Overhead kitchenette cabinet mods and organization..how'd you do it???

[Gordon in Idaho]

"How much of the two vertical door spacers is structural, do you think?..."

My best guess is .... they probably are intended to be structural. But I think you can overcome that with a piece of 1/2" plywood cut to fit the bottom (on the inside). And then back up any hinges or struts with wood. As I recall, my original upper cabinet was hard to use with its' small openings. Had I kept it, I probably would have cut away most of the front and trimmed it out with wood.

The idea of a fold down door used as a temporary shelf is intriguing, but I wonder if it would get in the way (I tend to bump into things). I guess a piece of cardboard cut to match the possible door and held in place would give you a good idea if that's practical for you.

Dividers: Yeah! It's amazing how things get tossed around in there. I like traktors1's idea of velcro attached bins that can be arranged as you like.
Shallow storage bins are a good idea, too.

One thing I think most of us agree on is that restraints of some kind, doors or whatever, are necessary. To see your stuff in a pile on the floor is upsetting, to say the least.

Have fun!
Gordon

[k corbin]

Originally Posted by openthegates

Add on: I'm also considering to just put in a metal bar to hold things in, similar to a spice rack. I like simple things and simple looks.

I am not convinced that seeing all the contents of a cabinet exposed qualifies as simple looks. My personal feeling is that is very much the opposite of something looking simple. A cabinet door is far more of a simple surface to look at. A jumble of unrelated sizes, shapes and colors is chaotic looking. But that is must my personal take on it coming from a background of art and architecture.

If you ask for opinions you might get some that don't agree with yours

[Franswa]

I built a simple divider "rack"....it's a tight friction fit and stays put on it's own (no fasteners)...I lifted out to take one of these pictures...the percolator and coffee supply are held against it with a bungy cord (using up the space between the two doors)...spaces in the divider are all slighty different to accomodate different width items

[tractors1]

Originally Posted by Gordon in Idaho

Dividers: Yeah! It's amazing how things get tossed around in there. I like tractors1's idea of velcro attached bins that can be arranged as you like.

Have fun!
Gordon

Actually I don't use the velcro attachment on the overhead bins, but could. One of the best features is at the end of the cabinets where things get lost in the "black hole" where the cabinets in some trailers come together and there is no door.

Infrequently used items can be placed in a divider and shoved back into the dead-end corner, but are easily accessed by sliding the divider over to the door for access.

[peatle]

The upper cabinets in our 1980 Trillium Jubilee were quite a joke. There were two doors that were about 6" high and 18" wide that looked as non functional as they actually were. It was a pain to try and see or reach half of the items that were inside.

I removed the whole cupboard front and replaced it with a new front with a much greater open area than the old one and three sliding doors that allowed access to almost all of the inside space. The doors are simply a veneered 1/4" plywood that sit in a two grooved track top and bottom and bypass each other.

Some photos attached of them now and I did post more detailed pics of before, after and fabrication at the time of the renovation.

[Franswa]

love the sliders and the angled shelves inside.....creates a TON of useable storage space

[k corbin]

Your sliding doors were a nicely detailed solution. Love the radius corners, everything looks professionally executed.

[Gordon in Idaho]

For Peatle,

Another good solution to head-bumping, and VERY well done!
A few questions:
Is the new front frame painted wood? It looks very smooth!
Do the panels stay closed by themselves during travel?
Whats under that false bottom? (You can ignore this question if you prefer. <_<)

Anyway, Nice work and thanks for sharing it.

Gordon

[peatle]

Gordon ....

The face frame is 5/8" Ultralite MDF for weight savings. MDF of course is a very smooth face and produces a nice painted finish. Any edges require a little work with filler and a few coats of paint to seal them but MDF should not be used where there is any chance it will get wet as it will suck up moisture like a sponge, even if sealed. The upper and lower tracks for the sliders are from some 1" x 2" Finger Joint Maple that I had left over from a previous project.

