Control Panel Cover

[nicholasp1182]

My wife and I have just purchased a new Mini Lite 2509S. We love the layout with the murphy bed and bunks for kids. The only issue I see is that the control panel is on the panel just as you walk into the trailer and low enough for little ones to reach (I can already see my 2 year old powering the slides and awnings). Are there any suggestions on a nice cover to hide the control panel? We have the maple cabinets, it would be nice to have something that matched. Thanks!

[Bama Rambler]

If you have a cabinet door that's large enough that it would fit around the panel, you could buy a couple of them and cut the center out of one of them and stack them so the outer one would clear the switches and mount them over the panel. You could then find a latch that would match the rest of the hardware.

If the door was solid and didn't have a panel insert, you could buy one and have it routed out to clear the switches.

[DouglasReid]

I don't know where you live but a local Cabinet Shop may very well be able to make you one. Take another door for them to match and give them the dimensions of the hole.

Photographs of the control box with the door open and closed showing them what you are trying to do would be helpful to them as well.

They can even stain and finish it to match. And put some sort of locking mechanism in it for you.

[4x4FF]

All of my control buttons were exposed. I was worried about hitting one of the slide buttons in the dark. I was able to find a cabinet door that was pretty close to the size I needed on eBay of all places and built a frame out of a 1 x 3, mounted the frame around the switches and the cabinet door to the frame. The depth of the 1 x 3 have ample clearance for the switches.

Steve

[DouglasReid]

Originally Posted by 4x4FF

All of my control buttons were exposed. I was worried about hitting one of the slide buttons in the dark. I was able to find a cabinet door that was pretty close to the size I needed on eBay of all places and built a frame out of a 1 x 3, mounted the frame around the switches and the cabinet door to the frame. The depth of the 1 x 3 have ample clearance for the switches.

Steve

Sounds like a perfect solution. Were you able to get it stained or painted to match the other cabinet doors? DW would Never let me put it in unless it matched *S*
.

[4x4FF]

Originally Posted by DouglasReid

Sounds like a perfect solution. Were you able to get it stained or painted to match the other cabinet doors? DW would Never let me put it in unless it matched *S*
.

This particular door came pre finished and was close but not a perfect match. I finished the frame to match the door and since it is separated from the cabinets it looks just fine. I also installed 2 other doors on our cabinets to cover where our fireplace that broke was because I wanted the storage space. They came unfinished. I took the new doors along with an old door I took off to a Sherwin Williams and they were able to stain match it. I was very surprised as I found these doors on eBay too. While not a 100% match they are 98%. Close enough that unless you pointed it out nobody would notice. If you can live with 'close' you can save a LOT of money doing it this way. The first smaller prefinished door I think cost me $10. I think my real close to matching were in the neighborhood of $10-15 a piece.

Steve