For many years, I have wanted to renovate a camper into a mobile office or studio. I work from home or from a coffee shop so the concept of having a mobile office was fascinating to me. Hooking it up to the Jeep and just stopping anywhere to work. This beast might not yet make it down the highway, but you can bet I’ll tow it around town on occasion.
Lets start from the beginning. A friend calls, says he has a camper he wants to get rid of. I just at the opportunity to get it. I had a truck camper once and a similar camper to this one, both which I sold and then a couple years later regretted. Life goes on. I got an another one.
This one wasn’t pretty. I didn’t even take an initial ‘before’ photo, I just started ripping crap out of it. There was a ton of stuff. A couple dump runs worth, but I got it all cleaned out and stripped down to the bare minimum.
As you can see the outside is also not pretty and I have yet to do anything with it. It will remain crappy looking until such a time when I get ambitious again. Maybe next year.
Anyways, the interior, in all its glory, was gross and needed a fresh face. I was never going to strip it right down to the frame, that would be just too much work for me. One of my original plans was to have two walls covered in pallets and the other two white. This also changed as I realized how much work this would be. Harvesting pallets is no easy task. I also had to do something about the split level floor. Annoying.
Four coats of paint later. I’m not joking, four coats on all four walls and the ceiling. Everything was white. I really wanted a simple and minimalistic feel to the space and figured that white was a good starting point if I ever wanted to do something else with the space.
Sidenote: The table in the pictures directly below is a solid wood dining room table I sanded and refinished. I put IKEA table legs on it, but for how I want to use it, it is too big for the space.
On to the floor. I wanted to fill in the lower level. Like I said, it was annoying now that the space is so open. I filled the space with stripped 2x4s and then sheeted the entire space with new plywood. Again, I had plans to do something nicer but things take more time then you always estimate.
To finish it all I did was put down two coats of polyurethane to seal and give the wood a bit of gloss.
Once the flooring was done drying I got excited and decided to move in the actual desk I would be using in the new studio. It is another simple desk project: three core boxes put together, stained and sealed, with red IKEA table legs (yes I have a stockpile of IKEA legs).
What I am really excited about is what I’ll be using the studio for. I’m not ready to start talking about it, but it will be a video project. What I’m really hoping I can accomplish with my lighting rig is the ability to light the subject while also keeping what going on outside at a viewable exposure, so you can see the location the studio is in. I’ve going to neat location ideas. However, I think I may need a better video light.
And just for the sake of it this is something like what it might look like. I’m happy.
What did I spend
- Paint: $0 – Salvaged from the dump
- Plywood: $0 – Salvaged
- Sealer: $17/can
- Core Boxes: $0 – Salvaged from old mine
- Table Legs: $16 for 4 legs
- Total: $33 + A lot of time.
What still needs to be done
I still have a list of things that need to be done in order to get this to a state in which I’m completely happy with it.
- Baseboards
- Baseboard/Plywood vent covers
- Broken Window – I accidently smashed it moving the camper
- Heater – I want to get a wall mounted propane heater for the back wall
- Exterior – We’ve talked about this. 2016. Jeez, get off my back
I’m hoping to continue updating this article as I cross off those items.
So, what do you think?
