Fitting curtains to our Hybrid Camper; a great upgrade for parents
One of the last jobs we completed before departing around this big, beautiful country was to install some curtains inside our hybrid camper trailer. Up until now, we’d lived without them but it was becoming increasingly more important to knock the annoying jobs off. Living out of a tiny Hybrid Camper trailer with 2 young boys full time on the road is challenging enough, so you do everything you can to make it easier.
Curtain on the door
Sarah wanted a curtain on the door of our camper, so she could shut it easily to get changed and maintain some privacy. With no covering, you can see straight through the main door window, and generally eye level is about where your bits are once you’ve climbed in, so fair request.
Our Reconn R2 came with a press stud cover, but to install it you have to climb out of the camper, separate the door, and put it on, and we like the fact that some light comes in there.
Now, the curtain covers the window completely but can be opened and closed easily from inside. This allows us to block the light in the mornings (and hopefully get our kids sleeping more!), and the privacy needed to get changed easily inside.
Curtains on the bunk beds
It’s hard to explain how small the interior of our camper trailer is. I literally struggle to take photos of it, but there’s just enough room for two adults to stand, and if you both want to move things around, or get changed, good luck.
At night, I usually sit inside the camper trailer and work on the laptop, and I’m literally half a metre away from both kids, which often distracts them and keeps them awake. The curtains will help with blocking the light, and hopefully result in less mucking around by both boys before they fall asleep.
Beyond that, our queen bed is only a metre or so away from the kids, and having some privacy will be greatly appreciated too.
Making the curtains
Sarah’s mum is pretty handy with the sewing machine, and after taking some dimensions we went down to spotlight to purchase material. We should have been more on the ball with the sizes, as the lady cut far more than what we actually needed, but it came to about $80 including the curtain cable and hooks, with a decent sale on.
From there, Sarah’s mum checked the measurements, cut it down to the right size and sewed it all together, and I put a few screws into the roof, under the bunk and the door, and threaded the curtains on.
We had to shorten the door one as they overhung too far and were getting caught in the door, but overall its worked pretty well.
We talked about doing this a number of times and always put it off, as we could live without it, but we’re hoping it will be one of those little improvements that will make full time on the road a bit easier.
EDIT – these have been a game changer for us. The kids now go to sleep so much faster, and aren’t kept up by the laptop light and me typing away for hours on end, which is great for the blog, great for the kids health in terms of getting a good nights sleep and great for our family, as we aren’t all one big cranky mess every morning!
If you’ve been considering putting curtains in your camper or caravan, do it; its so worth it.
A huge thanks to Sarah’s mum, who spent quite a bit of time making these, and helping install them!
