Thursday, May 13, 2010

This week on HOW ITS MADE: Airstream Kitchens

Our Airstream client wanted a minimal place to prepare food. We gave him a small convection oven (microwaves just don't make good food) a fridge with separate freezer, and one of those water boiling electric teapots.
In the following photos, the bulk of the cabinetry is complete, so it's mostly just pictures of us applying the Formica tops.


I doubled up layers of ply, to get a nice 1-1/2" countertop thickness. I created the curves using different types of moulding. The white part is a pretty standard door casing. Clever.

Josh Ganshorn and Tom Brown. A winning team. In this photo, Josh is trying to burn Toms hand.



I don't know if this looks easy or not, but It's really a pain bending this stuff and making it stick correctly.

The final touch, the standard plastic trailer molding from Vintage Trailer Supply.

The finished bench, ready to install. What some people don't realize is that beyond the obvious benefits of a bench, it's really just a way to hide the wheel wells. Hence, the shallow depth in the lower portion. I tried to make the most out of every square inch, so I created the small but deep cubbies for books and sketch pads. The owner is an artist, after all.

The morning after drill. Tom and Josh load in the pieces. I think Andrew Benson is around here somewhere.

....And Voila. Ready for appliances. Notice the small opening where the fridge goes (on the right). It's the service access for the hot water heater.



The semi-symmetrical layout turned out pretty good. All these curves are sexy (and a pain-in-the-ass to create).