Kitchen Pod Being Priced Up

This weekend we really realised how much we need to get the kitchen pod sorted.  When we stopped and camped up, we got all our camping stuff out of their boxes and set our stuff up ready to cook and generally be in camping mode, but each morning we had to pack everything away into their boxes again in order to head off to the beach for some waves, and then unpack again each evening when we returned to the campsite.  It didn't take all that much time but it was quite annoying and we realised that if we were wanting to tour around - as we will do later this year when we head out on our European Tour - we'd be wasting an awful lot of time.  So we have decided to get the kitchen pod sorted as a number one priority on the van.

After about 6 iterations we finally have the design for the pod finished.   We are going for a three door design with two cupboards underneath - one with 2 doors and one with a single door.   On the top is a recessed area for our existing gas hob to drop into, with a flip top lid and opening front and next to that is an area we are planning making into a cutlery holder.   The basic design for the top of the pod was stolen shamelessly from Darran's design off the Brickyard:

Darran's Kitchen Pod being built.  This gave us the basic design for the top

The two lower cupboards will have three shelves each and each of these will be adjustable to give us as much flexibility as possible for storage.

The kitchen pod, final design, closed and opened.

After a chat to a few knowledgable people I have decided to use 12mm plywood for the panels with 2"x1" timber for the frame.  This plywood option is nice and thick and will make the whole cabinet especially robust and solid which is required as we want to be able to take it in and out when packing the van for and after a camping weekend.  Being picked up and ported about the place a lot means we need it to be sturdy.   Especially as the plan would be to carry it in and out of the van with all the camping stuff like the gas hob, gas bottles and pots and pans left inside it.

As for sticking the pod into the van I have been thrashing out all sorts of options.  Bungees, metal rods clamped into tool clips in the wall, and a split baton approach have all been considered and discussed on the BrickYard.  At the moment I'm favouring this neat little clip system suggested by Shapey off BY.  

Trouble is I'm not sure if it will actually work with a flat backed pod and a curvy van wall.   So current plan is to build the pod and then worry about securing it when I'm done.  I can always bungee it in place for travel if the worst comes to the worst.

Due to the cleverness of Google Sketchup I was able to break the design down into exactly what size of bits of wood I need very easily and today I printed them out, popped down to Lawsons with the list and asked for a quote for all the wood, cut to size. Hopefully come the end of the week I'll be able to go and pick it all up and then the actual building can start!