How to Change a Mobile Home Into a Rustic Ranch Home

Refinish the interior walls, floors and ceiling of the mobile home with rustic colors and materials. For example, install wood paneling in the main living area. Paint the bedrooms the gray of weathered limestone -- or the russet of a desert sunset. Cover the bathroom floor with stone tile. Rip out carpet and replace it with wood. Paint the ceiling a neutral color so it won't attract attention.

Put in heavy, simple furniture crafted from natural materials, such as wood and leather. Ensure your mobile home floor is strong enough to bear the weight of heavy furniture. Opt for a few large, sturdy pieces of furniture rather than multiple modern pieces fabricated from plastic and cheap metal. Tear out built-in features if your mobile home has them and replace them with rustic furniture. Alternately, augment them with natural materials to make them look as rustic as possible. For example, replace the laminated tabletop of a built-in dining area with a thin slab of real wood.

Scatter rustic furnishings throughout the mobile home. Replace any non-rustic fixtures like flimsy lamps, plastic curtain rods and molded-plastic drawer pulls with more rustic accouterments, such as metal lantern-style lamps and stone drawer pulls. Hang a cowhide on the main wall in the living room. Lay out sheepskin rugs on the wooden floors. Put out rustic antiques like wagon wheels and butter churns for decorations.

Redo the exterior of your mobile home if possible. Use faux-stone paneling or wood for a ranch-house look. If you can't replace the siding, at least paint the exterior a rustic color like soil brown or slate gray. Build a wide wooden porch -- with logs if possible -- wrapping around the front and sides of the house. A wraparound wooden porch conveys the essence of rustic ranch life and can help hide a less-than-rustic home exterior.

Landscape the area around your mobile home with rugged, brushy plants. Rip out any chain-link or otherwise modern-looking fences and replace them with simple wooden fences.