Making the dinette seat comfortable

The curvature of the van wall makes for a rather uncomfortable back rest. LTV supplied a 3 foot cushion that doubles as the bed in the center but it doesn't give good back support at a comfortable angle.  Item 4 in my list.

Dye pot for pillow covers

• I found a 2'x2' wedge pillow at Bed,Bath & Beyond that solves the back rest problem very nicely and a nice square sham in a color to match my van seats.  The only problem is the sham doesn't really fit the pillow.  I can slip the thin top edge in but the bottom just hangs.
• Bed,Bath & Beyond also sells a white cotton fitted cover for the wedge pillow so I picked up it up to have another cover.  
• I wasn't very happy with having the white bottom side showing so I got some forest green fabric dye and dyed both of the covers.  By diluting the dye by 3 times the recommended amount, I got a color close to the moss green seats in the van.  The zipper is very white, but it looks a lot better to have the pillow match the rest of the van.  I used a green sharpie to color the white zipper on the side where it is visible. The bottom being visible might be a moot point after I put in the bed boxes.  
• Dying took all afternoon, mostly spent in rinsing it.  Then it took about 4 times in the washer to get it all rinsed and washed.  The color was significantly lighter than when it went into the washer but that made it a better match for the van colors.



Finished back rest pillow

• The 2 foot wide seat is pretty comfortable now and once the bed box is in, it will also give me a nice arm rest.  I should be able to put my feet up on the opposite bench which will have a low table top on it.

I purchased a Lagun table mount to replace the dinette table and center post mount with something more space efficient and flexible.  I have it mounted opposite the dinette seat.  Item 3 in my list.

Lagun table mount

The top swings easily 360 degrees or in my case 240 degrees making it very easy to move in place and out of the way when I get up.  It is also easily moved up or down for different heights.

An actual table gets screwed into the top piece.  The table mount easily disassembles into 3 pieces and the vertical post can be slid into the table top for moving and storage.  The making of the table top will be in a future post.