Camper Kitchen Decor Ideas
The galley in our camper is the size of a closet. Maybe smaller. One burner, a sink that doubles as a drying rack, and a strip of wall above the counter that stared back at me, blank and beige, the whole first season.
I tried a curtain. Tried a spice rack that fell off in Moab somewhere around mile 40. What finally stuck was paper. Little framed prints, a vinyl decal on the cabinet, a laminated card propped behind the kettle. Cheap, swappable, and if it warps I just print another.
Most of these I grabbed from an indie design shop for a couple dollars a file, ran them through the library printer, and taped or framed them the same afternoon. A few are affiliate links, so if you grab one I get a little gas money. That is the whole pitch.
The little word print that started the whole wall
This was the first thing I hung over the stove. A camper quote, clean type, the kind of thing you read while the coffee drips and you are half awake at a pull-off near Bishop. I printed it on matte cardstock, slid it into a $3 frame from the thrift store, and propped it against the backsplash where a shelf used to be.
It sets the tone for the rest of the galley. Once one nice thing is up there, the beige stops winning.
One nitpick. The default colors ran a touch dark on my old inkjet, so the second print I bumped brightness up before sending it. Looked right after that.
A lake at dusk, stuck on the cabinet door
I am not a Cricut wizard. My partner is, barely. We cut this sunset lake scene as a vinyl decal and pressed it onto the upper cabinet, the one right over the sink. Little camper, water, the sun going down behind it.
It comes as an SVG so it scaled clean when she sized it down to fit the door panel. No fuzzy edges. We weeded it on the picnic table at a site outside Sedona and only swore twice.
The nitpick: the sun and the water are close in tone, so on a dark cabinet they blur from across the camper. We swapped the water layer to a brighter blue. Fixed it.
The cheesy one I refuse to take down
Live, love, camp. Yes it is corny. My sister rolled her eyes when she saw it taped by the kettle. It stayed up anyway because it makes me grin every morning I am parked somewhere good.
I printed this small, like postcard size, laminated it with the pouch laminator we keep under the bench, and stuck a magnet on the back so it clings to the little metal panel by the burner.
Magnet’s a touch weak for bumpy gravel roads. Slid down once near a forest road past Flagstaff. I added a second magnet and now it holds.
Yes it is a shirt file, no I did not make a shirt
This one is sold as a t-shirt graphic. I used it as wall art instead. The camp life design is bold and reads from a distance, which is exactly what you want in a space where you are mostly looking at it sideways while stirring something.
Printed it big, A4, no frame, just washi tape on all four corners so the camper humidity does not curl it. Behind the spice jars. Pop of color where there was none.
Downside, it is built for fabric so the file is mostly one flat color block. On paper that flat block shows every printer streak. Heavier paper hid it.
Adventure type, parked above the spice jars
Same trick as the last one. Another shirt graphic, the word adventure with a little camper worked in, and I treated it like a poster. These shirt files are sneaky good for galley walls because the lettering is chunky and survives being seen at a weird angle.
I ran two copies. One for the camper, one I actually heat-pressed onto a tote for the farmers market. Double duty for two dollars.
Nitpick is the same flat-fill problem. Print it on bright white, not the cream cardstock I tried first, or the white parts go dingy.
A whole set, so the galley finally matched
This is the one that pulled the wall together. A vector set, mountains and trees and a van, a bunch of pieces in the same style. I printed three at the same small size and lined them up over the counter like a little row of windows.
Matching style is the secret to a galley not looking like a junk drawer. One set, three frames, done in an evening at a site near the Mogollon Rim.
Lots of files in the bundle, which is great, but the naming was a mess. Set-10, variant 5, no preview in the filename. I had to open six of them to find the three I wanted.
The quiet print for people who hate clutter
My neighbor at the campground does the minimalist thing. Beige van, beige everything, and she still wanted one piece of art. This retro camper crew print was it. Simple lines, muted colors, nothing shouting.
I printed her a copy too, on the textured cardstock she likes, and she framed it in a thin black frame above her two-burner. Looks like it cost way more than it did.
The minimal palette is so pale it nearly vanished on her cream wall. She put it on a darker mat board and suddenly it had edges again.
The plain van outline I used about six ways
Sometimes you just want a clean van shape with no words. This one comes isolated, transparent background, in SVG, EPS, and PNG, so I used the PNG as a sticker on the propane cupboard and the SVG cut as a vinyl decal on the window.
