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Quit job, build campervan, travel

making a kitchen in a van

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This is where things get exciting. Things start to look and feel like a home! I tried the van out the other night and being able to wake up and make a cup of tea really made me realise I have everything in here to live pretty nicely – maybe more so than my house.

kitchen-kettle

 

What makes a kitchen?

a room or area where food is prepared and cooked

 

Heres what the kitchen will consist of:

  • sink and hob
  • tiles for splashback
  • extractor fan
  • spice rack – just because.
  • utensils storage
  • cutlery storage (draw)
  • bin
  • fire blanket/extinguisher

 

tiles

I bought 3 sheets of 30cm x 30cm porcelain black mosaic tiles at £3.25 a sheet from intermosaics. They were a bit tricky to lay since the surface needs to be relatively level and the cladding wall also has a curve to it.

sticking tiles to wood
I used sikaflex to stick all the tiles. The wooden wall is bound to flex and expand/shrink so I decided not to use tile grouting.
tiling
I used tape to stop the tiles from sliding down and then a length of wood to level them
grouting-tiles
I grouted with flexible tile grout. Normal grout would probably crack with movement of the van and also expansion/contraction of the wood with humidity and temperature
mosaic-tiles-on-wood
yeah that’ll do. The corner was tricky though – I snapped a few tiles in half to make them fit. I wiped all excess grout off with a scourer once dried

 

sink / hob

The sink and hob unit is from a caravan with cupboards and frame made by me and Matt. See my other post on the kitchen cupboards. It designed to be installed any way round. Matt swapped it round (moved tap and flipped the grill knobs to the other side) so the hob was next to the sliding side door.

van-kitchen

 

extractor

All this burning gas, boiling water and cooking will need to be vented. This seemed like the neatest and easiest solution I could find but ideally I’d have a proper pop up roof vent. This small fan is quite powerful but due to the size, it doesn’t move as much air as I’d like, to keep up with the steam from cooking. Looks like I’ll open my side door as well when cooking.

mushroom-vent-with-12v-fan
Mushroom vent with a built in 12V extractor fan
wiring-extractor-fan
Time to hide more wires. I took the power from the 12V terminals in the utility cupboard
extractor-vent-campervan-roof
I’m happy with that. These toggle switches have a nice LED indication as well.

 

spice rack

I need somewhere for my cumin, turmeric and 2in1 oil. I made this out of the left over bits from the cupboard doors

spice-rack
I cut out the parts so they slot together, then I applied a PU glue (same used on tiles)
spice-rack-campervan
I put some hooks on the underside for hanging stuff like…. I dunno really. I’m sure there was some reason

 

utensils

This happened by chance. In my box of bits there was this rope and some hooks. I noticed a hook had attached to the rope and fitted really well so I took it as a sign and made a thing out of it to hang utensils or cured joints of ham.

utensils-hook

 

cutlery draw

I made this draw out of leftover pieces ply from the shower and toilet room

I stuck down one of those knife magnets inside the draw in an attempt to keep things from clattering about.

van-kitchen-draw

bin

I didn’t see the point in having a proper bin – they just take up space when empty. I fixed some hooks on the inside of the kitchen cupboard to hang a rubbish bag on. Simply does it!

 

fire blanket

Probably a good idea when cooking under all this wood. A bought a 1KG power fire extinguisher as well but to be honest, I doubt it’d do much good on anything other than a really small fire.

 

The finished kitchen

 

van-kitchen

diy-kitchen-unit

The shelves – once lived in

kitchen-shelves