lot of variety, so there is surely one that fits the style of your camper.

Vinyl flooring usually exists in two forms: roll and sheet. We recommend that you buy the one that comes in sheets since these are usually always self-adhesive so that you will not have to go around putting glue or special glues. Simply put it on the floor, cut if you need a corner, and voila!

Brighten your camper with a few details: edging, profiles and knobs

To give a more professional finish to the furniture of your camper there are several options:

On the one hand, and if you have not yet cut all the wood, for the cabinet doors you can make them rounded instead of squared. They give another aspect to the furniture, much more pleasing to the eye (according to our point of view). We made a loft that way and we really liked the result.

On the other hand, to open the doors of the furniture you can make a classic hole through which to put your hand so that no knob hits. Although if the idea of ​​the interior of your camper van is more “classic”, you can try to buy a knob with a custom design, like the ones in this link.

And what to do with the corners and edges of the furniture? The easiest option is to paint them in the same way as is done with the rest of the furniture. But another much more “fine” and professional option for decorating your camper van would be edging the corners. 

That is, stick a special tape for edges so that it seems that the furniture simulates that it does not have corners. The edges are usually installed simply by applying heat on them (thermo-adhesives).

And the other option for the edges is to install what is usually used in many professional motorhomes: an aluminum or PVC profile. They work very well but are usually quite expensive, and installation is sometimes not easy (they are “embedded” inside the wood). 

Yet another “trick”. For exposed screws, you can use a screw cap or cover like the one shown below. If you choose one of the same colours as the wood, they will go very unnoticed.

Using exterior vinyl to brighten your camper without paint

Does the exterior of your caravan seem like it has no personality? The first option would obviously be to decorate it, being able to paint it on the outside in a colour that you like. The downside would be the price, costing between $800 and $2000 (for a professional), and as it represents a large part of a camperization budget, it is to think twice before painting the camper.

A much cheaper option to decorate the exterior of your camper can be to install a vinyl sticker. The options are endless: from the typical compass rose, a world map, to a tribal one! Something that goes with your style.

Camper decorations to brighten your camper without paint

In addition to all these tricks, making small details in the decoration of your camper van is phenomenal, one part that will make the van feel as much “more yours” is the interior decoration.

Understanding the decoration as those small details that give more personality and make our campervan that special place that we do not want to leave.

A great discovery for us was the metal hooks in the shape of an «S» or also the hooks with a metal grip. With these hooks, which exist in many sizes, materials and colours (so that they go totally with the style that you want to define in the interior of the van) you can hang a lot of things.

One thing that no one is capable of overlooking on their travels (and anyone who says they are lying), is to bring back a memory of that place where we live adventures. Either a wall ornament (such as a painting or some decorative object), something for the dashboard of the car or something that we can hang on the mirror of the van’s moon.

From mugs with beautiful exterior designs, mandala towels to separate the front seats from the back or blankets to cover your bed or the trunk, hang different decorations and a million other ideas.

The bottom line

We hope that our simple ideas to brighten your camper without any paint have inspired you! Please feel free to share your thoughts and before after pictures!

Other FAQs about Camper Vans that you may be interested in.

Is it OK to cover the camper with a tarp?

Is it cheaper to live in a van? 

How long do camper covers last?

References

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