Mobile homes are affordable, built with quality materials, and offer the same functions as a regular site-built home. Manufactured homes are usually easily distinguishable from their site-built counterparts, and while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, some homeowners would rather their mobile home look more like a house. If you want your manufactured home to look more like a traditional house, we have some great tips for you!
Related: The Ultimate Guide: Mobile Home Remodeling
How to Remodel Your Mobile Home to Look Like a House (Exterior)
Make your mobile home look and feel like a house on the outside by making these renovations:
1. Your Mobile Home’s Roof and Eaves
Your mobile home’s roof pitch can be an aesthetic and useful upgrade. By having a higher roof pitch, your mobile home will look more like a traditional house, and it helps rain and snow slide off more easily.
Site-built homes typically have wide eaves to help keep water away from the siding and windows; they are usually 12 to 16 inches wide. Most mobile homes, on the other hand, have smaller eaves and gutters (typically 6 and 5 inches, respectively). Adding wider eaves in addition to a higher roof pitch can help the outside of your mobile home look more like a house.
2. Mobile Home Doors
Another way to make your mobile home’s exterior look more like a traditional house is to install larger doors. Normally, manufactured home doors are around 32 inches wide, 76 inches tall, and made out of aluminum.
Installing 6-panel, insulated exterior doors on your mobile home can make it look more like a traditional house, and it isn’t a difficult upgrade at all.
3. Mobile Home Foundation
If you’re installing a new mobile home, an excellent way to make it look similar to a traditional house is to install it on a basement foundation; it’s more affordable than you might think.
Not only does putting your mobile home on a basement foundation make it look like a house, it gives you the added benefit of having extra living space. Manufactured homes might require slight modifications to allow access to the basement, but it’s nothing your contractor can’t handle.
4. Add a Garage
Adding a garage to your mobile home, whether it’s attached or not, gives it the look of a traditional house and gives you added utility. Your garage can be a simple covered breezeway that creates a cohesive look, or you can create an entryway from your garage to your manufactured home to make it look even more like a regular house.
5. Boost Curb Appeal
There are many small things you can do to your mobile home’s exterior to make it look and feel like a traditional house. You could:
- Install vinyl railings on your patio
- Plant a tree or two in your yard
- Plant bushes and flowers around your patio
- Install lattice underneath your patio
6. Mobile Home Window Shutters
Window shutters are another great way to make a mobile property look more like a house. It’s rare to see a place these days without shutters. Sadly, most mobile homes don’t come with them built in. The good news is that shutters tend to be quite affordable.
And, if you’re a handy person, you can install them without professional help. Shutters are excellent because they add a lot of curb appeal to your mobile home.
On top of that, they also have the practical purpose of keeping sunlight out of your mobile home during summer. Make sure you pick a shutter material and style matching the rest of your mobile home.
Small landscaping projects can make your mobile home look like a house from the outside -- the sky’s the limit!
7. Mobile Home Porch
One problem with mobile homes is that there isn’t as much space as in traditional homes. That’s why a mobile home porch is a fantastic addition to your property. This has two benefits. First, it gives you some extra space outside to unwind and relax.
Second, it makes your mobile home look more like a traditional home. The good news is that installing a mobile home porch isn’t that expensive. However, there are some housekeeping things you will need to do before you can install it.
Check the local zoning regulations where you live to ensure that your porch meet’s your county’s standards. You also want to ensure that the size of the porch doesn’t overpower the rest of your home.
How to Remodel Your Mobile Home to Look Like a House (Interior)
Make your mobile home look like a house on the inside with these tips:
Related: Designing Your Perfect Mobile Home Floorplan
1. Mobile Home Walls
Remodeling the walls in your mobile home can instantly change the entire feel of your house -- from a manufactured home to a traditional house. Many mobile homes have old-school paneling that was popular in the 60s and 70s. If your mobile home has paneled walls, the easiest way to update them and make your manufactured home look like a house is to:
- Remove all of the trim from your walls
- Prime your walls using an oil-based primer
- Fill in all of the line gaps left by the paneling with drywall mud
- Tape and mud the wall joints between the sheets of paneling
- Use an orange peel texture spray on the walls
- Prime the walls again, this time with a latex primer
- Paint the walls your favorite color!
