Homer – Kitchen Update
I know this is a repeat from all the previous pages, but the formal look of the RV we purchased, is not who we are. Dark trim, taupe walls, and who adds a back splash behind the stove, but doesn’t actually have it go all the way to the top and to the sides, to give it a finished look?
The basics: We have a rear living room unit with a kitchen island, as you can see from the above pictures. When we started painting out Homer, it was all or nothing. So, we painted ceilings and walls all the same warm, white color. We removed all the formal trim and replaced it with cedar boards we had stained. When it came to the cabinets, Dave removed that dark, smoke glass from the doors and replaced it with luan by simply gluing it in place. I painted out the cabinets using dark milk paint on the lowers and white on the uppers. I wanted the top of the cabinets to give the impression they had disappeared into the walls, while the darker base, keeps them anchored to the floor.
Milk paint is an amazing product. I did not sand my cabinets first, just painted it on and gave it a coat of polyurethane over the finished product. To this day, these cabinets have held up well with little or no scratches. HOWEVER, the cabinets I primed and painted white, have continued to scratch and peel. After our first winter in storage, we opened up Homer to find all the paint had basically fallen off our pantry door. Enter a new kind of primer. After trying several different primers and experiencing the same issue, I finally found a boat primer that has worked amazingly well. One word of warning, it is some stinky stuff. Since I have added this to my pantry door, no more peeling, and scratches just don’t happen. A coat of my same cabinet paint over the primer, a little poly, and I have found this to work fantastic on my cabinet doors. No more peeling!
Once the basics were done, I still wanted some subtle interest and pops of pattern on my walls. I used peel and stick backsplash tile to keep with the modern farmhouse and rustic look we like, and it has been super easy to keep clean. I also wanted some type of feature wall and added the same removable wallpaper that I used in our bedroom, to the wall behind our hutch.
Storage and Organization: When it comes to storage and organization, I have a few criteria I use when determining my solution.
1 – If it’s outside a cabinet, it needs to still be “pretty”.
2 – If it’s in a cabinet, I need to make the most of my space by doubling or tripling all these single shelf, tall cabinets.
3 – We need to be able to find what we are looking for, easily. If we, (and I mean my husband), can’t see it at first glance, he will think we need more and buy another.
Doubling the cabinet space is easy with the use of the metal shelving and by adding some DIY shelves using particle board. The reason we do the particle board is to make sure it can hold the weight of the items we place on it, and its heavy duty enough to travel well, when we are on the road. I also use clear containers for most of our staples and labeled them so we can clearly see what’s in them.
When it came to organizing my refrigerator and freezer, I applied the same criteria, I use for my cupboards. I didn’t need to add additional shelving, but I did need a way to keep my items organized and ready for travel. After opening Homer and finding pickles all over the floor from a bad lock on the fridge, I had to come up with a better solution. I found some refrigerator baskets that easily store all my glass jars of products and once I installed my travel bars, I have not had any more spilled pickle incidents. To fix the fridge lock, we simply added strips of velcro we can wrap around the outside handles. No more open doors.
Furniture and Mods: Another item I have trouble with in all our RVs, is the size of the table. I know it’s all about saving space and I do believe the RV industry does the best with the space they are working with inside these tiny homes. However, if you are anything like us and want to actually eat dinner together at the same table, you soon realize how small these tables really are. We struggled with sitting down to dinner and not being able to fit two dinner plates across from each other, let alone two beverage glasses. Multiple bumps of the elbow and spilled milk everywhere, led us to look for different options. We tried a small, round dining table to give us more space and found ourselves with plenty of table space, but less than enough space around it to sit comfortably.
After searching online, we decided to try a bar top table and just switch the position of the layout. This has been wonderful, and the bonus is we get a great view when eating dinner, depending on what our window is facing. Additionally, we discovered we could use the space under the table for additional storage. I added a couple of pop-up hampers and now we have great shoe storage, and it doesn’t interfere with our feet while sitting at the table. You also can’t see it when the chairs are pushed in.
We did a couple of modifications outside of replacing the dining room table and chairs.
1 – We love having a center island in the kitchen. We just wish we had that little bit more counter space when prepping for meals. After doing some searches, we decided to add a small cutting board extension. I ordered a cutting board from Home Depot that was close to the dimensions of the width of our island and some pop-up locking brackets from Amazon. Dave traced the line of the counter onto the cutting board so we could mount it flush, and wala! We gained about 14 inches of space to our island. It folds down flat against the island when traveling and has made meal prep much easier
2 – The second big mod we did, was swap out the kitchen faucet. The problem we had, is it sat too high above the sink and water would splash all over the back of the island. Additionally, it didn’t hang over the sink far enough and we were forever pulling out the sprayer just to fill a pot with some water. We did some searching, and again, WALA! Found a great faucet that was easy to install and has reduced the amount of water we splash, considerably.
The pretty: The groundwork is layed for a functional kitchen and has been working well for us. Of course, now it’s time to add the pretty. I do love me some pretty! Most people will purchase the matching dishtowels and washcloths. Potholders are a must and of course I don’t know anyone that travels without picking up at least one coffee mug from one of the locations on their travel list. I love all these small touches and always add a couple of rugs to cement the area and help keep the floor reasonable clean.
The additional pretty I add is usually both functional and attractive. I keep large glass jars on my hutch counter to store all our coffee and just wrap them in a blanket and put them on our bed when we travel. Since the hutch counter is our main coffee area, I added a few teacup hooks to hang some of our most loved coffee cups. I store them in a cupboard when we travel, and it takes just a few seconds to put them back out again.
Dave found a spice rack he really liked, and I picked up a pretty jar to hold all our utensils next to the stove. I leave these out all the time, including when we travel. A little museum putty on the bottom of the items holds them securely in place and easily accessible for when we need them. I also keep a fire extinguisher next to the stove for that just in case. It came with the wall mount and so far, we have been fortunate to not have to use it.
When it came to adding the non-functional, I stayed with our rustic theme and as we have traveled, I’ve found different items I like. A basket from Utah, a picture from the Walter Anderson Museum in Mississippi, a lantern that was used for my mother in laws celebration of life service, all these items have special meaning and I like to keep them above the space for our hutch. The buffalo head is a joke between my husband and I, and just looking at it, makes me smile to this day.
I still try to keep a few plants around to bring some life to Homer and as a lover of flowers, this is an added touch I always like to use. I use dried lavender in some of my jars to keep the inside smelling fresh and provide a calming effect. A little lavender oil on them once in a while and Homer is my favorite place to be, no matter where he’s parked.
So, the kitchen is functional and pretty. It flows well with the rest of our RV and when it’s all said and done, it feels like us and not some random RV we purchased. Even if you don’t paint and paper, add those small touches that can still make your RV feel special and enjoy the process. Make it your Homer, your way.
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