Building storage furniture

January 4, 2020

I moved from the Mercedes 209D into the 508D more than a year ago. While working on the 508D, I stored all my food, tools and clothes in boxes. I wanted to get rid of the chaos in my van and built several storage furnitures in 2019. The base kitchen cabinet was one of the first furnitures that I built in the summer:

Building the base kitchen cabinet

The cabinet consists of a big drawer containing the fridge,

Fridge in the cabin

a drawer for the cutlery,

Drawer for the cutlery

and a few shelves to store my pots, pans and other dishes.

Shelves for pots, pans and other dishes

As the shelf that I integrated into the wall of the shower cabin didn’t provide enough space for my tea equipment, I extended the shelf above the kitchen countertop. There was still plenty of space above the shelf, so I built an additional storage compartment with two LED lights for better illumination in the kitchen:

Additional shelf and storage compartment above the kitchen countertop

Right below the foldable table for the electric cooker, I built a cabinet to store my underwear and all kind of other things.

Cabinet below the table for the electric cooker

I also attached a little shelf holding the electric kettle.

Shelf holding the kettle

Unfortunately, I observed people using the shelf as a handle to pull them into the van. The construction is not designed to hold a human being, so I might cover the shelf with a curtain to prevent people from breaking it. :thinking:

As a final step, I built a foldable panel covering the huge storage area above the driver’s cabin. The living area looks much more tidy now:

Living area of my van

I’ve (mostly) turned my initial vision of the van into reality and feel very comfortable in my tiny home on wheels. I’m so glad that I started this project 18 months ago!