While the sky is the limit for the amount of money a person can spend renovating a vintage trailer, we were determined to making it look great without spending a fortune.
We looked into having custom cabinets made, or even buying a set from our local big-box store, we just could not bring ourselves to pay those kinds of prices.
After spending some time rummaging through flea markets and thrift stores, we finally found these mismatched beauties, still in the box, on Craigslist for $20 each. They are standard measurements 30” wide and 22” deep. (We knew we wanted to paint them a white, shabby-chic, which can be found here. You could certainly purchase a matching set and follow the installation)
The first thing we had to do was fit them into the galley space, with one overlapping a wheel well. We put both cabinets side-by-side and using a pencil, traced the edge of the wheel well so we would know where to cut.
Once we had our lines, we carried them back out and set to cutting.
It took some creativity and every cutting tool we had in our arsenal, from jigsaws to cutting blades on a drill and Dremel.
Doesn’t have to be perfect; just has to fit over the wheel well.
The next step was literally making a square peg fit a round hole. As you know, Airstreams do not have flat walls. We fastened 2x4 blocks to the wall using wide L-brackets. (The L-brackets were screwed into the blocks, and the blocks were riveted to the wall.)
Next we mounted the cabinets to the blocks using long wood screws and a 1/4'' strip of plywood to provide more support and sturdiness.
Using another piece of 1/4'' plywood to fill the open seam between the cabinets; we secured them together.
To create a side panel so the cabinets match the curve of the wall, we took a piece of cardboard to create a curved template. Once we knew the template fit, we cut out the curved piece from 1/8” plywood. If you desire a flat surface, you can simply stain or paint your piece and attach it using wood screws and liquid-nails. Make sure to sand and roughen the side cabinet before mounting.
To create the wood-plank look, we used the piece of plywood that had been cut from the cardboard template and cut it into equal strips, mounting them individually.
