New Dinette

[DavidsonOverlander]

Our 64 Overlander came with a gaucho and no table, so one of the first things that we looked at was how to create a dinette that would seat 6 and provide sleeping space for 2. I spent a lot of hours trying to figure out how to do this, and this is what I came up with. In order to have lots of seating room we decided to have the table in the middle rather than against a wall as most dinettes are. This meant that the table had to be fastened to the floor and it had to be very sturdy without being attached to a wall. The most difficult part was figuring out how to make it go up and down. This was accomplished with a series of levers. Sorry that the pictures don't show this.
I originally planned to make the backs of the benches with veneer over plywood, but it was just too much for my skills so I ended up with the vinyl over foam. The back of the straight bench in front of the window has storage for books.
Eventually the other counter tops will be finished in the same colour Formica with aluminum T edging.
The benches lift up to store bedding, including 2" foam matresses. There's room for one to sleep along the side and one across the front. It only takes about 2 minutes to set up or take down.
Next to the door under the jalousie window is a shelf for shoes - it's amazing how many shoes 6 people can take on a trip.
It was complicated to build all this because of the curves so I made a lot of patterns. There are a few little things to finish or alter, but after a two month trip we're happy with the way it turned out.