Mod : Kitchen Counter - Making one huge practical work space

[ShadowKolla]

Best mod so far we have made was Saturday morning before we leave on a 2 day camping trip. Early morning, instead of packing the trailer, we went and bought a 4 x 8 sheet of laminated 1/2 " Birch Plywood from Windsor Plywood for $ 60 CAD. Came home and start working on our new improved huge kitchen counter and early afternoon we are done and took to the road. Who else does last minute mods before you get going ?

This was our 2nd camping trip with our new to us trailer, and I could not think that we need to suffer any longer with so little counter space. That is why we jumped into action and hastily made a new huge work space.
It was so worth it. Now we have kitchen counter space 52 " long and 24 1/2 " wide. I will try and post pics. As we did it so fast, we will redo the piece to the right, it in the next week and add a strip on the edge to finish it off. We used only half of the laminated sheet.

1st Pic : Is the before and our issue of no work space and no where to put down anything.

Second pic : Is the left piece that covers the stove and also covers part of the double sink, to the left on the front, it matches the width of the fridge cabinet and as a result, its about 2 " wider than the existing counter.

3rd Pic shows both pieces flush with each other, which makes for one continuing kitchen counter. With both pieces down, we can still use both taps.

4th Picture : Front right corner is flush with the original corner, although the angle of the picture, makes it look as if its smaller. Further pictures will hopefully shows it a bit better.

5th Picture : shows that we have taken full advantage of the top right hand corner near the door, where the new kitchen counter comes all the way to that corner and hangs over the existing kitchen counter and from that corner near the door, its on a curve down to the corner of the orig kitchen counter.

[ShadowKolla]

Picture 1 : Shows the side view of the stove cover, to make it sit snug and nicely, we have chipped out 2 areas where the left sink is a bit elevated. You can see now its wider than the originial kitchen counter and its flush with the fridge cabinet. It makes for a huge functional space where during the day, it holds our phones, the dog leash, bottles of water and snacks, etc.

Picture 2 :Shows the corner, where its flush with the original kitchen cabinet, as that area is a huge traffic area. We did not want to go wider here.

Picture 3 : Shows the side view of the sink part and where it flairs out and hangs over the side to the corner near the door.

Picture 4 : Shows the tap area where we left space for both taps to be used while the sink cover is still up.

[profdant139]

Wow!! That is a lot of counter space -- well done!

Where do you put the moveable counters when you need to use the stove or the sink?

[ShadowKolla]

Pic 1 : Shows how we use it. I have a Dollarstore container there during the day, if we need to use the tap, it spills into the container and we also put during the day , all dirty spoons and dirty dishes in there as a hold all.

Pic 2:This is how we do dishes with our new kitchen counter. We wash in the right hand zink and on the left of that we have the Dollarstore container on an angle to rinse the dishes with. Using it like this on an angle, uses far less water. The huge stove top area, to the left, is where we put down the dishes to dry.

Pic 3: This is the zink area piece up side down.

Pic 4: This is the stove top area up side down. Note 2 little notches being made into it, on the fridge wall side, as the trim on the wall sticks out a bit and we wanted the counter to be flush with the walls.

We plan to put velcro on, in strategic places so that we can have both pieces in place while we are on the road. For this trip as we did not want to scratch up potentially the trailer walls, so we drove with both pieces laid on our bed, they fit nicely into each other. As we stop often in towns and order take away and then we like to eat it in our trailer. So having both pieces down in position on the road, is our goal. Will get that done here shortly.

We very seldom use our stove inside, only when it rains or when we have no power and want to make coffee in the morning, for the most part the huge stove cover stays on. I also find that now, taking things out of the fridge, got a lot easier as I have all that space right next to the fridge to put things down.
The sink cover now only comes off, when we are doing dishes, which is usually once a day.

If anyone has any other suggestions or a better plan, please comment on this post and share your concerns and practical ideas, as we plan on redoing the sink area one, to make it more pretty and that it looks more professional . I welcome your critique and ideas.
This is the most practical mod we have ever done and we are on trailer no 4, all of our previous trailers, had many mods being done. This one is our 1st Shadow Cruiser.

[ShadowKolla]

When we use the stove or the sink, only one comes off at a time, we find, then the other one nicely fits on our bed and its out of the way. When we do dishes, only the sink one comes off and when we use the stove, then the zink one stays on, to give us an area to prep and put things down on.

The laminated Birch Plywood has a semi shiny finish to it on both sides, so no need to apply layers of poly urithane on it. We only need to come up with plan to finish off the edge, so that it looks more professionally finished. The Birch is also lightweight, yet very sturdy and strong. Very easy and light weight to move the kitchen counter on and off.

I am so thrilled with this mod, it has helped us tremendously, the last 2 days while camping, compared to not having it.
We have a long list of mods that needs to be done to our 18.5 ft Shadow Cruiser and we are trying to address the most pressing issues 1st, which was counter space in the kitchen.

[PaintyLiz]

Wow! Neat mod! I envy your counter space!

Liz