Our cabinets were built in an unconventional but (so far) extremely effective way. It was not until the end of our build that we found out about the power of the Kreg Pocket Hole Jig tool, which although pricey I would highly recommend for anyone embarking on a self-conversion journey. This tool allows you to join two pieces of wood together and drill holes at the optimal angles for strength and functionality. I should also note that this post is not sponsored, I just really enjoyed using the product.
I began the build on the main kitchen cabinet. Due to our limited space and goals of a highly functioning kitchen, we had few options about the layout of our van. From start to finish our layout remained almost identical, the only exceptions being that in the original I wanted a L bench in which the fridge would pull out of and I planned that the left side of the cabinet (above the propane) would be laundry storage. Neither of these ideas made it to the final product.
Because we were dealing with only a few inches of spare space, our plans were always being redrawn to incorporate things that we missed in the initial plans. For example, I made the bench too wide which meant that the grey-water door would be unable to open. These setbacks happen and unless you are a professional van/tiny home builder, these mistakes in planning are unavoidable. We just kept measuring, kept rechecking and sometimes had to rebuild sections. At one point in the build I was sure that the fridge, which we had already bought, was not going to fit and would have to be put between the front seats. I spent a couple ours contemplating the build and realized I had an extra inch around the propane tank which gave me just enough room fit the fridge in the cabinet. I started this van build with little-to-no experience in carpentry but with some trial and error and a ton of dedication, I made a product that I am proud of calling my home.
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The above picture is the first draft of the build! I am hoping to add a more professionally done version of the final van build onto the website in the future. So stay posted!
To begin the kitchen unit I cut two pieces of good-one-side plywood and framed it with primed 1"x 2" pine boards so I would have ways to attach the wood together. I made sure to include an extra gap for a toe kick. I purposely made it small so as not to take up too much room. However, adding doors at the end of the build increased the size of the toe kick. If I had the Kreg Pocket Hole Jig set, this process would have looked very different. I should also note that I used wood glue and wood screws to hold most of the cabinets together. After framing the plywood, I built a rectangular base out of 2"x 3" lumbar and then attached the framed plywood to the base. I then attached the plywood at the top using primed 1"x 3" pine boards. I added more plywood onto the back of the cabinet and this completed the main frame of the kitchen cupboard. The length that I made the cabinet was extremely important because I had to take into account not only the kitchen implements but also ensure that it would not eat up too much space in the front seat. It should be noted that the countertop was not installed until the end of the build because it allowed us to access the cupboards from above.
The fridge, being the biggest and most awkward piece of kitchen equipment, was the first section of the cabinet which I built. At this point we had only a rectangular box with only the sides covered in plywood. Next I cut out the "partition walls" or the walls that separated the cupboards vertically. I attached these to the main frame using L-brackets. I then added more plywood onto the back of the cabinet and this completed the main frame of the kitchen cupboard. In the picture above I had not yet added the second partition wall, but later added it into the space on the left side.
Before going further I had to ensure that both the fridge and 200lb drawer slides would fit in the allotted space. In order to access the chest style fridge we needed to be able to pull it out of a drawer. This required building a metal frame and attaching it to 200 lb drawer slides. The metal frame allowed us to later attach the cupboard door front which we reinforced with metal arms to prevent the wooden front from coming under too much strain.
Next I needed to build the shelves. I did this by gluing and screwing primed 1"x 2" pine boards horizontally below the places where the shelves would go. This gave the shelves something to rest on and increased the strength of the shelves. I then cut the shelves out of plywood, screwed them in place and... VOILA! We had shelves!
Next were the door fronts. I wanted thick trim on the doors to give them a modern feel. I achieved this by using primed 1"x 4" pine boards, good-one-side plywood and Everbilt hinges from Home Depot. I used the pine boards as the trim and routered out one side so that the back of the door was flush with the plywood while the front of the door had a clean trimmed look.
Finally it was time to install the countertops, sink and stove. This process was fairly straightforward. We outlined onto the countertop where the stove and sink should go and then using a jig saw we cut the holes, installed the appliances and placed the countertop onto the main frame. Using a primed 1"x 4" pine board we created a backsplash which pushed the countertop forward so that it would have a lip. Then we attached the countertop from underneath by drilling through the main frame and using short screws so that they would not poke through the top of the countertop.
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Things I would change about this build
DO NOT USE WALL PUTTY FOR MORE THAN JUST COVERING THE TOPS OF SCREWS. Since I crafted the main frame of the cupboard using multiple boards, I didn't have a smooth front. To remedy this, I looked into multiple options like covering the entire front in hardboard or filling the cracks between boards with wall putty. I decided to do the putty because I decided that if I did not like the results then I would just cover them. The problem with putty is that any shifting causes cracking and since the van is constantly moving, everything that I puttied has cracked. What I did not realize at the time was that the cupboard doors cover most of the cracks anyways so there was no need to putty.
We had a lot of issues with the door fronts because the routered section of the pine boards was not exactly the same width as the plywood. This caused it to not sit entirely flat or cause doors to be unable to close. This method was time consuming, but was effective in creating the results I was looking for.
Adding drawers above the fridge instead of a shelf. We use this area mainly for food storage and find it hard to use because it gets very cluttered. In our next build I would convert these to drawers so that dried goods are more easily accessible
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