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| mobile home kitchen (Photo credit: mastercabinetmaker) |
Your mobile home, is your home. There
is no reason to treat it any differently than you would any other
stick built home. Like every home in existence it needs updating.
While it may not be in your budget to do all of the suggestions
above, this article is just to give you a few options you may want to
try. Every home needs a little updating, usually every ten years.
Mobile homes come pre-designed for the era/decade they are built in.
If you are tired of being stuck to that color scheme and design, it
is good to know you can do something to give your home a new look and
feel.
- Paint the walls. Yes, you can paint the wall paper. Today's interior paints come with built in primer and you can paint easily over the wallpaper inside most mobile homes quite easily. Paint is one way to update your mobile home and removed the dated colors associated with your home and the decade it was manufactured
- Replace plumbing fixtures. Many fixtures in manufactured mobile homes are also date specific. Brass is in many homes built in the 80's and 90's. Switching out these for current finishes like brushed nickel etc. is a way to get your home into the modern era.
- Replacing the carpeting and flooring. There are many advantages to changing out the flooring in manufactured mobile homes. Many homes built during the 70's through the 90's are style and color specific to that era. In many cases they don't fit well into the neutral furniture and décor currently used today. You may have to check around to get the best deal for installing carpeting in larger homes because many rooms are not built in traditional measurements that carpeting comes in. This means you may have to have it professionally installed however this is a good investment if the home is your permanent home or a home you are currently trying to sell in a market competing with houses.
- Painting the wood trim. Now you may see many shudder at that idea of painting wood but unless the wood trim is expensive wood, there's no reason you can't paint the wood molding in your home. Whether it's paneling from the 70's and 80's or even the molding from the 90's, chances are the manufacturer did not put in Mahogany or real Walnut. With that in mind, if you like white trim and you plan on painting the walls, why not paint the trim too? It will update your home instantly and brighten up the room.
- Refinish or replace your counter tops. There are products on the market for laminate counter tops that will allow you to paint over them and completely change the appearance. There are many options depending on your budget but you are not stuck with your counter tops in your older mobile home and if you are planning on selling, it may be worth it to try. The least expensive would be to use a laminate counter top kit. See *link below for more information on that.
Fantastic Ideas! I did not know you could paint wallpaper. Does it last? Very good ideas.
ReplyDeleteThank you Eva, yes, it does last especially if you use paint that has a built in primer. I would suggest flat paints are a little more likely to stick well. Chose a paint with built in primer if you are trying to cover patterned wall paper. :-)
ReplyDeleteI live rurally and although I do not live in a mobile home now many rural people do and making updates can be a challenge. Adding an addition can be a great way to update a mobile home so it does not feel like a mobile home.
ReplyDeleteI know somebody who bought 3 acres in a subdivision, they had a mobile home and were told they were not allowed to have it on their property, but they worked something out, the built a hill, added a walkout basement, but the mobile home on the basement, so that it looks like a 2 story house. It was a doublewide home I don't think they added an addition, but at any rate you would never know it was a mobile home.
Your tips for updating are great and would work for any home, not just mobile homes.
Good blog thanks for your tips!
Thank you for your comment and although many of these tips are good for any home, I have run across very few interior decorating tips for mobile home owners, and I have at times run across those living in mobile homes that were unaware that they could paint wallpaper or wall board, etc. so I wanted to make sure to appeal to that crowd as well. The interior design industry as a whole tends to ignore mobile home design and decor. Hope you have a great day!! :-)
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