Our family of 12 (there are 2 more grown and flown…) fulltimes in a 40′ toy hauler. Needless to say, our RV, nor any RV for that matter, are made to accommodate our family comfortable. Necessity has been the mother of many of our many mods! Our latest one is done for both functionality and aesthetics.
The stock entertainment center in our rv was an eye sore. Partly because we use things hard, and partly because it was designed for ease of assembly and made of junk wood. We were missing a cabinet door as we had given it to a cabinet maker last fall, so he could build us some matching doors we wanted; his shop burned down shortly after, with our door in it. There was square feet of wasted space, splitting face wood, miles of extra wiring, 10 lbs of amplifier that we didn’t use, and the design forced us to put the loft ladder in front of the ‘garage’ (aka boys’ room in our RV) door. The ladder was a constant frustration because we had to duck under it to get to the back room; for 2 of our girls, the loft is their room, so the ladder is up anytime we are not in transit.
Let’s be honest – RVs are designed for you to fall in love with them on the sales lot and take them home – they are not designed for living. It seems our drive since we’ve had this toy hauler, is to make it ‘livable’. Livable to the point where we like everything about it!
For our entertainment center, hubby ripped the whole thing out and started over. I drew up what I wanted, with the measurements that were important to me, and his job was to make it work out and look good! I think he did a fabulous job!
First, he straightened out our surround sound issues by tracing wires and labeling them. He also got rid of miles 😉 of extra wire, some of the stereo components that we don’t use, and rewired the electrical box so I would have 6 plug-ins there. <3
Next, he rerouted our furnace ducting. The manufacturer had it snaking all over so that by the time it got to the boys’ room, they weren’t getting any noticeable heat. Vaughn took it straight through the wall, and it now stays much warmer back there. He also moved the TV up about 6 inches (?), and over closer to the wall so we could utilize some of the space that was wasted in the first frame.
Vaughn rebuilt the entertainment center using many of the same framing techniques, and he even used the same faceplate wood, ripped down to fit the new design. The new design has many more open shelves, less wasted space, and even has built-in dolly bunk beds (which will make great bookshelves when the dolly’s outgrow their beds!). He reused a set of doors to hide the amp and wires, and whatever else we couldn’t get rid of! 🙂
One of the best things about hubby’s new entertainment center, is that we can now move the ladder over to the side of the boys’ room door!!! I hadn’t realized what a pain that had been until it is now no longer in the way! For our family, this design is much more practical and functionable. I love that it incorporates that this is our children’s home too, and that we love their place in our family and their toys don’t all have to hide behind doors. Course, those doll bunk beds will make great bookshelves once the dollies have outgrown them! 😉
I’m so happy with my new entertainment center. We really enjoy modding our toy hauler to fit the needs of our fulltiming family. If you would like to see a few more pictures of this modification, you can check them out at our personal blog: TicknorTribe.com 🙂
Linda Matthys
I love this. Job well done. We do ALOT of home remodeling and would like to make some minor changes in our RV but we don't know how they are built and are afraid to put a nail in the wall because it might fall out.