The fiddly world of camper van furniture building

Most of my time over the past few weeks has been taken up building the furniture for our T25. I’ve had the design more or less sorted out for months and the work surfaces were built over a year ago. You logically wouldn’t build the work surfaces first but I had to do it this way round as I needed to know where the hob and fridge were going when I had the LPG leisure tank fitted by Gasure.

My cupboards were built from 9mm birch ply – 12mm would have been easier to work with but I was trying to keep the weight down as much as possible to compensate for the solid oak worktops! This doesn’t compromise strength though, once screwed and glued together they are very solid.

The design features a combination of drawers and cupboards, with the fridge hidden behind a door to keep with the minimal look. The drawers were made from solid beech and dovetailed for strengh. The doors and drawer fronts were finished with Formica Colorcore.

Main cupboards fitted

Drawers made from beech with ply fronts finished with Formica colorcore

I managed to fit in a little drawer under the hob – I had to cut one side away to avoid the hob fittings

I sprayed all the cupboard sections before I put them all together with Fiddes Pre-Catalyst Cellulose Lacquer which is great stuff. The oak worktop was finished with Rustin’s Clear Plastic Coating chosen because it is very hard wearing and will resist the vigours of campervan life. I didn’t want a super glossy finish so it was wire wooled and finished with wax.

I mistakenly thought that 3m High Strength adhesive would do a good job of fixing the formica laminate having heard such great things about it. This would avoid having to clamp up or use the vacuum press. I should have known that such short cuts wouldn’t work! The edges are starting to come away so the doors and drawer fronts need to come off again to be fixed up properly with some Polymite and clamps.

I thought it would be useful to have a pull out double drawer to store cans and bottles, this was a good way to use the thin space next to the fridge.

Pull out storage unit

In the dead area which will be covered by the rock and roll bed I’ve built in an enclosure for a 10″ sub. This was built from 18mm MDF. I’m pretty pleased that now everything is bolted and screwed into place there’s no movement. I used the van this weekend and I’m please to say nothing rattles and all the doors and drawers stay closed – even on Peak District windy roads!

SMEV sink with built in two burner hob

Oak worktops

I now have to add the strip under the worktop that finishes things off and screw the handles on – I tried gluing them on but that was never going to work! Then I’ll be on to building the oak door that covers the Sergent control unit and joins on to the top cupboard. And I need to build the kick panel which needs to have a built in vent for the fridge.

The ugly fridge is covered by a door!

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