Fitout - Cupboard construction

I decided to make the bench run all the way from the bed to the door – a distance of 3m. I had considered a wardrobe type unit near the bed [I had seen a conversion done this way] but I didn’t want to block windows and it closed off the bed space making it feel too claustrophobic.
I built the bench in modules. A lot of planning went into drawer layouts, height of drawers, purpose of drawers, space for the oven, alignment with body frames [considered an external rollout BBQ initially], where the sink would go. I also required a 120mm kickboard as an electrical box had to be relocated to the floor underneath the cupboards. [I originally considered moving this to under the bus as I have learned others have done but I was concerned about keeping a considerable number of relays high and dry]

I used 9mm ply to build the carcase for each cabinet. I believed that when I joined these together the 18mm walls would be adequate – wrong – I could not believe the amount of movement and flex using this method. It wasn’t until I glued on a tassie oak face that the units became sufficiently rigid. From the bed end I created two extremely large clothes drawers – these sit above the wheel arch. Then there are 3 drawers used for groceries and pots/pans. The second unit is half height with one large drawer for the oven to sit on. The final unit closest to the door contains 4 small drawers and then a 3 drawer layout underneath the sink top. The drawers themselves are all made from 9mm ply boxes, varnished externally and lined with auto carpet (for sound damping and a quality look). Drawer fronts are constructed from a tassie oak surround [biscuit joined] and then routed to hold a 9mm ply panel and a 3mm face ply front. Conventional kitchen handles and metal drawer runners were used throughout.

A word on catches: Because I was using all drawers a lot of the conventional caravan mechanisms were unsuitable [never mind the expense] because I would have needed to place a divider between each drawer and lose valuable space. I opted for a pair of simple plastic cupboard latches at the rear of each drawer. These were relatively easy to fit with the cupboard units out of the bus. These locked the drawers quite solidly – in fact a little too well – and in the end I changed to a lighter weight spring loaded catch. These worked beautifully …. UNTIL … Lesson learned – once weight is added to the drawer going round a relatively sharp bend in the road resulted in drawer Armageddon. Back to the heavier catches – you get used to them and they work. In fact what we do now is once opened we do not close the drawer fully until we’re ready to move on. Another compromise!

Bench tops:
I wanted a good looking gloss laminate bench top and went to a couple of kitchen manufacturers. I investigated laminated 25mm ply rather than 40mm chipboard and could simply not justify the $1100+ pricetag for 3m x 50cm of bench top especially when I was going to cut 2 huge chunks of it out for the sink and the stove. Even a chipboard top was a ridiculous price. IKEA to the rescue – ready made laminated panels with a rolled edge [yes they are chipboard and heavier than I would have liked] cost me about $240 for the bench AND a table top. They even provide matching laminate edge strips for when you cut them to size. Another compromise!
While I was at IKEA I picked up a 16mm black kitchen panel in their odds and sods section to use for the splashback behind the bench. Also doubles as a neat finish behind the cupboards as the bench is above window ledge height.