This is an excellent, simple, and affordable way to renovate your mobile home and make it look like a house.
2. Mobile Home Ceilings
Most mobile homes, especially older ones, tend to have low ceilings that were made with acoustic panels separated by molding strips. Those acoustic panels are durable, but they are susceptible to warping due to water damage. Painting these panels a bright color can help them look much better.
Later on, towards the 80s, mobile homes began to use drywall for ceilings, and some of them were vaulted, making the space feel more open and more like a traditional house. Similar to stick-build homes, these ceilings used popcorn texture. You can give your mobile home a modern look by scraping off the popcorn ceiling and retexturing it, giving it the feel of a high-end traditional house.
3. Mobile Home Trim
Mobile homes notoriously use trim and molding excessively at every corner, including separating the drywall panels in the walls. Having your mobile home covered in plastic molding, from the floor to the ceiling, is one of the biggest things that gives it a “trailer” feel rather than that of a traditional home.
Luckily, this is a pretty easy upgrade you can do yourself. If you plan to tape, texture, and paint your walls (or even just the paneling), you can remove all of the moldings and replace them with traditional stick-built molding around the windows, doors, and baseboards.
4. Mobile Home Cabinets
Cabinets in mobile homes are typically durable but inexpensive and made out of more affordable materials. This has changed massively over the years; most new mobile homes have options for high-quality, modern cabinets like those found in stick-built homes. If you have an older manufactured home, where the cabinets are made out of particleboard, and vinyl or plastic, installing new ones can make your mobile home look and feel like a house.
You don’t even have to replace the particleboard boxes that the cabinets are made out of; you can install solid wood frames, doors, and drawers to give them an updated, modern look.
5. Mobile Home Vanities
We talked about renovating your cabinets, and updating your bathroom vanities goes hand in hand with that upgrade. When you remodel rooms of your mobile home to make it look more like a traditional house, it’s essential to ensure that each room matches -- rooms that look good but don’t flow together don’t make as impressive of a statement.
After upgrading your cabinets, it’s a good idea to update your bathroom vanities to match the same style to get a cohesive aesthetic throughout your mobile home. If you want to go a step further, you can also replace the face frames of your linen closets to match the rest of the vanities and cabinets.
6. Mobile Home Flooring
Most mobile homes today come with carpet because it looks nice and remains relatively inexpensive. The problem is that carpet gets dirty much more quickly than other flooring types. What’s more, it’s also much harder to clean.
So, consider remodeling the floor with hardwood if you want to model your mobile home on a traditional house. Hardwood adds a slick look to your home that can’t be beaten. What’s more, if you take care of the flooring, it will last much longer than the carpet.
Hardwood flooring is also much easier to clean than carpet. Just keep in mind that hardwood flooring is quite an investment. So make sure you carve out some money in the remodeling budget you’re working with.
You should also ensure you can sweep and mop your hardwood floors often. Otherwise, they can degrade in quality quickly.
7. Mobile Home Furniture
Replacing some of your old furniture with new pieces can go a long way toward making your mobile property look more like a house. If you’re serious about the remodel, you can coordinate your new furniture pieces to match.
Or, if you’re on a budget, you can hunt around thrift shops or Facebook Marketplace for a good deal on used furniture. Consider adding style furniture, like a piano. Just make sure that the floor of your mobile home is strong enough to take the weight.
Do you want the best deal on great looking, high-quality mobile homes? Check out Home Nation’s selection for the best manufactured homes at the best prices!
Related: The 10 Best Mobile Home Additions
