Looking to update the look and feel of your mobile home? Are you worried that no matter what you do, your home will always have that stereotypical mobile home “boxiness” that most aesthetic-conscious owners dread? Do you want to know what problems you will face redesigning your home? Most importantly, do you want real-life examples of how others redesigned their mobile home interiors?
If you answered yes to one, or all, of the previous questions, you’re in luck! You would be blown away by the creative as well as relatively easy and inexpensive ways people have found to transform their homes.
The analogy of a butterfly emerging from its cocoon is especially relevant to redesigning your home. Cocoons can be dull, nondescript, and look the same across the board, however, each one of them hides a beautiful butterfly underneath. Let’s see how you can release the untapped potential in your home.
MOBILE HOME BEDROOM IDEAS:
Space-Saving Furniture: Opt for multifunctional furniture pieces like beds with built-in storage drawers or pull-out trundle beds for guest accommodations.
Wall-Mounted Shelves: Install wall-mounted shelves to maximize vertical storage and display items such as books, plants, and decorative pieces.
Creative Headboards: Use a unique headboard design to add character to your bedroom. Consider repurposing materials like reclaimed wood or vintage doors.
Mirrors and Lighting: Strategically placed mirrors can create an illusion of a larger space. Incorporate adequate lighting to make the room feel bright and inviting.
Cozy Bedding and Textiles: Choose soft, comfortable bedding and layer it with throws, pillows, and cushions to add warmth and texture to the bedroom.
Accent Wall: Create an accent wall with wallpaper, a bold paint color, or reclaimed wood to add visual interest to the room.
Window Treatments: Use curtains or blinds that complement the overall design of the room while providing privacy and controlling natural light.
MOBILE HOME INTERIOR DESIGN IDEAS:
Open Floor Plan: Consider removing non-load-bearing walls to create an open and spacious layout, allowing for better flow between rooms.
Light Color Palette: Use light and neutral colors on walls, floors, and furniture to make the space appear larger and more airy.
Smart Storage Solutions: Incorporate creative storage options such as built-in shelving, under-bed storage, or hidden cabinets to maximize space.
Updated Lighting Fixtures: Replace outdated light fixtures with modern, energy-efficient options to enhance the overall ambiance of the space.
Window Enhancements: Install window treatments that allow natural light to filter in while providing privacy, such as sheer curtains or blinds.
Flooring Upgrades: Consider upgrading flooring with materials like laminate, vinyl plank, or hardwood to give your mobile home a fresh and polished look.
Personal Touches: Incorporate your personal style through artwork, decorative items, and accessories that reflect your interests and personality.
COMMON MOBILE HOME DESIGN PROBLEMS
There are a few characteristics of mobile homes that make them challenging for some to customize and beautify. Most people’s mistake is to throw their hands up in despair and think there is nothing they can do about it.
There are a few nifty tricks that you can use to emphasize certain aspects, draw the eye where you want, and obscure others. In this way, you can “mold” the way in which a room is perceived.
GENERIC LOOK AND FEEL
Quick and inexpensive manufacturing is both one of the biggest advantages of mobile homes as well as one of its main drawbacks. The assembly line technique of mass production allows manufacturers to churn out mobile homes quickly, inexpensively, and of the same standard.
However, this also means mobile homes are all constructed in the same way and have standard floor plans, materials, and features. This can make mobile homes look extremely generic. Always be on the lookout for ways in which you can change that.
Whether it be through replacing doorknobs, countertops, staining wooden cabinet doors, etc. Anything that interrupts some of the genericness inherent in most mobile homes.
MAKE ROOMS APPEAR LARGER
Most mobile homes are a bit smaller than their stick-built counterparts. This leads to one of their most confounding design challenges to the amateur interior designer: How to make these spaces appear larger?
For starters, you should go with light and cool colors that tend to recede from the eye creating the optical illusion of a larger space. Longer, shorter pieces of furniture also make the space between the floor and ceiling seem much longer. Enhance this effect by using vertical paneling (if any).
Wainscoting panels along the bottom of the floor can also help but shouldn’t be too ornate or in your face.
Lastly, employ mostly plain or single color furniture and elements to make the room seem larger. Anything too ornate and intricate might be pretty too look at but will also make the room feel more cluttered.
BALANCE OUT NARROW ROOMS
This is a very common thorn in the side of those who want to create a pleasant and free living space. Mobile homes often have narrow rooms or hallways that are claustrophobia-inducing as well as throwing off the sense of balance within the home.
Just as cool colors recede, warm colors advance. Paint the wall at the one stub end of the room a warm color, in contrast, to cool colors on the other three. This will draw the wall in which will make it feel more balanced.
Use diagonal patterns on the floor, whether it be wood floor panels or a carpet. This draws the eye to the corners where everything is always balanced.
OFF-CENTER OR SMALL WINDOWS
Now, this is a slick sleight of hand that any DIY interior decorator should be aware of if only because it requires no extra cost and little effort on your part. If you are frustrated at off-center windows throwing the symmetry of the room, just add big curtains that cover up the entire (or large piece of the wall). If the drapes are heavy and opaque, your guests won’t know the difference.
We absolutely love this simple, rustic, and eye-pleasing bathroom. Let’s start with the most obvious part, the walls. In this example, the designer made use of white Thasso's marble. You can find them with various appearances. In this case, a brick-like slate was used that makes the bathroom fun and rustic.
The orange marble countertop also adds to both of these characteristics while also creating the perfect tidbit of color between the earthy brown of the cabinets and the white of the walls.
The plain square basin is also a modern, stylish, and practical addition. Also, notice how the items on the counter are not only functional but fit into the room as a whole too.