As far as fastening the slider in transit ...... I just drilled a hole at each bottom corner of the middle one, this sits in the front track, and into the sidesliders where they overlap. I then just insert two little wooden pegs ( black in pic ) into the these holes and these set the doors in place.

Because the sliders by pass each other with little space in between there is usually a thumb hole put in each door for sliding it with. I did find some very low profile 'bumpers' , that are used to cushion the impact on closing cabinet doors, and these were self adhesive and nicely stuck onto the slider face to form a pull without interfering with the travel.

The sliders are easily lifted up into the top track and pulled out for better access to the cabinet interior

Very observant of you Gordon to identify that there is a false bottom. The polished inside bottom of the cabinet is made of several pieces of 1/4" plywood ( flooring underlayment actually ) that will lift up and come through the openings in the face frame. This exposes a cavity in which I was able to run electrical wiring that extends from the three switches, on the left in one of the pics, to the lights that they serve.

Please see the attached pics for some clarification of the above.

Let me know if you are thinking of dissimilar and I could dig around for earlier pics that might give a few clues to fabrication details.

[peatle]

Bit of corrupted text there ... 'Dissimilar' is supposed to be ' doing something similar' !

[Gordon in Idaho]

Peter,

Thanks for the detailed explanation. A concealed wire chase. Clever!
I'm happy with my upper cabinet (post #7), but I think Jennifer and others may benefit from your ideas. I benefit in that shared ideas lead to more ideas, and seeing successfully completed projects gives me confidence, and makes me want to make more "improvements". I don't think I'm alone here in feeling that personalizing our small trailers is very satisfying, whether it be new fabric or new cabinets. I don't think many Class A RV owners can share that feeling.

Thanks again

Gordon

[Joy A]

I made 2 dividers to make the cabinet a little more usable for me, thus making 3 separate compartments matching the 3 separate doors.

I have factory installed lights at each end of the cabinet and they have a piece of fiberglass cut to cover the wires inside the cabinet. The fiberglass pieces are what I used as templates for my dividers as they have the curvature of the outer wall. So all I needed to do was measure the lower depth and the height at opening/door. The dividers are just pressure fit in.

I made a 3rd divider for the left hand compartment. I wanted to divide my cups/glasses from all the spices I carry. The cups/glasses take up about 2/3 of the space with the spices in the other 1/3.

[Zennifer]

Originally Posted by Gordon in Idaho

Peter,

Thanks for the detailed explanation. A concealed wire chase. Clever!
I'm happy with my upper cabinet (post #7), but I think Jennifer and others may benefit from your ideas. I benefit in that shared ideas lead to more ideas, and seeing successfully completed projects gives me confidence, and makes me want to make more "improvements". I don't think I'm alone here in feeling that personalizing our small trailers is very satisfying, whether it be new fabric or new cabinets. I don't think many Class A RV owners can share that feeling.

Thanks again

Gordon

I love the ground sourcing/sharing of ideas...it makes everyone's projects better for them/inspires creativity!! I had been toying with dividers, but now I'm im off on a whole different tangent.

[AM Moats]

We replaced the three doors with two that lift up. I added dividers to keep things organized. (Actually just a three piece office paper organizer that I happened to have laying around.). We added a false bottom for wiring as well.


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[Kai in Seattle]

One thing we've found useful is to put things inside that match--the other stuff in the same cabinet and the trailer décor. We had toyed with the idea of no doors, but decided the original doors, cleaned up and repaired, were too cute to pass by.

We use metal tins, plastic bins, fabric bins, nice bags of varying kinds, careful stacks, bungee cords, magnets--anything and everything but it must all work with the concept. I've heard the majority of egg buyers/owners are people with high levels of tech/engineering/art/ etc. backgrounds. They appreciate these things, are innovative and clever--we enjoy solving problems better than some.

These eggs make us think, and that's a good portion of the fun, identifying the problem, seeking suggestions, considering options, choosing and implementing solutions (and sometimes redoing it--8) ) It gives us all a lot in common!

BEST!