Building the Kitchen

DIY kitchen construction in a motorhome

We will assume that you have already decided on the design and color scheme for your new kitchen.

Before you cut the first piece of timber, make sure that you have a clear means of affixing your cupboards to the bus. This may mean pre-marking out the steel frame or studs within the side walls and marking out the floor bearers first. One of the simplest ways to set out your new design is to mark out with masking tape. This way it's very easy just to move a piece of tape for any adjustments in your measurements and design.

Armed with all the measurements for your stove, fridge, and sink etc, begin accurately marking out both the floor and walls with masking tape, and then drawing your accurate measurements and lines onto the tape with a pencil. We optimized our floor space by reducing the depth of our cupboards by 120mm, yet ensuring that the bench tops were still wide enough to accomodate our full sized kitchen sink.

Floor Cupboards and Benchtops

Now all your cupboard doors and drawers will require a suitable method of locking, to ensure they stay closed while traveling. There are several methods that you can adopt, including purchasing purpose built push-button catches with handles or knobs, to sticks placed through the cupboard door handles that engage in a hole in the floor.

We built our cupboards with a 5mm lean towards the walls of the bus. This will help to keep things on the shelves or benchtops when the vehicle is travelling, or parked not quite level. We also added a 40mm high edge to each shelf to prevent heavier items from sliding against the doors while travelling. The addition of a non-slip mat to the shelving and drawer bottoms also keeps the plates and things where they should be.

Wall Cupboards and Drawers

Wall cupboards should have a safety edge of no less than 20mm on the shelves to prevent being sconed by a falling item when you first open the door after travel. Cupboard edges can be made from timber, or purchased as a miniture metal railing with post from most hardware outlets. Again, this depend upon your budget and taste. We elected to use chipboard offcuts with iron on edging, and used a white silicone instead of wood glue before screwing.

Kitchen drawers should preferably run on metal glides that have a stop in the maximum position so that the drawers cannot accidentally dump their contents onto the floor.

Screws, glues, hinges, catches and fastenings.

Water or moisture is the bane of all good motorhome interior fitouts, and the kitchen is no exception to this. If you have elected to use chipboard for your construction material, then I would recommend using silicone rather than wood glue throughout, and liquid nails or panel fix where strength is an issue. A liberal coating of white silicone sticks panels together just fine when fully cured, and prevents the entrance of moisture. When screwing the top wall cupboard frames to the metal roof, we used liquid nails as well as the screws into the bearers or frame of the bus roof. Tarzan could swing off them now!

Try to purchase self tapping and drilling screws to affix your cupboard frames to the bus. Remembering to use a fine thread screw when affixing to the thicker bus frame, and the coarser thread like a wood screw thread for tapping into the thinner sheet metals. Everything should be held together with screws rather than nails. Remember, everything is going to be flexing and moving when the vehicle is in motion. You'll look a proper Wally when you hit the rough dirt roads and suddenly all your wall cupboards hit the deck! If you are not happy with it, then rip it out and do it again.

Kickboards and wasting valuable space.

Most kitchens are built on a false plinth and have a recessed kickboard below the bottom shelf. Flat-Pack kitchen cupboards usually are mounted on adjustable plastic feet that are hidden behind a 4 inch kickboard. It is not a good idea to have chipboard flat on the floor, particularly with condensation and moisture getting in and swelling the board, so mounting the cupboards on the 4" legs seems a good way to go.

Just don't waste that valuable space by enclosing it with screwed on kickboards, make your kickboards in sections as either drawers or simple clip-ons. That 4 inch high space is ideal to store all manner of things from butane cartridges to brooms and vacuum cleaner hoses. Always try to maximize your space, and not to have dead areas of unaccessible wasted storage space.