Everything and the Kitchen Sink.
The kitchen counter and cabinets were really fun to build… NOT! They did come out pretty good, it was just a pain to line up the tracks and as for everything else on the build, the van not being square.
We started off by attaching a 2×4 to the lower horizontal beam of the van, and making 2 additional legs that will also be attached to the metal supports of the van. On top of the 2×4 will be (4) 2×3 runners 23″ long. Those runners will lay on top of (4) legs 28″ tall. In the 3 space in-between the legs will be from left to right: (2) giant drawers. (1 pantry, 1 for clothes) the center will be for our clean and grey water tanks, cleaning supplies and such, and then the Truck Fridge.
After making the skeleton or frame of the cabinets it was time to wrap up those legs with 1/2″ birch.
All wrapped in birch and coated with polycrylic.
It is time to throw it in the van and screw it into place. We used these metal hangers attached to the 2×3 to help hold it down and keep it from moving.
Butcher block counter top cut to fit and ready for the sink hole.
Hole for the sink is cut.
Once secured it was time to cut our butcher block counter top! Now you can see it coming together. We used the Kreg Mini Jig to make pocket holes in the 2×3 runner to be able to screw into the counter top.
After a lot of test fits the sink is in place. The fridge is also in place and the wood trim is added above the fridge. Time to make the drawers and cabinet.
We decided to make two giant drawers apposed to two big drawers and a smaller drawer. Hind sight we should of went with the 3 drawers to be able to have a drawer for kitchen items. Instead we have them in our overhead shelf compartment which gets a little frustrating looking for small items.
Using these drawer slides we attached them to the drawer and the cabinet and it worked after an hour or so of adjusting them. The cabinet for the water tanks we used these concealed hinges.
All completed.
We chose to use a manual hand pump type faucet to conserve water.
After everything was complete we slapped 5 coats of butcher block oil at 20 min intervals to protect and seal the butcher block and leaving it food grade ready. Now we are ready to get cooking!
