You guys!!!! It’s that time! I am beyond excited to introduce my first guest blogger. Between her parenting, eye for design, personality, lifestyle and fashion sense, she is an inspiration in more ways then one. I hope you enjoy her post below, comment and ask questions and I will be sure to get you all of her answers! Don’t forget to check her page out on Instagram @arrowsandbow.
xoxo,
It’s funny how one decision can completely change your life. One week I’m a stay at home homeschool mom in a beautiful 5 bedroom house, fast forward a few months and pouf, I’m living in an RV with my husband and 3 kids.
After deciding to sell our home and buy land, we had a few options of what we could do while we were building a house. Rent an apartment and pay more than our mortgage was… or go on an adventure and live in an RV on our land. It actually wasn’t a hard decision for us to make. Both my husband and I knew this was the right path for our family, we are both spontaneous and risk takers, and with little to lose, this just made sense to us.
It was kinda funny how we picked out our RV. We went to a local used car lot and walked through a few options. I knew what I was looking for in that I wanted something old so I could rip it out, but still functioning. When we saw the 3 bunk beds stacked in the back of our RV, we knew it was the one for us. Thinking it was the only RV ever created with triple bunks. What can I say, we were amateurs back then.
It took us 3 weeks to design, gut, and move into our little home on wheels. I had a very clear vision of what I wanted to do inside. Rip out everything old like all of the upper cabinets, the carpet and old outdated lighting. We removed all of the window treatments as well, they had about a pound of dust inside of them. I knew I wanted everything to be painted white, to give it that bright feeling. After deciding on a fun designer black and white tile backsplash, I had my muse for the rest of the trailer. Updating cabinet faces to a shaker style and adding designer lighting really made it a notch above.
I did a bit of research online before I designed it, and everything I read said to make it feel like a home. And that’s exactly what I did. When living in an RV, you don’t want to feel like you’re camping for a year. I wanted it to feel comfortable, clutter free, and of course cozy. I picked out unique and perfectly functional pieces up at IKEA, Amazon, Target, Homegoods and of course garage sales. I also brought pieces from our home to keep that homey feel.
Living in the RV these last 9 months has been an incredible life lesson for our family. We’ve learned to appreciate all of life’s little things we usually take for granted. While our goal was to build a house, we quickly realized that this journey was more about growing and finding joy in the between.
Ashley Petrone
@arrowsandbow
somethingaboutashleigh.wordpress.com 