By Gail Marsh
Brown, light brown, and dark brown. That used to be the only color scheme available for RV interiors. I remember our first RV. It had golden brown curtains and upholstery. The cupboards were dark brown, and the carpet was a mixture of golds, beige, and (you guessed it) brown. I loved it! The cupboards never appeared smudged, and the carpet didn’t show dirt, mud, or sand. It was great!
Changes
Recently, there has been a shift away from brown RV interiors. Either customers’ complaints finally reached the RV design teams’ ears, or the RV industry discovered Pinterest and HGTV.
Grays and whites
As home trends shifted away from darker colors (like brown), new interior colors like grays and whites became “on trend.” It didn’t take long for homeowners to replace their oak kitchen cabinets with white ones. Gray walls became the “go-to” on all of the home decorating shows, as well. The browns of the past were replaced by various shades of white and gray.
In RVs, too
It took some time, but the RV industry caught up with the lighter trend in interior décor. Now many RVs feature white or light gray cabinets. Walls are white with contrasting gray trim around doors and windows. Floors are much brighter. The result is an interior that appears lighter, and customers seem pleased with how the updated look makes the interior look larger.
Downsides
Our current RV’s interior isn’t as up-to-date as the ones on today’s RV showroom floors. While our cabinets are a much lighter tone, they are still brown. Same with the walls. The vinyl floors of our current RV are much lighter in color, however. I appreciate not having to vacuum carpet like in past RVs, but I’m not completely sold on the lighter tone. Now I notice every blade of grass and clump of dirt that comes inside our rig. I spend a lot more time with a broom and mop!
On trend
Of course, the white and gray color scheme won’t last forever. In fact, it appears that the darker colors (sage green and navy) are already overtaking whites and grays. Will RV designers follow this trend? Who knows?!
How about you?
Do you like the color of your RV’s interior? Vote and then use the comments to tell us about your rig’s interior color.
RELATED
- Why doesn’t anybody paint their RV’s interior?
- How do I install new wallpaper in my RV so it doesn’t peel?
RVT1230
Said, yes I like it, but we tossed those heavy plywood valances and installed some bright colored curtain valances (we didn’t care that the shade strings were now exposed). It visually opened up the space and broke the monotone neutral.
NO!
It’s still like it was when manufactured in 1957.
Times have changed!
I was so happy when you we purchased our new motorhome as it was the white/gray interior. It makes everything so much brighter and seems like more inside space due to the light colors. I was so sick of brown brown browns in our previous travel trailers. I think back to our first motorhome a GMC that had the orange and yellow color scheme, and then our 1987 class C Jayco with a teal green interior with natural wood cabinets. So I was very happy when the industry started to due white and gray colors.
I HATE GRAY! I spent too many years working in government offices in the ’60s and ’70s with battleship-gray, all-metal, WWII-surplus furniture. Try spending 8 hours a day, every day, with a gray desk, chair, bookcase, file cabinet, drafting table, map case, even door. You will never want to see gray anything ever again!
Our 2020 RV has walnut kitchen cabinets with white trim, white laminate upper cabinets, brown-white woven wallpaper, and tan, wood-grained vinyl flooring. It is light enough, but still has enough earth tones to feel warm, not cold gray. For living/RVing in Colorado, warm decor is better than cold in every season!
Ours is warm natural colors & medium wood. All white or light colors are not my pick for camping
Our RV has dark wood-like interior, which we would like to paint white. But the wood is covered by sticky stuff, You can’t paint over it, & it’s an awful time to scrape it off & clean the sticky. Why did the Winnebago manufacturer do that? Everything else is fine. Sigh.
The original finish has probably failed. The stickiness is not intentional.
The biggest thing I hated was the light, tan carpet throughout the whole coach! As soon as we could, we replaced it with a wood floor. Next, I recovered the window headboards to lighten them and made matching pillows for the couch. All that helped to take away so much tan/brown! Now I like it much better.
We like real stained hardwood (not paper covered pressboard or painted) in our cabinetry. We also like beautiful inlaid panels vs flat doors and drawer fronts that don’t display the kind of craftsmanship we appreciate.
We’ve never much cared what the trend-of-the-moment is. We get what we like and others can get what they like.
We have a MH built in 2008 so the interior with the cherry wood cabinets is great, I can’t see us in a new RV with the bland colors that are so common today. Today’s white or grey interiors do nothing for us.
RV interiors follow (or sometimes lead) residential colors. I used to design and build custom furniture and cabinets. Of more than two decades of this, I had to follow “color of the month” trends. It was ok. That’s what custom is all about. My RV interior follows the last trend of grey colors. It’s ok. Makes it look bigger. Not as warm as wood colors, but It’s what’s available right now. I’m sure it will change again to something else.
Our TT has gray/white interior which makes it lighter and brighter, but I do love color. I use a lot of teal/turquoise in my linens, pillows and even some small appliances, etc. to break up the monotony.
’04 40’Newmar Mountain Aire DP. Floor is grey/dark grey patterned linoleum Armstrong tile. Captain’s chairs are brown high quality non peeling leather. Dashboard matches. Grey couch and recliner. Southern oak cabinets. Real oak, not cheap wood with thin oak roll covering.
We like our interior.
2025 Hoosier Custom Cruiser with Maple (real wood) interior. Raised panel cabinetry.
We ordered it and we love it.
We changed out our tans / browns to gray, including carpet and upholstery. Love it now!
Wouldn’t have bought it if I didn’t like it – and I don’t at all like the new “lighter” color schemes, to me they look cheap. I much prefer our wood cabinets. We have tile floors, which are tolerable, but I would prefer carpet. Carpet doesn’t crack, and isn’t all that hard to replace if it gets really dirty.
We didn’t like the gray at first. Then we declared it’s just the background and added stuff. Now it works well!
Love our real golden oak cabinets and trim with brown and beige fabrics. They make a great neutral background for whatever colors I want to decorate with. I don’t want white and gray.
Nope, brown tan & more brown. Our last trip out one of the strings in the window shades broke. I am taking that as a sign I need to take the tacky valance things down & put up some pretty curtains to break up the brown. I’d try to paint the cabinet fronts but I think they are covered with a contact paper. Not sure paint would work. Cheap crappy cupboards but don’t think I could talk the hubby into building new ones.
It’s the brown/tan interior (2017) but it feels cozy. The bright whites etc feel sterile to me. The new color trends are just that…trends. All in all color is a personal thing.
Poll needs another choice – We didn’t like our interior color, so we changed it. We removed the drab wallpaper and painted the walls a bright color.