The living room is the VERY last room to get finished in the RV, and we aren’t exaggerating. The day before we got photos taken, we were cutting wood and painting, but luckily it all came together just in time!
Let’s go back to the very beginning.
When we were RV shopping, we knew we had to have a living space that could also function as a workspace for Colton, so we were really excited about our living room’s opposing slides. One of the slides is the whole wall from entry door to back window, the other is the entertainment center.
Removing the existing furniture was our first task, and we took it on with excitement. (Which basically means we had fun breaking things.) The RV furniture was either built inside the RV or placed before the walls or windows were finished, so we ended up having to break apart the 250 lb pull out sofa AND the fancy recliners. Whew.
When moving the furniture out, someone accidentally backed into the wall, and to our surprise, their foot went straight through the interior wall. It was wet. Stick your finger through the wall with no resistance wet. We called our dealership ASAP and asked if they knew anything about why or how this happened. They responded they had just power-washed our RV before delivery and had also been testing the windows to make sure they were in working order. Turns out, when two people are doing those jobs separately but at the same time, you get soggy interior walls. But, the dealership came through again and delivered new interior wall boards and the supplies to reassemble. Win!
Once we tore everything out, we were left with a really open feeling space. Out of priority we built a desk for Colton first. The desk was temporary until we found a dining room table that had enough surface space to double as both. Next were the couches. One couch was so easy it almost felt like cheating. We found our futon on Amazon at a great price and best of all, it only weighs 75 pounds. We love that we have the flexibility of extra sleeping space, or let’s be honest, it’s mostly used to cuddle Stella on while we binge watch The Office. But, we still needed one more to fill the space.
We wanted a couch that had storage beneath it and spent some quality time on Pinterest for ideas, called both my handy brother in-laws, and finally came up with something that resembled a plan. Lucky for us, Colton’s brother Trevor is super talented with woodworking and offered to come help us figure it out. He took my plans of a simple box to a super functional daybed/couch/storage mash-up that fits our space perfectly. We love the piano hinge that allows us to raise the back when we want a couch and also access the storage for Colton’s equipment from both directions.
Our entertainment system is from everyone’s DIY furniture land: IKEA. We drove to our closest IKEA with our measurements in hand to find a premade entertaining system. While we didn’t find exactly what we were looking for, we did find two small shelving units that fit perfectly around our fireplace. We added a few finishing touches like the surface on top as well as the fitting around the fireplace.
The final touches for the living room took place in the days before we got our photos taken of the RV. We bought a new dining room table, finally hung some decorations (thanks sister!), and now the living room feels complete! We couldn’t be happier with how this space turned out—super functional but also comfortable and practical.