Homebuilt Teardrop Trailer 9: Galley Design (and Redesign)

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This post is part of a series documenting our homebuilt teardrop trailer, this post looks at the design (and redesign) of the teardrop trailer's kitchen area (or galley). Please scroll to the bottom of this post for links to previous articles.

It's funny; from Jamie's original vision for the trailer, it all ended up very close to what he had imagined… he talks about wishing the axle was moved further back, and we still haven't picked up fenders for it, but otherwise, it's surprisingly close.

The biggest single thing that doesn't match the original plan, however, is the galley design in the back of the trailer. We had kind of temporarily put it together, per our original plan, then came home from our first test campout and changed the whole thing and started over.

And now, a year later, I'm thrilled with our final design.

Originally, we had wanted to have both the stove and the cooler integrated into the trailer, on drawer slides, so that we could just pull them out and have the kitchen set up.

Teardrop Trailer Kitchen

You can see what the early plan was below:

The counter is a slab of butcher block counter that we got from a friend, and it's trimmed with solid poplar. We went with sliding cabinet doors up top so that they could be accessed without having to clear off the counters.

Originally, the cooler was going to live where it's show there, and slide out on a drawer with slides… you can see that below:

And then we planned to put cabinets and/or shelves on the left. We weren't entirely sure. So as I said, we went out on a one-night test run, and then came home and changed everything.

The cooler proved to be unwieldy and annoying, and we weren't happy with the stove placement.

We came home and scrapped everything under the counter. Jamie fabricated from scratch, but you could probably source upcycled cabinets that might work as well. We needed them to fit under our existing counter, so custom was the solution.

We've got a cabinet and drawer on the left, 3 drawers on the right. The center area is perfectly sized to fit an old milk crate that holds our stove and lanterns, so everything fits in, Tetris style.

We have a set of these amazing Coleman camping tables that are lifesavers when we're camping; they can be arranged in a number of ways and in different heights, so we use one as a stove table (at full height) and the second one usually ends up as a coffee table of sorts over by the campfire and our chairs, the perfect place to play a game or put your drink.

Conveniently, our cooler fits perfectly under the table, so we are able to keep it separate from our drinks and snacks cooler; like having the kitchen fridge close at hand, having the cooler right there is fantastic. (Yes, that's a Coleman portable oven on the counter. It fits on top of the stove. Cookies, anyone?)

We're also much happier with this solution, because it allows tons more flexibility for figuring out the specifics of our kitchen layout, depending on the specific site where we happen to be. (Another plug for a random product, we love this trash bag holder for camping! It's the little things, right?)

I can't believe we're almost done with these posts! Thanks for sticking with me, I really appreciate it. 🙂

Next post: Exterior Aluminum Skin

Previous posts: Planning & Framing | Walls & Interior Skin | Galley Counter & Flooring | Insulation | Interior Ceiling & Fan | Exterior Wood Skin & Sealant | Hatch Construction | Child's Hammock Bed