Most reused file I own. Honestly. It is on a mug now too.
The transparent PNG had a faint white halo around the edges when I blew it up large. Fine at small sizes. For the big window decal I cut from the SVG instead and the halo problem disappeared.
Not wall art, but it hangs by the door so it counts
This one is an embroidery file for a keyfob. I stretched the definition of kitchen decor here, but the keychain hangs on the hook right inside the galley door where I drop the keys while cooking, so to me it is part of the wall.
I do not have an embroidery machine. A camp mom from our co-op does. She stitched two, kept one, gave me one in trade for a batch of trail mix.
The file size was set for a big hoop and her machine choked at first. She rescaled it down and it ran clean. Worth asking before you assume it fits.
The ridiculous summer one that earns its spot in July
A flamingo, a camper, Christmas lights, in July. It is absurd and I love it. We do a Christmas-in-July night at the lake every summer and this PNG became the theme art for the whole thing.
I printed it as a little card and clipped it to the string lights over the galley window. Comes down in August, goes back in a bin, returns next July like a tradition.
It is a PNG only, no vector, so when I tried to print it poster-size for the awning it got soft and pixely. Kept it card-sized. At card size it is crisp.
The warm one for grey, rainy mornings
Some mornings the lake is socked in and you are stuck inside with the rain on the roof. This cozy vintage camper print is the one I want looking back at me then. Warm tones, soft, a little nostalgic.
I printed it on the heavier matte paper and put it in the one real frame we own, the wood one, hung over the bench seat that faces the galley. It anchors that corner.
The warm tones go orange fast on a cheap printer. Mine did. I nudged the saturation down a hair on the second go and it landed where I wanted.
Pink camper, big mood, right by the kettle
Camping is my therapy. Said by a retro pink camper. This one is loud and pink and I put it where I see it most, eye level next to the kettle, because some days it is just true.
Printed it small and laminated it so the steam from the kettle does not wreck it. The laminate also makes the pink pop, which I did not expect but will take.
The pink is hot, almost neon, and clashed with the green prints on the same wall at first. I moved it to its own little spot by the burner and now it gets to be loud on its own.
Frequently Asked Questions
What kind of paint do you use on rv walls?
I learned this one by ruining a test patch. Regular wall paint peeled off the slick RV paneling in about a week. What actually held was a bonding primer first, then a satin latex over it. Two thin coats.
The primer is the whole trick. Skip it and you are basically painting glass. I used a stain-blocking bonding primer from the hardware store in town, let it cure a full day in the sun with the windows open, then painted. Still holding two seasons later.
Can you paint rv walls?
Yep. I did mine over one long winter. The catch is that most RV walls are not drywall, they are a vinyl-faced paneling that paint slides right off of unless you prep it.
So I wiped everything down with a degreaser, scuffed it lightly with a fine sanding sponge, primed, then painted. The scuffing felt wrong, like I was wrecking the wall, but that is what gives the primer something to grab.
Can you put wallpaper on rv walls?
Short answer, yes, and I am a fan. Peel-and-stick is the move for a camper because it comes back off when you change your mind, which I always do.
My one warning: clean the wall first or it will not stick at the seams. I rushed a panel by the galley window and the corner started lifting within a month. Pulled it, wiped the wall properly, re-stuck it, fine ever since. Heat from a hairdryer helps it bond too.
Can you paint over rv walls?
You can, and honestly painting over the existing paneling is easier than trying to strip it. I just covered the old wallpaper-look vinyl that came in our 2008 camper.
Same rules though. Clean it, scuff it, bonding primer, then your color. I painted over a busy floral border that was making me crazy and now it is a calm sage green. The border does not ghost through because the primer blocked it.
Before You Pack Up
None of this took a saw or a contractor. A few dollar files, a printer at the library, a roll of laminate pouches, and an afternoon parked somewhere with decent light. The galley went from beige box to a wall I actually like cooking in front of.
Start with one print over the stove. That is what I did near Bishop two summers ago, and the rest just sort of crept across the wall from there. Cold beans taste better with something nice to look at, anyway.
More Camping Ideas We Love
Heads up: some links in this post are affiliate links. If you grab a file we love, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only feature designs we would happily pack on our own trip.
