Highlighting Custom RV Interiors
Luxury RV interiors sometimes get a bad rap. If it’s been a minute (or a few decades) since you’ve been inside a camper, you might not realize that RV interior design has kept pace with modern trends. Long gone are the trends of eras past. Say goodbye to the gold, avocado and warm brown color scheme of the 70s and the beige wall-to-wall carpeting of the 90s.
Today’s RV interiors follow current decorating styles. You’ll find Scandinavian-inspired neutrals, serene color palettes, plush, overstuffed furniture and the kinds of interior details that make a room feel both comfortable and functional. So let’s walk through a hypothetical RV interior, room by room, and explore the kinds of designs and features that shape each one.
Bedrooms
The majority of RVs come with a master bedroom or master bedroom suite. RV interior bedrooms offer privacy and the comforts of home, like a queen- or king-sized bed and a deluxe mattress. Many luxury RVs even have tilting beds that allow you to sleep on an incline, like the Landmark Scottsdale. It’s great for older campers or anyone with health issues like sleep apnea. And the mattresses in new RVs have kept pace with mattress trends over the last several years, too. You’ll find memory foam and hybrid mattresses in RV interior bedrooms that offer a superior night’s sleep.
At Heartland, the inside of all our RV's bedrooms are carpet-free, which is both a hypoallergenic and practical choice. For example, vinyl and woven marine flooring are easier to keep clean and more compatible with slides. Many bedrooms have slides that allow you to expand the footprint of the room, like the Torque 373. Carpet-free flooring keeps slides functioning smoothly over time.
Torque 373
Light and airy RV interior color schemes show up in bedrooms as white or neutral walls, creating a sense of peace and relaxation. Details like bedside lights, nightstands or bedside cubbies, and even CPAP machine storage can add to the utility of the room while making efficient use of limited space. You might even find storage space like walk-in closets or underbed storage, like in the Elkridge 32RLS. They’re great for helping keep rooms free from clutter and ready for a good night’s sleep. In RV interiors with bunk rooms, you might find some flexible storage as well. Our adaptable bunk system, like in the Mallard Pathfinder P18BHS, lets you flip up a lower bunk to make storage for things like bikes or a kayak. But you could use it to store anything, or just provide more floor space during the day.
Living Areas
Common living areas in RVs are filled with all kinds of little secrets and optimizations. Interior design blends both form and function, and in an RV, everything does double duty. Bright, airy paint colors in RV interior color schemes can make coaches feel spacious and calm. And light, neutral-toned wood lends to the overall effect. Modern RVs often use color palettes with a variety of whites, light grays, and light wood tones. It helps bring a Scandinavian-inspired interior design aesthetic to the road, like you can see in the Sundance 231ML.
Sundance 231ML
When it comes to furniture, there’s no reason why campers should have to choose between comfort and functionality. In Heartland RVs, we love an overstuffed sofa with fold-down cup-holders and USB ports for charging electronic devices. You can also find theater seating reclining seats that cradle you through long movies and allow you to put your feet up at the end of a long day. Check out the Gravity GR3210 to see an example.
Gravity 3210
Sofas and loveseats often do double duty as sleeping space, like in the Big Country 3702FB. Seating can fold out to create beds for multiple guests. And leather or leather-like upholstery makes a resilient seating surface. It’s both comfortable and easy to keep clean, since it resists spills and staining – perfect for people traveling with kids. (Or extremely rowdy adults.)
Big Country 3702FB
Kitchens
Modern RV interiors can have kitchens that range from compact to spacious, but they’re always built to hold what you need. When it comes to decor, the light and airy RV interior color scheme often gets carried through to the kitchen. And a number of details can add to the overall aesthetic.
You can find appliances in stainless steel, matte black and other finishes. They range in size from space-saving fridges to full residential french-door refrigerators. The size of your RV will help determine the size of your appliances, but you should always have access to a fridge, stove or cooktop and oven. Most RVs also include microwaves, and some even have dishwashers for easy cleanup.
Sinks can come in everything from double stainless steel basins, like in the Prowler 303BH, to large, farmhouse style sinks like in the Bighorn 3883MD. And likewise, faucets can be basic and unobtrusive to more complex with a higher rise and a spray function. Fixtures come in everything from brushed nickel to brass and any number of other finishes.
Bighorn 3883MD
In lightweight travel trailers, kitchen cabinets may be made of lighter wood options to help keep tow weights down, like in the Sundance 231ML. But in luxury fifth wheels or toy haulers, cabinets often feature hardwood fronts and detailing to bring elegance and longevity to the space. Kitchen cabinets are often either a wood-stained or bleached-wood finish or a neutral color like white or light gray
If you have a larger RV, like the Bighorn Traveler 39MB, you may also have a full-size pantry. This cabinet is great for storing shelf-stable foods and other cooking or eating-related goods. It can also be the perfect place to stash appliances you only use some of the time, tablecloths, place settings, extra plates and cups, grilling tools, spices, etc.
Cabinet knobs and drawer pulls can change the look of the RV kitchen. And metal finishes are something people often have strong opinions about. Typically, finishes match across the kitchen or the whole RV to give the space a cohesive look. They’re also one of the easiest things to change in the kitchen, if you don’t like the look, as you can source a few dozen knobs and pulls for relatively little money.
Bathrooms
Interior design can be a key component of bathrooms, as well, especially in larger RVs. Small RV interiors may keep things basic in the bathroom, providing a small shower, sink, medicine cabinet and toilet. But more luxurious RVs can hold bigger bathrooms with large showers with glass doors, his and hers sinks, multiple drawers or cubbies – some may even have a bathtub, like the Milestone 386BH. Fancier bathroom layouts tend to add weight to a coach, which is why they’re more often found on larger or more expensive RVs. But no matter what, your RV bathroom should be designed to hold the things you need – toiletries, towels and toilet paper, among other things.
Customizing Your RV Spaces
Just like a sticks-and-bricks home, you can customize your RV space and decorate it to suit your style. People have done it all. An easier option is to update the paint colors in your coach to align with your preferred style of decor. You can paint the walls, trim and kitchen cabinets, for example. It’s a relatively cheap and simple update to make. Some people even go so far as to rip out the furniture that comes with their RV and install their own. But this comes with its share of challenges. Commercial furniture is often not sized for RV spaces. So you’ll need to find something that fits the space and doesn’t add too much weight to your trailer.
But even without ripping your furniture out, you can add style and personality to your space. Why not buy an easy-to-clean rug to put in your living area? Or add some colorful throw pillows and a blanket to your sofa? You can easily hang art on the walls without damage by using Command velcro strips on parallel edges of a frame, which secures it even while you’re in motion.
Customizing RV interiors with a nice set of sheets, some plush pillows and a fluffy duvet can make the bedroom feel less impersonal and more your own. Why not add some mood lighting with some LED lights? You can find ones that run on batteries or that plug in. And that stick to the wall with adhesive or clips. You can find LED lights that change colors or can be controlled by an app. Even just a strip of plain LED lights around the base of the bed or along the floor can make the bedroom feel similar to a high-end room with custom-installed lighting.
We’ll be going into more detail about how you can decorate your RV in a future article. But in the meantime, we’d love to know which RV design features are your favorite? What do you love in your current RV? What might you want in a future RV? And what RV interior design trends are you drawn to these days?
