… Interior Decor Upgrade — Fostering Adventure

Interior Decor Upgrade

Better Than A Therapist

The change in the decor of the cabin interior was an absolute "must do". In part, it was for functionality reasons. But more importantly, it was necessary for good mental health. Here's why.

We ordered the cabin with the shiny white interior provided by the wall panels themselves. We didn't have many windows, so we thought that the white interior would be bright and up-lifting. Well, we were wrong.

After living with the interior for more than a year, we realized that the white interior was not only stark, but it also reflected the glare from the exposed lenses of the lights in the ceiling. This glare causes the iris of the eyes to close, which lets in less light thus making the interior feel dark.

A worse problem still, was that the white interior affected our mood when inside the truck. We could see all of the 1" x 1" white painted angles that were glued, and in some cases screwed, to all the corners and edges to "finish" the connections between the wall panels. Since this looked unfinished to us, perhaps even unprofessional, every time we entered the truck and saw them, they made us think of all the problems we've had courtesy of an incompetent body builder. So it definitely had to be changed.

Decor Planning

The first thing to do was to develop the plan for the entire decor remodel. This was done after looking at scores of interiors inside high end RVs and especially, Euro built expedition trucks.

Most of the work was done in Photoshop so we could bring in photos of appliances and other bits and bobs. Here's what we came up with.

Ceiling Plans

Living Area Ceiling Plan

Bedroom Area Ceiling Plan

Bathroom Area Ceiling Plan

Wall Plans

Living Room Left Side

Living Room Left With Sofa

Living Room Front

Living Room Front Wall With Sofa

Living Room Right Side

Living Room Rear

Bathroom Counter Wall

Bathroom outside wall, front wall and door wall.

Bedroom Headboard

Bedroom Left Side

Bedroom Right Side

Door Handle Detail

Lighting Adjustments

When the ceiling lights were installed, the shop workers must have done it according to their "shop procedures", because there appeared to be very little thought put into where the lights were positioned. Simple things like centering them above the dinette table, and having one side of the cabin line up with the opposite, seems to have been ignored. Apparently they haven't heard of the process of creating a "reflected ceiling plan", and then using it to install the lighting.

So the first thing for us to do was move the lights to reflect a properly thought out location plan. Sometimes this would mean moving them a foot, and others less than a few inches. We also added two more lights over the dinette table to centre the group over the table.

To assist with the warmth and feel of the area, we also added indirect strip lighting above all the cabinets. This was done by installing side shot LED ribbon lighting on a dimmer circuit. It was this perimeter strip lighting that changed the entire mood of the cabin interior.

Off centre by 1-1/2", what happened to measure twice, cut once.

Hot glueing the filler piece in the old cutout.

After the glueing and trimming.

The ceiling after our adjustments.

Drilling for the LED strip wires.

Fishing the feed wires for the strip lighting.

Testing the strip light.

New lights all on together.

Testing the added valence lighting.

Valence Installation

In order to add the extra strip lighting we wanted to improve the mood inside the cabin, we also had to add valences underneath all the ceiling cabinets, and in the coffee cabinet as well. To do this we had to buy some of the Windsor Mahogany laminate to cover the baltic birch plywood that would make up the valences. Once made, the valences were held in place with downward pointing screws from inside the cabinets.

Applying the laminate to the plywood.

The edge tape and wood waiting for the contact cement to dry.

Dressing down the edging.

The finished valence ready for installation.

The outstanding result of wash lighting on the walls.

The small valence to light up the cabinet interior.

Wall & Ceiling Sound Deadening

Composite wall panels may be great for thermal insulation, but when it comes to sound infiltration, they really suck. And if you are a light sleeper like I am, that's a problem. Even the rain hitting the roof sounded like it was amplified. So we had to tackle this before applying any decorative treatment.

The best thing we've found for sound deadening, that isn't bulky, is a competitive product to the well known Dynamat material. Hush-Mat is identical to Dynamat in every way, but is much less expensive. We used it to cover the surface of the interior walls and ceiling. The material can be purchased in a bulk box of thirty 12" x 24" self adhesive sheets. Simply peal and stick. The only tricky part is applying it so air bubbles aren't trapped under the sheet. It goes pretty quick when doing large flat surfaces, but slows down considerably when cutting around cabinets, windows and other fixtures.

Before Hush-Mat, we had to recess the tunnel door hinges.

Very fussy work because it had to be done by hand.

The hinge in now flush with the edge angle.

The tunnel door also had to have recessed hinges.

After fixing the stripped hinge screw holes, and attaching the hinge, we applied the Hush-Mat.

The mess we had to fix because the builder couldn't read instruction.

We covered the shower wall as well, since we couldn't do the exterior wall inside the shower.

The front wall finished.

Doing the ceiling was harder. We stuck one edge first.

Then using a wide piece of plastic, wiped the piece up into place.

Bathroom window wall done.

Even around the toilet was covered.

Bathroom ceiling completed.

Living room ceiling completely covered.

When the Hush-Mat was all on, we could apply the accent strips.

Wall Accent Stripe Installation

Once all the Hush-Mat was installed, the next task was to figure out where we wanted the accent stripes. And what determined this was the location of the top jamb of the tunnel door. We didn't want to try and line up stripes if they went across the door. Originally we were going to have three stripes. But after looking at a mockup, and discovering the door complexity, we decided to go with two stripes. It was definitely the right decision.

We wanted the stripes to match the woodgrain finish on the interior cabinets. So we bought a roll of laminate edging, and adhered it to the Hush-Mat using 3M double sided tape. We had three different thicknesses of tape to adjust for different thicknesses of metal edge material on the tunnel door and elsewhere.

We started on the front wall, and then continued the stripes all the way throughout the truck until we hit the headboard for the bed. The bathroom also had an accent stripe, but we decided on an individual one because it worked better with the cabinets and counter top.

We started on the front wall in order to get the bolsters right for the door.

The objective was to end up with a 3/4" stripe.

All the striping was applied by hand throughout the cabin.

We started with the front wall…

…and continued around the room.

We kept the same height off the floor throughout.

Which continued down the hallway into the bedroom.

We also applied "woodgrain" baseboard strips where needed.

And put woodgrain around the door hardware.

We had to move the toilet controller so our stripe could sit where we wanted it.

The accent around the toilet allows for better cleaning.

We installed proper wood trim moulding around all the doors, and then painted it to match the wall fabric.

Wall and Ceiling Panels

It was at this point that we had to get some help to finish the interior work. The wall panels we wanted to install required a large area to spread out the fabric and backing boards when working on them. The work also had to be done in a climate controlled environment, and required the use of toxic contact glue which we weren't willing to expose ourselves to.

To accomplish this, we solicited the help of a restoration and hot rod shop that came highly recommended for doing the interiors of cars, yachts and even private jets.

We spent the first couple of weeks looking at fabric samples to find one that suited our colour palette. The fabric spectrum ranged from $40 per yard all the way up to $150 per yard for Ultra Leather. Fortunately we found the perfect material in a marine upholstery fabric for only $45 per yard. The bonus was that it is mildew resistant and UV stable. So it won't fade over time.

It took a couple of months for them to finally get it all done, as they had to fit it in amongst all of the other projects they were working on. But the wait was worth the result.