Seating

Probably one of the more commonly done RV mods. Lots of people replace the dinette with a pair of recliners, or some other comfortable seating that suits their needs.

We do not have a slide so we were limited to what could be used. We just removed the cushions and mounted a pair of gaming chairs to the plywood base of the dinette using pipe clamps. They work very well and we still have complete access below for storage.
We can sit in them for many hours at a time. We added a cushion of memory foam that we had but the stock chair works well enough. They work fine with the stock table.
Just replace the cushions when you sell the rv and the new owner has the option for recliners and/or a dinette bed.
We removed the armrest of one side, it just unscrews. Easier to get in/out.

Sold on Amazon $99.
Best Choice Products Multipurpose 360-Degree Swivel Gaming Floor Chair for TV, Reading, Playing w/Lumbar Support, Armrest Handles, Foldable Adjustable Backrest -

This link shows pics of the chairs we used.
Alfinus chair

This guy knows what he's talking about and his videos are decently made. This one in particular shows how he replaced the dinette with recliners.

His dinette was in a slide, but that isn't really relevant.

My dinette is a funky half-moon shape and sticks out way too far in the walkway. I don't expect to ever need to sleep 2 people on it. First thing I'm going to do is take out the table, and the huge space wasting back cushions, and replace the back cushions with normal rectangular cushions. If that's not satisfactory, I'll tear out the whole thing and put in a homebuilt custom sized sofa, similar to this plan.


The downside of removing the dinette in a small RV is that you lose the table surface, which is handy when cooking. You also lose the storage in the seats. That's why I plan to make an open-frame sofa with the space for storage bins underneath.

Gaming chairs? Good idea.

Lwiddis wrote:
Gaming chairs? Good idea.

Tnx. I have to thank my DW on that one.

Regular recliners with footrests would not fit in a non slide rv. The footrest would bang into the kitchen sink and stove. I have one of those horse shoe dinettes but i guess that doesn't matter, 8’ wide is 8’ wide. The chairs we got are very comfy and at $99 each, they were affordable to experiment with.

Our Dinette to Theater Seat Conversion in our non-slide dining/kitchen area.

When in full recline position, there's only about a foot between the footrests and the kitchen cabinets. However, it's very rare that anyone is preparing a meal when someone else is fully reclined. If so, they set in the forward seat which leaves the area around the sink/stove/fridge free.

It can be a bit tight, but for us, we'd rather have a shorter unit and work with the limited space. For others, this simply wouldn't be sufficient room.

Bruce just beat me to his dinette conversion

Thanks everyone.

We dealt with a very uncomfortable dinette in a different manner.

Here is our original dinette with the original thicker & softer uncomfortable fabric-covered cushions.


Here is the same dinette, but with thinner and very dense cushions. The vinyl covering made a huge improvement allowing for easy entry/exit and also easy weight-shifting. The thinner more dense cushions also improved elbow room. I slept on the dinette setup as a bed a few nights when I fell ill on one trip. It was very comfortable sleeping.


We love having a comfortable dinette. Having theater seating as others have done would be more comfortable yet, but the table is critical for us. We lived without a dinette for 24 years in our previous motor home and would never go back to that again.

All great ideas here. Thanks to all , as I have been thinking about this since our kids have all grown up and now just the 2 of us. I think I am going to go the new dense foam and new "easy slide over" covers, as we want to keep the dinette set up ..