DIYer Saves £100s On Budget Motorhome Upgrades - Including £20 Heating Bill Hack
- Darren, 49, wanted to upgrade his motorhome without spending much
- He reveals how to improve comfort and appearance on a £200 budget
- Shares how to skip professional costs for upgrading a seating area
- Includes other budget tricks, such as a £20 hack to save on heating bills
Owning a motorhome is a great way to travel on a budget, but if your vehicle is old and you need to update it on a budget, it can quickly prove to be expensive. However, one savvy DIYer has proven you only need to spend a little to make a big difference.
Darren King, 49 from Milton Keynes who is a Dad of one and posts on YouTube as DK Goes Wild, told money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk: ‘I wanted to freshen up my old motorhome, as cheap as I could and still do a good job. Myself and my partner wanted to make it more enjoyable, functional, easier to use and prettier!
‘We established two key areas we wanted to improve - the seating area and a paint job. Plus, while we were shopping for supplies, we picked up a number of cheap items that have made a big difference to the functionality of the motorhome.
‘Step one was painting, which has really spruced the place up. I wish I had done this when I got the motorhome 12 months ago, as we are very pleased with the results, but we were busy using it during the summer. Now the weather’s changed, it was the right time to do the painting as we weren’t planning on going anywhere.
‘I like simple designs, but most of the colours were selected due to the price of the paint as well as what colours went well together. The majority of the paint came from Wilko as we were on a tight budget, and it cost about £80 overall.
‘We removed the cupboard doors, washed them down with sugar soap, then sanded them down. I used a cheap primer, then two coats of the main cupboard paint. I have not done a lot of painting before but it turned out really well.
‘The next step was to upgrade the seating area. To do this on a budget, we got cushion covers from Shein. They were very cheap and very stretchy, so easy to fit. They’re not perfect, and we could have paid to recover the cushions, but that was going to be really expensive. It would have cost a couple of hundred pounds, and that was even with mate’s rates.
‘We got some sponge cut, took the old cushions away and then covered it all. I think it’s made a huge difference. Plus, you can take the covers off and they’re washable, plus it protects the old cushions. Considering the price, I’m really impressed with the end result.
‘The sponge was from GB Foam Direct. We got Average Hard Foam for a total of £39.85. As for the covers, we got four three-seater covers at £11.75 each, and three single-seat covers at £9.50 each. The total cost of the foam and cushion covers was just over £115, which is much cheaper than what I was quoted.
‘I got my motorhome last year, and it was really difficult to get Calor gas cans at that time. I knew that getting new ones was going to be an issue. All of the places locally didn’t have the 14kg bottles that I needed. So I watched some YouTube videos and used a hack that not many people do. I swapped out the Calor gas bottles for Homebase gas light BBQ bottles.
‘They’re perfectly safe, and they’re see through so you can see how much you’ve got left. One of my biggest worries is going away and running out of gas. You go to put your kettle on, and you can’t! It’s very hard to tell how much gas you’ve got left in the metal bottles. Most Homebases sell them and it’s made a big difference. Essentially, this was a very cheap modification that has made our lives easier.
‘We also added two pop-up tables to the motorhome. One was bought from eBay, and the other was made from a chopping board. This helped with space and convenience, as we took the table out of the kitchen. We found we weren’t really using it anyway and we only need these new, smaller spaces for chopping food as we tend to eat outside.
‘When we first went away in the winter there was a massive draught and it was very cold, even with the heater on, so we got a thermal door curtain from Amazon for just £19.99 and it made a huge difference. It also means we can save on heating bills as using this curtain has made our sleeping area warmer.
‘The next thing we added was cupboard lights. These were really cheap, and they operate with motion sensors. They were easy to install and now there’s no more rummaging through dark overhead cupboards. These came from Amazon for only £10.49 for a pack of 3, which is only £3.49 per light.
‘Another problem we had was that curtains were opening when driving. We sorted this by getting magnets to hold them in place. They were just £13.99 for a pack of 10 on Amazon, which is just £1.39 per magnet.
‘Overall we are very pleased with the way our motorhome looks and functions now. It took more time to research products and to complete tasks like the painting, compared with getting a professional quote, but we are happy with the savings and the results.’
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Tom Church, Co-Founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, said: ‘These motorhome modifications will be a great inspiration and help to those looking to make similar changes. I hadn’t considered items such as thermal curtains, so no doubt some of these tricks will help even for those who don’t have a motorhome!’
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