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Have you ever wondered where the heck RV manufacturers get the fabric for their window valances? And does anyone actually like them?
I ask this because it seems most people want to either remove, update, or replace theirs. While the valances in our RV were in pretty good condition, they were far from our style. Plus we had to remove them so we could paint all of the walls white.
Whether you want to remove your RV window valances temporarily or permanently, the process is pretty simple.
How to Remove RV Window Valances
As a refresh, here’s what the valances looked like in our RV:
I mostly took photos and ahem, a blurry video (oops) of Eric removing the valences and blinds, so I’ll let him walk you through the process below.
Watch the Video:
It’s important to note that all RVs are different, so while this is how we removed the valances from our 2008 Tiffin Allegro Open Road 32LA, yours may be slightly different. If you find yourself unsure of something, we’d recommend reviewing your owner’s manual or reaching out to your RV Manufacturer.
Step 1:
The first thing you’re going to want to do is to remove the blinds. As you look at the inside of your valances you should see two brackets holding the blinds in place. One will be on the far right side while the other will be on the far left.
If everything was installed properly you should be able to unlatch the bottom of the brackets holding up the blinds. Once you unlatch the two brackets the blinds should slide right out.
With that said I’ve seen the brackets sometimes not installed with the latch down but instead with the latch to the right or left. If this is the case you’ll need to decide if you’ll have to take down the valance first. If for whatever reason they are not installed properly try to stay patient because it can become a trying task.
Step 2:
Now that you have your blinds removed, the next step will be to remove the brackets that were holding the blinds up. I suggest this step second because it will give you a clearer picture of how many screws you need to remove for the valance to come off of the wall.
Note that some of the screws holding the brackets in place may also be holding the valance at the same time. If that’s the case you should still remove the brackets first because you will have other screws still supporting the valance.
I’m not sure why, but I’ve found that many jobs throughout our RV have had both Phillips and Square head screws. I’d suggest you have both drill bits available just in case.
Step 3:
Your blinds and brackets are down, all that’s left is the pesky (and most likely hideous) valance. For the valance in the video above we had three screws going into the ceiling, two screws attached to L shaped brackets on the side and two screws that went into the ceiling through the blind brackets.
If yours are similar to ours, the screws going through the blind brackets will have already been removed in Step number 2.
I started by removing the screws that were attached to the valance via the L shaped brackets on the side. I left the L shaped brackets screwed into the wall to make the valance easier to deal with once it was unattached.
Now that you have the L shaped brackets disconnected you’ll need to find the screws that attach to the ceiling (or wall depending on which valance you are removing) and remove them.
I made a point to count how many screws I had left so when I came to the last one I knew I’d need to support the weight of the valance at the same time, making sure it didn’t fall and hit me in the head.
Remove the last screw and the valance should loosen from the wall.
Step 4:
Everything should be removed at this point except for the two L shaped brackets that were attached to the side of the valance. Go ahead and unscrew those last to screws and you have officially removed your RV window valances.
Our Updated Window Shades
We replaced the outdated shades up front, along with the rest of the windows in our RV with white roller shades, which you may have caught glimpses of in our other project posts or tour videos. While we may consider adding wooden valances or framing out the windows in the future, right now we’re good with the clean lines of our new shades that almost disappear into the walls.
I also want to mention that we used vinyl spackling to fill in any holes. We were then able to lightly sand then paint over it.
Do you have any tips you’d like to share when it comes to painting the inside of your RV? We’d love to hear about them in the comments below!
What did you use to fill in the holes leftover from the brackets? I took all my valence and blinds down but now there’s a bunch of bitty holes that are driving me crazy!
What a great question! Sorry it’s been so long since we removed these that I completely forgot about that. Since the holes were slightly raised on our walls I first used a paint scraper to smooth them out, followed by nail hole filler (I’m pretty sure I used vinyl spackling), then light sanding before painting over them, but that’s because we were painting our walls white anyway. You may just want to fill them in with a filler that matches your walls.
