We live in an RV, a 5th Wheel toy hauler, Keystone Raptor. We moved in in March 2014.
One of the first things I discovered is that the mirrored sliding doors to the closet in the "bow" of the RV, the part that hangs over and hooks up to the truck, were heavy and noisy to slide open. They were large and inflexible and made the closet dark. There is about a foot of space between the queen bed and the closet, so with those mirrored, sliding closet doors, I was constantly having to muscle them around just to get to the side of the bed to make it, and that was done on tippy toes. Searching for clothes in that dark closet was difficult too, since I'd stand squeezed in between the side of the bed and the opening to the closet. We installed battery-powered lights but we still had the problem of the noise and the lack of flexibility with the heavy mirrored doors.
So we removed them because I had a better idea. The plan was going to repurpose denim and make curtain panels. So here is the series I went through, discovering how to do it.
First off, this is what our bed looks like. On it is a quilt I found in a thrift shop that I just loved and used in our old slide-in camper that we called Bertha. The interior of that camper was blue, so that quilt worked great on the bed in the loft over the cab. Since this Raptor has a queen size bed also, and I loved that quilt, (it came to represent the fun of going out on adventures) I kept it. At the foot of the bed is another quilt, a beautiful gift from a good friend. She got the colors spot on, right? I love it. She had never seen the other quilt. She was going simply off what she thought I would like. How cool is that? I love BOTH quilts.
So when I made the patchwork curtain panel, it didn't look right with the quilts which surprised me and I couldn't have that. The panel was nice and heavy, and wouldn't wrinkle (well, OK, it was wrinkly in a Bohemian way) but it was just too busy-looking, too junky.
So I took it apart and made several large throw pillows for my grandchildren and some for grandnephews.
They all loved them because they can go on the floor and are meant to take a beating. The best part is that they have pockets and zippers in them which means all kinds of cool little hiding places for stuff, hopefully not bubble gum. But hey, have fun!
So I knew that repurposing old jeans was going to look too busy, and I was already sold on doing a denim look throughout the RV. I went to Walmart (the local area not having any fabric stores within 30 miles) and bought several yards of a midweight denim and a heavy duty tension rod. I also bought several yards of a yellowish/orange cotton print to use as a trim on the denim. I liked how this looked. And it sure was flexible and serviceable. You could just pull it to the sides to look for things in the closet, and it makes it so easy to make the bed or to get in and out of bed on my side.
However, the midweight denim, lost some of it's stiffness and didn't fall straight (like in this picture) after a while. The moisture, which you are bound to have in an RV with the varying temps, made the denim more wrinkly and less like a panel.
So I added another panel. Wa la!
One of the first things I discovered is that the mirrored sliding doors to the closet in the "bow" of the RV, the part that hangs over and hooks up to the truck, were heavy and noisy to slide open. They were large and inflexible and made the closet dark. There is about a foot of space between the queen bed and the closet, so with those mirrored, sliding closet doors, I was constantly having to muscle them around just to get to the side of the bed to make it, and that was done on tippy toes. Searching for clothes in that dark closet was difficult too, since I'd stand squeezed in between the side of the bed and the opening to the closet. We installed battery-powered lights but we still had the problem of the noise and the lack of flexibility with the heavy mirrored doors.
So we removed them because I had a better idea. The plan was going to repurpose denim and make curtain panels. So here is the series I went through, discovering how to do it.
First off, this is what our bed looks like. On it is a quilt I found in a thrift shop that I just loved and used in our old slide-in camper that we called Bertha. The interior of that camper was blue, so that quilt worked great on the bed in the loft over the cab. Since this Raptor has a queen size bed also, and I loved that quilt, (it came to represent the fun of going out on adventures) I kept it. At the foot of the bed is another quilt, a beautiful gift from a good friend. She got the colors spot on, right? I love it. She had never seen the other quilt. She was going simply off what she thought I would like. How cool is that? I love BOTH quilts.
So when I made the patchwork curtain panel, it didn't look right with the quilts which surprised me and I couldn't have that. The panel was nice and heavy, and wouldn't wrinkle (well, OK, it was wrinkly in a Bohemian way) but it was just too busy-looking, too junky.
So I took it apart and made several large throw pillows for my grandchildren and some for grandnephews.
They all loved them because they can go on the floor and are meant to take a beating. The best part is that they have pockets and zippers in them which means all kinds of cool little hiding places for stuff, hopefully not bubble gum. But hey, have fun!
So I knew that repurposing old jeans was going to look too busy, and I was already sold on doing a denim look throughout the RV. I went to Walmart (the local area not having any fabric stores within 30 miles) and bought several yards of a midweight denim and a heavy duty tension rod. I also bought several yards of a yellowish/orange cotton print to use as a trim on the denim. I liked how this looked. And it sure was flexible and serviceable. You could just pull it to the sides to look for things in the closet, and it makes it so easy to make the bed or to get in and out of bed on my side.
However, the midweight denim, lost some of it's stiffness and didn't fall straight (like in this picture) after a while. The moisture, which you are bound to have in an RV with the varying temps, made the denim more wrinkly and less like a panel.
So I added another panel. Wa la!
Love these ideas. You could add storage pockets to this kind of panel too.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I thought about putting pockets on it but was afraid of weight with the tension bar. Now that I've been using it a while, I think it would hold though.
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