Just the two of us now. But with occasional guests for dinner, we still need seating for four. Storage under seats not very useful (no drawers.) Finally decided more table space, larger and more accessible storage with more seating options needed. My version of the table mod follows.
First find suitable table. I picked 26 x 36 trestle table with 10 inch leaf for a total of 46 and an additional 8 inches leaf if we need it. Since we will travel with table leaf in place, the built in table leaf compartment now becomes additional storage space.
With booth out I had about 69 inches of wall space to work with. To maximize storage space I opted for 24 in kitchen wall mount cabinets. Two 24” cabinets and 26” table wouldn’t fit. I solved problem by setting table edges on top of cabinets. I added shelving between cabinets giving big boost in storage . The one piece cabinet top gives us an additional six square feet of table or set-a-bout space.
Remove booth, table and seat belts. Plug and weatherproof seatbelt bolt holes in slideout floor.
Cut carpet opening about 1/8 inch smaller than space needed ie. edge of carpet would be under cabinets. Once cabinets in place push edge of excess carpet down with putty knife for a finished look. Cutting carpet at this stage will make carpet replacement easier later.
The cabinet top is ¼” oak plywood with 1x2 on exposed edges to keep things in place underway.
One picture shows cabinet door, string and a putty knife. Panel for door is not as wide as grove. It rattled. In normal environment not a problem. I just assumed panel would rattle underway. I used putty knife to wedge string into excess space on inside of door. Once stained, string doesn’t even show and no rattle.
Removed one table leg and cross brace. Added spacer between top of leg and bottom of table to compensate for slight increase in height. Using only one leg allowed me to relocate it to outermost edge of slideout floor giving us more foot and leg space under table. With only one leg I secured table end to a connector between the top front of cabinets. With the one leg screwed to slide floor, table now more solid than with the two factory legs.
Cabinets came with only one very heavy particle board shelf. I wanted more. I used ¼ inch oak plywood with 1x2 front edges doubling number of shelves. Not shown is AC outlet strip I added under table for computers and other stuff.
Tried staining wood to match Damon cherry with no luck. Biggest project mistake was using Minwax Polyshades. I DO NOT recommend it. Works OK on straight flat surface but will not give nice even coverage at right angle corners. You will probably end up with light and dark coverage at 90 degree edges.
No handles on cabinet doors - reason - figured legs or chairs would be hitting handles. Testing confirmed handles not really needed anyhow.
I found four used folding chairs that are less than 15 inches wide. Two guest chairs can be stored vertically in the small space under our bed. BTW the “USED” chairs had absolutely no sign of wear or previous use.
Some project cost will be recovered by selling booth and table.
End result: more open look, more storage, more table surface and anyone laying on couch can see the fireplace. (more on that later.)
Major Material items:
2 - unfinished kitchen wall cabinets - 12d x 24w x 30h
1 - 4 x 8 sheet of 1/8 inch oak cabinet veneer for visible ends of cabinets and to cover visible wall space between cabinets.
1 - 4 x 8 sheet ¼ inch oak plywood for cabinet top and shelves
3 - 1 x 2 x 8 foot oak boards for shelving and top edging
1 - AC outlet strip
All above from local big box store
1 - trestle table (do not trust color - ours was much darker than picture on laptop monitor) from
http://www.ebay.com/itm/RV-Apartment-Boat-Hide-A-Leaf-Trestle-Table-Hardwood-Stained-Medium-Oak-Made-USA-/330789963636?pt=US_Tables&hash=item4d049e4774
4 - chairs from
http://www.ebay.com/itm/400333194217?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p398 4.m1439.l2649
Looking forward to seeing CTPRES' fireplace install. It looks like the interior wall in our 2 RV's is very similar.
Linear Mode