I took my side valances down. My walls are beige. I gently smoothed the opening with a fine emery board then used beige wood putty (in a tube). To fill the hole.
How did you just take down the side valances only?
Hey John, sorry for the delayed response, but I’m not sure I entirely follow your question. Could you clarify?
Just FYI, the “square head screws” use a bit called a “Robertson” bit. ?
Good to know, thanks!
Our RV walls are a light yellow and light beige pattern. We rolled up small pieces of masking tape and inserted them in the holes. It blended in with the pattern. I made new blackout curtains to replace the blinds.
I know this is a totally different question from what you were showing in this video, but i know you were taking the valences down to paint the interior walls of your camper…how and what kind of paint did you use? i am currently researching this because i want to paint my camper interior walls, countertops, and cabinets. Thank you!
We first cleaned them with TSP, followed by primer, and a few coats of paint but I have a post that goes into further detail here:
https://mountainmodernlife.com/painting-the-walls-of-your-rv/
Hope that helps!
Katie
The video shows the blinds. We’re they the blinds over the dinette? We want to remove our dinette but can not get an answer whether the wall was finished behind the booth. We, too, have a 2008 Tiffin Open Road. Our email to Tiffin a few weeks ago was not answered.. thanks for any help you can give us.
Hey Sandra, In that video it was actually the valance above the bed. Though when we removed our dinette booth it was finished behind the table and the seats. We ended up covering it up with the media cabinet but the wallpaper did extend all the way to the ground. I’m not sure if your dinette booth is in your slide out or not but ours was. With that said, in the bottom left corner closest to the fridge there was a hole that had wires coming out that wasn’t finished off, so you may have to work with that to clean it up if you remove the booth. There was also a steel bolt that come up from the floor of the slide out in the back right corner. Both of those things were covered by our media cabinet though, so you may want to keep that in mind. I think if you remove the seats and look down where the storage would be you should be able to see the things I’m talking about. Anyway I hope this helps.
My name is Lois I have a fifth wheel RV I am thinking about painting my kitchen cabinets in the slide out walls is there a special paint or something that I need to do to my cabinets before I paint there are laminate wood I don’t want to paint them and then the paint peel off later is there any type of paint that I need to use specially for this type of cabinet thank you
What if I want to still use the blinds just lose the ugly valance? Do I just re attach the blinds to the wall using the same holes?
Love your posts!!!
Hey Diana, I think it will depend on how your blinds are attached. I believe some of our blinds were actually attached directly to the valances. In that case, we would need to make new holes to re-install the blinds. One approach you could take if you need to create new holes is to use a thumbtack to poke through first, that way you’ll know that you won’t hit anything behind the panel. Otherwise, the easiest way would be if the blinds were already attached to the wall, then absolutely use the same holes 🙂
I have tried hard to find a video that would show how to replace the material on all three sides of a valance. Seems like the videos available show replacing just a top Valance only. Have you any suggestions on where to find a video that shows how to take apart and replace a three sided Valance? Mine will be even more challenging because it has a gold metal ornate strip that forms along the top of the valance. Maybe all of this would be more apparent when the Valance is taken down and examined. Any suggestions are certainly appreciated.
Hey Amber, I’m not really sure about all three sides of the valances. I did a quick search and think I was finding what you were which was mostly the one-sided versions. With that said I do think it’ll be a lot easier for you to diagnose it when you remove them. I know that ours were nailed and screws together at the seams on the two top sides. I think if you were able to get them down and pulled into three separate pieces you’d be able to do them individually then put them back together in a similar way. With that said sometimes you can leave certain things in place and go over it, such as your gold metal ornate strip, that all depends of course on how much it sticks out. Anyway, I know this wasn’t extremely helpful but I’d say once you get it down and look it over you should be able to gently take it apart so that you can redesign it and put it back together. If you’d like you could send some pictures to [email protected] and I could get a better look at them and maybe be more help 🙂