THE CABINETS THREW US A CURVE

Our cabinetry plan called for a new sink-base cabinet and a cabinet/bench combo that would provide extra seating and storage without losing open space. In a house, those are simple projects. But unlike a house, our camper doesn’t have walls that are flat, straight and square; all the surfaces are curved. Building curved cabinets is a bit time consuming, but the simple tricks shown here make it doable for DIYers. The curved cabinets we built are unique in other ways too. They’re made largely from MDO, a material that’s been around for decades but is unfamiliar to most builders. The smooth, uniform surface makes it a great choice for painted cabinets and

doors. For the countertops, we chose Richlite, another old but unfamiliar material. We decided to paint our cabinets, mainly to brighten the camper’s interior and make it feel more open. But paint has other advantages too: Our old cabinets had taken a beating over the years and required a lot of wood filler. Unlike a natural wood finish such as stain and polyurethane, paint makes those repairs completely invisible. And since cabinets in a small space can be expected to suffer damage, paint will make our cabinets easier to touch up.