Come to a bit of a halt with the rear stuff, so in frustration I've started the front seat.
I want to hide the cooker and a large worksurface/chopping board/whatever in the back of the seat. This is as far as the design has got. I just have a philosospy as I go along that the more I can hide the better, to use up the small spaces for small stuff and work out what to do with the big spaces when I see what I've got. So far I've got all the space under the bed and all the space under this seat still left. Pretty pleased with that seeing as I have 5 drawers, 2 deep and 2 shallow top lid cupboards and a crappy tray. So...
Because the seat back will slope a bit for comfort, there's naturally more space the lower down you go. I want to keep the back as narrow as I can to max the leg room between the seats, so it makes sense to get the cooker as low as possible so as to minimise the thickness of the back. Also I would like the back when in cooking mode, to overlap the base in case of spillage. I realised that I could gain 100mm worksuface depth by continuing the back board down behind the seat foam, but that to clear the seat cushion in cook mode I needed the hinges to raise it 100mm while it swang down.
Trial and error with bits of thin ply and panel pins and I ended up with these. They are a pair, but I've put one in each position in the pic. Welds to clean and yes they look a bit rough, but you'll barely see them and I'll paint them of course.
And here's an end panel that will hide the hinges and the ends of the seat, the backrest, cooker and stuff + another roller blind. It doesn't stick out very far because the corner of the base will be rounded around one of the 2 gas bottles I'll stash under here. The cooker in the pic is the one I'll use - a bit chipped but I like enamel and it has a grill. It's from a Dormobile. It'll be at the back of the surface when it hinges down, so I'll make it swing up and forwards so I can use the grill. If i manage to get completely carried away, I'll also make it slide out so I can cook outside. But this will be very difficult with the weight of boiling saucepans cantilevered on sliding runners, so maybe not.
I haven't worked this out yes, but the design I've come up with so far has taken the possiblity for all this into consideration - I've been pondering this for months! The rest of the stuff is just mocking up while I worked out and tested the hinges. I need some more plywood but the wood yard is shut until the 3rd.
I want to hide the cooker and a large worksurface/chopping board/whatever in the back of the seat. This is as far as the design has got. I just have a philosospy as I go along that the more I can hide the better, to use up the small spaces for small stuff and work out what to do with the big spaces when I see what I've got. So far I've got all the space under the bed and all the space under this seat still left. Pretty pleased with that seeing as I have 5 drawers, 2 deep and 2 shallow top lid cupboards and a crappy tray. So...
Because the seat back will slope a bit for comfort, there's naturally more space the lower down you go. I want to keep the back as narrow as I can to max the leg room between the seats, so it makes sense to get the cooker as low as possible so as to minimise the thickness of the back. Also I would like the back when in cooking mode, to overlap the base in case of spillage. I realised that I could gain 100mm worksuface depth by continuing the back board down behind the seat foam, but that to clear the seat cushion in cook mode I needed the hinges to raise it 100mm while it swang down.
Trial and error with bits of thin ply and panel pins and I ended up with these. They are a pair, but I've put one in each position in the pic. Welds to clean and yes they look a bit rough, but you'll barely see them and I'll paint them of course.
And here's an end panel that will hide the hinges and the ends of the seat, the backrest, cooker and stuff + another roller blind. It doesn't stick out very far because the corner of the base will be rounded around one of the 2 gas bottles I'll stash under here. The cooker in the pic is the one I'll use - a bit chipped but I like enamel and it has a grill. It's from a Dormobile. It'll be at the back of the surface when it hinges down, so I'll make it swing up and forwards so I can use the grill. If i manage to get completely carried away, I'll also make it slide out so I can cook outside. But this will be very difficult with the weight of boiling saucepans cantilevered on sliding runners, so maybe not.
I haven't worked this out yes, but the design I've come up with so far has taken the possiblity for all this into consideration - I've been pondering this for months! The rest of the stuff is just mocking up while I worked out and tested the hinges. I need some more plywood but the wood yard is shut until the 3rd.
