As you well know, RVs aren’t the most spacious of homes. This can actually be wonderful for many reasons. It means more time spent together, there’s less to clean, and it grants the ability to travel easily with your entire home. However, living in such a small home also has its drawbacks.
One drawback that many traveling families have a hard time with is a lack of dedicated office space. After all, hardly any RVing families are able to live off of retirement funds or other investments, meaning they must work on the road. In most cases, this work requires a decent amount of time spent doing computer work, meaning it’s necessary to have a comfy and preferably quiet place to get things done.
Unfortunately, we have yet to find a rig with RV office space built in. That said, there are solutions to this problem. In fact, we’ve seen an enormous number of people put their creative energies to work in order to come up with some pretty awesome RV office spaces.
In this article, we will show you 14 of our favorite RV office ideas.
Image source: Crazy Family Adventure
Make Use of the Bedroom
The master bedroom is an ideal location for an RV office because it will almost always have a closing door, meaning you can block out sound and other distractions. RV bedrooms are quite small and already full of furniture, but some people have just enough room to get one mattress from this RV Mattress canada store.
Bryanna Royal of Crazy Family Adventure was able to do just that. Her setup is pictured above.
Image source: Emilee Newton
Put it Under the Bed
Fulltime Families member Emilee Newton and her husband overcame the lack of space by creating a bed with a base that doubles as a desk during the day. The wall-mounted TV is used as a monitor as well, meaning there is very little to move at the end of the day.
Another fabulous idea is to create an RV office that stores away under a bed that lifts up for storage purposes. To set this office up each day, you would flip up the bed base, set up a desk or table that is stored below the bed, and pull out a chair.
Image source: Learn to RV
Upgrade a Dresser
Another great option for those who want to work in the master bedroom is to put a dresser to work as a desk. We’ve seen several iterations of this idea, typically involving extending the dresser on either side and adding a chair.
Our absolute favorite dresser desk build was created by Doug Setzer. His RV office creation is pictured above, but you can get the details on how he built it on his blog, Learn to RV.
Image source: Tiny Shiny Home
Try a Standing Desk
A small, lightweight standing desk is also a good option. This could be set up in the bedroom, but would also work well in other areas of an RV. We especially like the standing desk pictured above, which was built by FtF member Jonathan Longnecker of Tiny Shiny Home. He discusses how he created this amazing RV office setup on his blog.
Image source: 90 Day Family Road Trip
Put In a Fold-Out Desk
We’ve also seen a number of people using desks that mount to the wall and fold out for use, or desks that are freestanding and can fold flat for travel day. In the photo above, the Logsdon family of 90 Day Family Road Trip created a way for their cabinet door to fold out and across their bed to create a workstation.
Folding desks are another option that could be used anywhere in the RV, but we especially like the idea of using something like a cabinet door that is already in the RV and serving a purpose.
Image source: Adventuring Andersons
Utilize the Front Seat
If you have a motorhome, the front seat could be an excellent space to get put in an RV office and stuff done. The comfy captains chairs are perfect for sitting for long periods of time—that is, after all, exactly what they were designed for: long travel days—and having an office on the passenger side allows you to work on travel days.
Some motorhomes do come with a desk already built in on the passenger side, but if yours didn’t, you can add your own, like Lisa and Bill Anderson of Adventuring Andersons.
Image source: Unlocating
Hang a Backdrop
If you do a lot of video calls, having the clutter that comes along with RV life in the background of your videos could be distracting. Margie and Allen Lundy of Unlocating had this problem and came up with an awesome solution. They created a lightweight hanging backdrop that they can put up anytime they’re on a call.
Check out how they did it in this blog post.
Image source: Bein’ Classy
Or Set Up a Photo/Video Studio
Do you find yourself making videos or taking photos for work and need a decent background and good lighting to do so? Why not take the Lundy’s fabulous backdrop idea above and expand upon it to create a little film and photo studio that can be folded away?
Jessica and Peter Alexander of Bein’ Classy set up just such a studio in their living room every night after the kids go to bed. It serves them well and fold up nice and small to be stored away during the day.
Image source: Hippie Hoopla
Pull Out Unused Furniture
If you don’t really use your couch or dinette, it might be time to pull that unused furniture out of your RV to create space for your RV office. Doing this will give you a large amount of space to work with, meaning you can choose whichever desk you like best. The drawback here is that most couches and dinettes are found in the main living area, meaning you won’t have much privacy.
Pictured above is a good example of a desk replacing a couch. This photo was taken by Michelle Howard of Hippie Hoopla. She used a few pieces from IKEA to create the perfect setup for her space.
Image source: Brewing Adventure
Go to the Bunkroom
Sometimes you’ll find a bunkroom with a couch or dinette. In these cases, you can replace a piece of furniture with a desk as mentioned above, and still have a door to shut while working.
We’ve also seen people use bunkroom dressers as desks, as in the photo above provided by Charlotte Brewer of Brewing Adventure. Some people even get so lucky as to have an extra mid-bunkroom that they use exclusively as an RV office space.
We list several awesome bunkhouse RV options in this article. See if there’s one that will work well for your family’s sleep and RV office needs.
Image source: Bein’ Classy
Head to the Bathroom
That’s right, some people work in the bathroom.
This one might seem a little bit funny, but when you live in an RV, you tend to do what works in terms of using the space you have. If you have an extra bathroom, why not use it as an RV office?
You might choose to gut the whole thing and start from scratch, but we actually recommend building something like the office Jessica Alexander created, i.e. keeping the bathroom intact while still giving yourself a comfortable place to do your work. See the photos of her workspace above.
Image source: Kim Venture Travel
Get a Toyhauler
Want a large amount of space to work in? A toyhauler might work well for you. A toyhauler has a large garage in the back that is meant to be used for “toys” such as four-wheelers and motorcycles. This type of RV can be a motorhome or trailer, and the garages come in all sizes.
While many families use toyhauler garages as kids’ rooms, customizing the space to fit their children’s needs, we’ve also seen several people use this large open space as an RV office.
Kimberlie Floyd of Kimventure shared the photo above of her family’s garage office setup. It’s large enough to seat two people comfortably, meaning both parents can work in this section of the rig.
Image source: The Possibilitarians
Invest in a Clam
Want to know the very best way to escape the distractions inside an RV? Head outside! We love Clam Quickset tents for this purpose, and find they make awesome office spaces when the weather is nice. Find a comfy chair, take your laptop, and get some work done while enjoying the great outdoors.
Check out our article about these awesome camping accessories.
Image source: Mama Says Namaste
Consider a Second RV
Finally, there is the craziest option of all: a second RV. Member Ashley Logsdon of Mama Says Namaste used this option for several months, and found it worked quite well for her family. It gave her a super private place to work, while allowing her husband and daughters free use of their bigger RV.
How did they go about getting two RVs from one place to the next? They had a nice, strong truck which held a lightweight pop-up truck camper and towed their relatively lightweight bumper-pull travel trailer.
It all worked out, and it didn’t require Ashley and her husband to drive separate vehicles. That said, if you decide to go this route, you will want to carefully research the tow rating of your truck and the loaded weights of the RVs you pick.
There you have it! 14 amazing ideas for making the perfect RV office. Hopefully this article inspires you to create an awesome workspace for yourself, so you can be productive while seeing the world.