MODERN AND SLEEK
The white wall is where the similarities stop between these bathroom examples. The previous bathroom was rustic and wholesome with warm colors to make one feel relaxed and cozy. This bathroom uses cooler colors and sleek lines to create a modern space that feels airy and clean.
The fantastic use of shelves and storage space is of particular interest here. The long shelves running around the bottom of the wall add a lot of useful storage without intruding on the space and staying below eye-level.
If you look closely, the ceiling is not very high. However, the contrast between dark grey slate for the floor and bath’s sides and the white walls make it seem much higher. Both designers had an eye for choosing items that suit the room’s design, in this example it’s the light blue towels and candle holders.
THE LIVING ROOM
MAKING THE MOST OF THE AVAILABLE SPACE
This design actually utilizes many of the room balancing and space-creating tricks that we talk about at the end of the article. There are a few important things we want to highlight in this room.
The use of color is first up. The whole room sticks to earthy colors for the most part. Light grey, off-white, a light brick face, and notes of brown are the dominating colors. The room sticks to the theme almost entirely throughout.
Black is only introduced through the carpet to give the room that something extra and the use of a visible mat that doesn’t cover the floor from wall to wall also helps the room appear slightly larger. The furniture also fits the room perfectly and was definitely chosen by taking the room’s dimensions into consideration.
Lastly, the mirror adds a fun yet sophisticated touch that helps to further make the room appear larger.
A HOME THAT’S TRULY YOURS
If someone walked you into their home and presented you with this, you would never believe it could be a mobile home. However, once you start to look at the individual elements, you can come to see how easy (and affordable) it would be to customize your mobile like this.
A deep and very noticeable color on the walls will already put a lot of distance between your home and it’s standard mobile home design. Next up, corner skirting for the bottom of the wall and the wooden frames are easy to find and bring a nice and stylish contrast to the wall color.
Subtle details, like the gold-painted wall sockets and the DIY wall-shelf with the ornate support, are the type of additions that really give a custom feel.
To make even bigger changes to the generic mobile home design, you can create open-plan spaces such as this one simply be removing doors and enlarging the spaces.
THE MASTER BEDROOM
THE SLEEK AND STYLISH MASTER BEDROOM
There are two ways to go when designing and decorating your master bedroom. You can either go very personal and fill the room with ornate furniture, memorabilia, and other fixtures that are personal to you or you can go for a more toned down, organized, and sophisticated room like this.
The combination of dark and light colors, like in this example, will make you feel grounded and relaxed – the perfect combination for a peaceful sleep. You should use either relatively neutral colors or colors that are related to those in the rest of your home. Neutral colors will help you relax and keep you from getting overstimulated and you don’t want your room to break too drastically from the style in the rest of the home.
A soft-on-the-eye pattern can also be used to make it feel a little bit more like your own and add a dash of sophistication. To help make the room feel organized, neat, and elegant, notice how the decorator made use of a lot of consistent square shapes and straight lines.
THE MOJAVE BEDROOM
This room shows how easily you can incorporate your own taste and style into your bedroom just by the furniture and bedding you use. This room’s motif has a decidedly “sandy” feel. It would be perfect for a mobile home located near the beach or in a dry area.
The chest at the end of the bed is not only functional but the fact that it’s like a woven basket fits in with the textures of the room. Another great example of how you should pick the objects in a room to suit the design.
This room also uses neutral colors so that it will fit in with the rest of the home pretty much regardless of what the rest of it looks like. Don’t be scared to buy eye-catching furniture with latches and details like this, just consider whether they will still look at home.
THE KID'S ROOM
COLORFUL AND PRACTICAL
“kids room” by jinkazamah is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Just because it’s a kids’ room doesn’t mean that organization and functionality aren’t important! However, these traits don’t have to come at the cost of fun. This room with its bunk beds where the lowest bed has built-in drawers is a prime example of how to make a room fun while being mindful of the space restrictions.
Everything is so compact. Each piece utilizes the available space in a way that doesn’t make it feel cramped or forced into places. The fact that the bed, desk, and cabinets are all against one wall opens up a lot of space for playful activities. A nice rug would have rounded out this room perfectly.
Your little ones won’t have any excuse not to do their homework in a room like this.
THE THEMED ROOM
Themed rooms are fun! We know that many of you are sighing already at the prospect of putting one together. This room shows that it doesn’t need to be complicated and costly to make an imaginary setting.
Two simple, yet very effective design decisions make this room unmistakably pirate-themed. The light blue “smeared” walls immediately bring oceans and sunny skies to mind. The stained wood furniture looks exactly like the hulls and decks of a pirate ship. These furniture pieces could have started out as almost any color of wood but were changed into a pirate ship at only the cost of a bucket of wood strainer.
This shows what an important role color alone plays in conveying a mood.
Now that you have the setting firmly established, you can add details such as the pirate flag and tropical island decorations. What we like even more about this room is the fact that the colors are soothing so that they don’t keep the kids up at night.
FOR MORE IDEAS…
The last tip we want you to take with you is to really have a look around at what’s possible. Some people have really managed to pull gorgeous butterflies from their ugly cocoons. Just look what this couple managed to do with a double-wide in California. Another couple decided to invest in comfort instead of a mortgage and came up with this mobile home.
There is really no limit to what you can do as long as you stick to some basic design principles and techniques. Most importantly, have fun remodeling your mobile home!
MOBILE HOME INTERIORS CAN BE ANYTHING BUT BORING!
We hope that this article has given you some pretty spectacular examples and ideas for flipping mobile home interiors inexpensively, easily, and effectively. You can take a generic house straight off the assembly line and turn it into a one-and-only creation that is truly your home in every sense of the word.
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