DIY Laminate Countertops

We DIY’d countertops for our camper van conversion using ½” Baltic Birch Plywood with a Formica laminate top. We coated the exposed plywood edges with Polyurethane to protect from moisture, and overall love the cleanability of the laminate top.

After building our cabinet frames, we took exact measurements of the countertop space, cut-out for the oven, and added 1/2″ inch for a countertop overhang.

Step one was to cut the shape of the countertops out of our plywood. The cutout for the stove was straight forward, being rectilinear.

Considering that this will be a tight space, we decided to round the countertop corners that are exposed, which we did with a jigsaw and some sanding. Prior to making the sink cutout and applying the laminate, we test fitted the countertops onto our cabinets:

If you have a top-mount sink, a rough cut with a jigsaw for the sink is adequate. We installed an undermount sink (mounted under the countertop instead of on top of the countertop),which means the cut would be visible so we wanted it perfect.

The best guarantee of a perfect cutout on our countertop was to make use of a CNC machine. This involved creating a computer drawing that the CNC machine would use to create the cut. We were lucky to have Nadia’s brother and dad helping to create this file and set up the machine for cutting.

Here is a shot of the CNC machine in action. The spinning bit continues along the computer drawn path until it reaches the other side of the plywood, and we have a cutout:

The first step for installing the plastic laminate was to cut the large sheet to size. Luckily we didn’t have to be too precise, since we would be routing any overhanging plywood.

Attaching the laminate to the plywood was relatively straight forward but required some delicacy. We used a contact cement, and spread it out over both the plywood top and the back of the plastic laminate. It’s called cement for a reason – once the adhesive touches, it’s not going anywhere, so we had one shot to do it right!

We laid down wooden dowels onto the plywood in order to position the plastic laminate (any sort of spacer would work here). We removed the dowels one by one, pushing the laminate down as we went. Finally, we used a roller to apply pressure all over and seal the deal!

Once the adhesive was dry, we took the router with a flush trim bit to the edges for a perfect finish.

Though we used polyurethane to seal the majority of our exposed plywood countertop edges, we wanted something more heavy duty and waterproof at the sink, where water exposure is guaranteed. To do this, we used an epoxy resin (XTC-3D) on the plywood edge at the sink. We mounted the sink from below, and used clear caulking where the sink met the countertop to be extra safe.

We used 1” corner braces in order to secure the finished countertops to the cabinet frames. In terms of the order of operation, we installed the sink (a 14″ stainless steel sink we found at Goodwill for $10) while the countertop was still loose so that we could easily screw in the sink from the bottom. Be sure to size screws correctly, would hate for a long screw to poke up through the beautiful new countertop!

(This picture is after our faucet was installed. After living in the van for a month, we added the soap dispenser).