One of the most important things when you’re living on the road is something so mundane – storage. Cabinets don’t have to be boring, though, and they definitely don’t have to be expensive. LuLu is a 1973 VW Type 2 tin top, meaning she doesn’t have a pop-top like a Westfalia does. (You can read a little more about the differences in my blog “Retrofitting Curtains to a ’73 VW Tin Top Bus“). This also means she doesn’t come stock with cabinetry and if I’m ever going to live in her, I need storage.
Sourcing the Cabinet
So what is a girl on a budget to do? Why, head to the thrift store of course! Habitat for Humanity Re-Store has been one of my favorite stops for van build supplies. Things there are very inexpensive and quite often, its all second-hand which means I’m saving it from a landfill and saving money. This particular trip I picked up not just the cabinet, but a collapsible bucket, and a jigsaw! I think I paid $50 for the perfect cabinet and I’m lucky enough that it seemed to be a new build. No countertop, no hardware, just cabinet. Even better? It’s already the color I wanted which saved me the hassle of painting.
The next step for me was to find a suitable countertop as well as a suitable sink and faucet. Interestingly enough, my mom had a countertop just lying around in just about the exact right size! So I cut it to size, sanded it, and stained it – voila! The perfect countertop.
The sink and faucet proved to be a little more difficult. Again, I wasn’t wanting to spend too much but I did need something very specifically sized. Facebook Marketplace came through and I found a second hand sink from a contractor who had stripped it out of a dentists office. Only $15 and it was all mine! As for the faucet, I found the perfect option for me on Amazon for $25.
Upcycling the Cabinet
It’s one thing to have all the pieces and its another to put them all together. When you live in a space as small as a van – and in this case, a VW bus – maximizing storage is important. Kickboard drawers are one way that people maximize their storage, but I didn’t want to stop at just that. I’ve always found the space behind the fake drawer on a cabinet to be such a waste, and I wasn’t going to let that happen in my van! Originally, I was going to create a little cubby where the front folded open. After looking more closely at the construction of the cabinet, it was going to be more work to create than I benefited from the space. That’s when I decided to put in my own shelves and put hinges on the countertop!
Did you know that you can buy melamine sheets at the store? I sure didn’t but that knowledge was a game changer. If you’ve been following along, you know that I’m not much into permanent additions to the van, and this is no different. Thankfully, I found some adhesive shelf supports to use to create a section of shelves opposite where the water supply will sit. I also cut a piece to section off a little cubby next to the sink.
With that taken care of, I traced the sink to create a hole and cut it out. I also cut out a hole for the faucet. I did cut a few inches off the bottom of the cabinet so that the height was right underneath the windows. Finally, I attached the hinges to the back of the cabinet and the countertop, and behold – a custom fit cabinet for LuLu!
Supplies:
Cabinet – $50
Sink – $15
Faucet – $25
Melamine for shelves – $20
Hardware: $5
Lid Support: free
Countertop – freeTotal: $115
Design
Functionally, the cabinet is complete! Aesthetically…not so much. The trouble with moving as that its hard to find anything until you unpack it, and in this particular situation, there isn’t really any unpacking to be had. So somewhere I have knobs to attach and somewhere I have some decorative wood to add to the cabinets. I also have some furniture feet I’ll be adding after I cut them to size. I’ve also used magnets to create a lid of sorts for the metal sink – it allows me to keep it closed and use it as a counter or desk!
Here is the inspiration for the finished design:
The hardest part of it all was using the saw and even that wasn’t that hard. Compared to 2 or 3x the amount for the same size custom cabinet, I’m super happy with it! More to come, so make sure to follow along!
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