One of the biggest differences between our first and second van builds, besides a toilet, was the van kitchen set-up needed to be ready for full-time living. After two van builds and two boat galley renovations, we’ve learned a lot about small kitchen set-ups, and with this build, we wanted a gourmet kitchen in our tiny home, and we prioritized it in both space and budget allocations!
Drawers Over Cabinets
The first thing we did in this build to make the kitchen space as functional as possible was to primarily use drawers instead of cabinets. When done well, drawers are a much better use of space than cabinets because they allow you to use more vertical space. They also give you a much better visual of what you have, and make it easier to reach things.
In our van, we have five drawers dedicated to the kitchen and two cabinets. We also built our largest drawers so that they could handle the weight of canned and dry goods. The drawers are so much easier to see and retrieve items than the cabinets, and we’ve actually considered adding a slider to our “breadbox” cabinet because it’s such a pain to reach items in the back.
Refrigerator
One of my biggest complaints about our previous van was how small the fridge was. And one of my biggest complaints about our boat kitchens is having top loaded fridge and freezers. So with this build we chose to allot a decent amount of space to have a front load and larger fridge.
We settled on the RecPro 4.4 Cubic Feet 12V Refrigerator. This fridge holds so much food! It is really consistent with temperatures in both the fridge and freezer areas and we have packed it full. We also have had no issues with ice buildup, but I will say that we’ve spent most of our time in drier climates.
We’ve also found that it is pretty efficient. Drawing closer to 5A when the compressor is running vs the 13A listed in the specs as rated current.
Our one complaint about the RecPro 4.4 Cubic Feet refrigerator is that it didn’t come with mounting hardware. Andy was able to 3D print some brackets that hold the feet in place and keep it from sliding. We’ve made the print file for those brackets available in our store.
If you are considering purchasing the RecPro refrigerator, you can use our discount code ABRTRVL to get 5% off your purchase.
Induction Cooktop
When designing this van kitchen we knew that we wanted to go fully electric with our appliances. This meant finding an induction cooktop that would work with our planned 2000W inverter. We originally thought we would want a double burner cooktop, but after measuring, we found that a single burner was going to fit our planned space best.
We went with the Nuwave 8″ Heating Coil Induction Cooktop, and we love it. The precision temperatures are great, and it cools down fast so we are able to store it soon after we finish cooking. It fits in our top drawer, so it is stowed when not in use, and that gives us more counter space when we are prepping to cook.
Oven
We were on a mission to find the smallest, functional toaster oven possible for this build. We were originally set on being able to fit a 9″x13″ pan, but as soon as I saw the Our Place Wonder Oven I was in love. It is just so cute!
It is definitely on the small side and can only fit a 8″x8″ pan. But it makes up for its size with its power usage. Because the interior is so small, it doesn’t take very long to pre-heat (less than 2 minutes for 350), and it doesn’t have to run at full power to maintain those temperatures.
Our biggest complaint is with the bakeware that comes with the oven. The finish has worn pretty quickly, but we’ve been able to keep using them by using aluminum foil or parchment paper. Our Place also sells replacement bakeware, and they have a Baker’s Kit that has a muffin pan that fits in this little oven!
Small Appliances
With space at a premium, any additional small appliances must be multifunctional. Over the years we’ve really narrowed down what we use for small appliances and for the van we’ve narrowed it down even further. We use the following small appliances in the van:
- Breville Immersion Blender–This is the workhorse of our small kitchens. It functions as a blender and a food processor. It also has a hand mixer attachment that doesn’t get used very often but will work in a pinch for things like whipped cream. It doesn’t take up very much space, especially for how useful it is!
- Instant Pot Duo 7-1–This electric pressure cooker does it all! Pressure cooking, slow cooking and rice making are the primary ways we use it! One of our favorite things about using the Instant Pot is that we can release the heat outside of the van. So we can still cook a big meal, but not release a bunch of hot, moist air into our living space. The instant pot uses a lot of power on start up with pressure cooking but very little once it pressurizes.
- Blackstone 17inch Griddle–For outdoor cooking our blackstone is our number 1! It’s great for the usual grilling like burgers and hotdogs, but there is so much more you can do with it! Some of our favorites are fried rice, stir-fry, pancakes, and Philly-cheesesteaks!
And that’s it! We’ve found that just those to additional appliances give us a ton of flexibility with recipes that are available to us!
Cookware and Tools
Just like with everything else in the van, when it comes to kitchen cookware and tools, space savings is the name of the game. Our favorite van kitchen cookware and tools:
- Sensarte 17 Piece Ceramic Pots and Pans–These pans are so great. They are incredibly easy to clean, the neatly stack in one another, and come with pads to set between each pan. My favorite part is how little space the lids take up. They also come with left over lids so you can just pop the whole pot in the fridge instead of dirtying a separate pan. And because of this these pots do double time as mixing bowls for us.
- Stacking Measuring Cups and Measuring Spoons–These sets have tiny little handles that really cut down on how much space they take up. And unlike the collapsible measuring cups they are durable.
- Magnetic Utensil Holder–This utensil holder stays put on the counter with a strong magnet, and keeps all those cooking utensils out of the drawers!
- Silicone Cooking Utensils–Silicone utensils don’t rattle when you are on the road and they don’t scratch non-stick surfaces! That’s a win-win in our book!
- Gneiss Spice Magnetic Spice Rack–This spice rack is one of my favorite kitchen items ever! The jars are magnetic and fit together perfectly with their hexagon design. The jars keep spices super fresh and are just plain old cute!
Dinnerware
The main features we were looking for with our van dinnerware was easy to clean and easy to stack. We were also trying to avoid melamine. And lastly we didn’t want anything that would rattle when we were on the road. I found this Grow Forward dinnerware set that checked all of our boxes! The colors are cute, they are easy to wash, and they stack really small! After a year of everyday use they are starting to show some scratches from knives but are still in great shape!
There isn’t much we would change about out van kitchen, and it has been a pleasure to cook in it over the last year! Like most things with our van we are really happy with how it turned out!
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