The new travel trailer is not actually all that new anymore; we bought it back in April of 2021, but I am just now getting around to posting about it. I would pretend that this is because it took me so long to get the decor just so, but, really, as you’ll see, it came to us relatively fully formed and didn’t demand nearly as much as previous trailers might have (if we had ever gotten around to carrying out all our lofty decor plans for those trailers).

For those who don’t know, we’ve had a travel trailer of one kind or another for over six years now, and we use them to take long trips all over the place every year, taking advantage of the fact that my husband is a teacher with summers off. Our last trailer was a 34′ Jayco toy hauler, which served us well for several years…but last year we decided we were ready to tow something a little smaller and more nimble and to trade all the cargo space a toy hauler offers for a living area that worked better for us.

We ended up, after looking at pretty much every trailer every made, with a Venture Stratus 281vbh.

You can read all about why we picked this model in particular over on the travel blog, but here I’m going to talk about making it pretty on the inside.

The thing is….it was ALREADY pretty on the inside! Trailer decor has come a long way over the past few years. Our first Keystone trailer was a 2010, I believe, and yet the decor was of a decidedly earlier vintage:

When we got that trailer, we had some big plans for ripping everything out and making it beautiful, but we ended up only keeping it a little over a year, so our big plans came to nothing.

Then the toy hauler (2016) was fine…a blank slate that, again, we always had ambitious plans for. Certainly a big step forward, aesthetically speaking, from our first trailer. But it was so FINE (if a bit on the brown side) that decorating never seemed like an urgent concern. We spent a lot of time tinkering with furniture and layout to make that part of things work better for us, but we never got farther than hanging up a couple of things on the wall as far as actual decorating went.

(here it is with all the furniture returned to original positioning right before we sold it):

But this trailer is different! 2021 trailers finally caught up with…2015 decorating trends, and our Stratus is all decked out in modern farmhouse style, lighter and brighter and just generally a whole lot less brown than either of our other trailers.

Now, to be clear, farmhouse decor has never really been my thing. So I had a choice to make with this trailer: fight the farmhouse–maybe rip some stuff out or start painting–and make it more my style…or embrace it. Embracing it was WAY cheaper and easier, so at least for now, that’s what we’re going with. And I have no regrets so far, nine months in.

So really we haven’t done a whole lot in here, which has, honestly, been sort of fabulous. I got to do the fun part–buying a few things here and there–without a ton of expense or work. I just started to type a sentence about how I’d like to eventually do a few things, like replacing the curtains and stuff, but, really, I don’t feel a rush even to do that. I like them fine! Is this why people buy brand new houses?!

Anyway, here’s a tour!

Right inside the door is one of the big reasons we picked this trailer: a closet!

My actual house doesn’t have a coat closet, but now my trailer does, and it’s amazing. Anyone who’s had an RV before knows that finding a place to put shoes is a big issue, so it’s delightful that the Stratus has TONS of shoe storage: there’s this closet and also little shelves at the end of the bunks and another little area under the fireplace. Aside from shoes, we keep jackets and dog leashes in here on hooks, our broom and dustpan, a step stool, TV trays to use in front of the couch for extra table space, stools for extra seating, and then, on the shelves, bins of kid clothes and of all the stuff we regularly haul outside (outside lights, bug spray, sunscreen, table cloths, etc.) So it holds a lot. Bins are from Target.

Right across from the closet are the kids’ bunks:

These are the curtains (both in front of the bunks and over the windows) that would be first on the list of things to replace but that I don’t really mind much. So all we’ve done here is buy the bedding: these soft green bedspreads that I found on TJ Maxx’s website, I believe (or Marshalls–one of those) and then inexpensive fluffy extra blankets from Target. Color wise, I went with all pinks, light greens, and light blues in here. Before we got the trailer I envisioned lots of bright colors instead, but then this is where we wound up.

The big, open main living area is another thing that sold us on the trailer. The toy hauler didn’t have a slide, which was nice in some ways (less set up, one less thing to break!) but having the slide really opens up the space, and we’re loving having such a great place where we can all hang out together:

That sofa folds out into another bed (as does the dinette, in a pinch. When we have all four kids we’ve been having one kid per bunk, one on the sofa, and then Abe actually sleeps on a sleeping pad thing under the lower bunk. Not sure how long that will last, but I suspect our days of long trips with all four of them along for the whole thing are behind us anyway (sniff).

The rug is our first Ruggable washable rug! So far we’re very happy with it. It adds some protection to the floor and some warmth and color, and it’s holding up well. I washed it a couple of times with our regular laundry during our long summer trip and I just toss it in the wash after shorter trips and then put it back.

This scratch off map was sort of the inspiration piece, at least as far as colors, for the whole trailer. Only you can’t tell in this picture because we’d only scratched off one state. But once it’s all scratched off (or a lot of it, which it will be when we get caught up; we’ve been to lots of states!) it will be covered with a pretty flower design. They don’t sell the same one anymore, but here’s a similar one on Amazon (affiliate link).

The kitchen may look small to you, but that’s because you’ve likely never used a toy hauler kitchen. Counter space was non-existent in the toy hauler, but we have a handy cover for the stove that turns that area into useable space when the stove’s not on AND a beautiful little square of actual counter that I refer to as “the sacred counter space” that the kids nevertheless tend to pile computers on top of (mostly because of the proximity to one of the few outlets in the living area).

The rubber mat in front of the sink is from Target; the wreath on the door is from the same TJ Maxx or Marshalls order that brought us the kids’ bedding.

I really love the little kitchen with its tiny gallery wall. It was so easy to add a few things to the wall and counters and make it seem homey.

The charcuterie board came with the trailer. You can take it down and it fits neatly over the sink to create even MORE workspace. I made my first foray into Mixtiles for those photos. They’re super lightweight and hang with double sided tape, so they’re perfect for an RV (and they haven’t fallen down once!) I probably wouldn’t fill my house with them, because they don’t look as substantial as actual framed photos, but they’re exactly what I need for in here. The little “Let’s go” sign was a gift from my mom that also hung in our last trailer. And I got that watercolor wren as a printable on Etsy and put it in an inexpensive, lightweight Target frame.

My mom also gave me that crate on the counter; it’s farmhouse! And very handy for keeping cups in and using up some of that triangle of potentially wasted space back behind the sink. And then there’s a vintage doggie planter holding our sponge and a couple of fake plants from Target (we also grew real sprouts by the window last summer! We need to experiment with growing more greens this coming summer).

Behind the wreath door is our bedroom:

The duvet cover is from West Elm several years ago; it used to be in our bedroom at home, but it never really worked in there, so I’m glad it has a new home in the trailer.

And, finally, the bathroom:

This bathroom is a good bit smaller than our toy hauler bathroom, the storage space isn’t bad. Here’s one place we did do some curtain replacement; we took down the old shower curtain and replaced it with this one from Target. The bath mat is also from Target (more pink! What’s become of me?). And then more mixtiles and some Turkish hand towels.

That completes the tour! You can check out my travel blog to read about all the places we go with the trailer.

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