Bed, Closets/Storage & Garage
Ok, so you’ve designed the layout of your van, and you’ve added your floor, walls and ceiling. Things are starting to take shape!
The next step on your van conversion is to work on your bedroom area — where you’ll sleep and build storage for all your belongings. A lot of this is self-explanatory, but we wanted to share a few hints and tips to help you on your build.
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Table of Contents
Ways to use the most of your van garage – the space underneath your fixed bed platform (if you have one).
Van Bed
Getting a good bed that you love isn’t just important to #vanlife, it’s important for life, period. Frankly, you might not get great sleep when you first start vanlife (is someone knocking on my window? Why is a siren going by?). So ensuring you have a comfortable bed that gets you energized for the next morning is highly underrated.
If you have a pull-out bed, you won’t have many mattress options since you’re likely using a futon mattress. However, there are a few futon mattresses with springs in them, which might be a better option long-term.
If you have a stationary bed like we do, then you can use a standard mattress in your van. Your main decision here is what size of mattress to get and whether you should choose a spring or foam mattress.
We nearly went with a queen-size bed, but decided on a full size instead. Boy are we glad! It has enough room for both of us, and any bigger would just mean less storage space. If you’re solo van dwelling, a single bed will give you a ton of extra space in your van.
As for spring versus foam mattresses, we’re on team foam but also like hybrids. We like the feel of them, the price, and the fact that they can slightly “bend” around any curves in your van (at least a lot more than a rigid spring mattress). You can also physically cut you foam mattress if you’re fitting it to a custom space.
There are a ton of online foam mattress companies you can try, and we’re pretty sure all of them have a free trial period. Check out Purple, Layla, Tuft & Needle, Avocado, and Casper for a lot of different choices. Of course, standard mattress stores are great to test them as well. Pro-tip: check out Mattress Firm — they have a 30-day period where you can test out mattresses and return them for another; even better, you can return them at any of their locations nationwide, which means you can travel and test out mattresses as you go until you find one you love.
One last tip: some people put an air-flow underliner beneath the mattress to reduce any condensation and mold from forming. We haven’t had any condensation beneath ours, but this is an easy way to stop it if you do.
Bonus: we have our bed placed over the rear wheel-wells of our van. Since mattresses (especially foam) are thick and absorb noise, they reduce a lot of road noise while we drive. We noticed a big difference in the sound of our van when we put the mattress in!
Another bonus: if you’re planning to van around in cold climates, note that a foam mattress gets more stiff in the winter (at least until your body warms it up). You might want to grab a 12V heated blanket to stay warm during really cold nights!
Van Closet / Storage
Storage is pretty self-explanatory for your van space, but we’ve got a few tips below to help you think about what’s best for your design. We’ll share what storage we built in our van & where we store everything to give you an idea for how to design yours.
Planning out how much storage you’ll need in your van, where to put it, and what type of storage you’ll build are important things to consider when designing your van. You want to make sure you have enough storage for all your things, but not too much that you end up with empty cabinets.
The best way to prepare how much space you’ll need is to lay out everything you’re planning to bring in the van. Making a pile of your clothes, kitchen items, toiletries, and gear can really put in perspective just how much – or how little – storage you’ll need to build in.
But don’t sweat it — if you don’t build enough, you can always add more later. And if you do end up with empty cabinets, you can always choose to remove them. That’s the beauty of converting your own van: you can customize it exactly how you need it, and update it as your lifestyle changes.
We installed three types of storage in our van: closets, overhead cabinets, and countertop cabinets.
We built closets on the side of our van next to our stationary bed for our clothes, dirty laundry, and bulkier household items like paper towels. We used 1/2” plywood for it all, and painted the walls/shelves and stained the doors. We put in a closet rod in the back for hanging jackets and nicer clothes, too. We’d recommend getting a tough latch for the doors — you don’t want them opening while you drive.
We also built overhead storage spaces along the driver-side wall and ceiling. These are great for lighter-weight items: dry food; plates, bowls, and mugs; board games and books; and office supplies. They’re particularly good for small things that would be annoying to put in a large drawer. We used 1/2” plywood for these, painted them white, stained the cabinet doors, and used magnetic door catches to keep them latched.
Finally, we have cabinets beneath the countertop that we purchased from Wayfair. The original countertop came with two top drawers and three doors, but we removed two of the doors and installed four drawers of 1/2” plywood instead. We use the top two sliding drawers for silverware, utensils, and spices. We use the four larger drawers for pots and pans, canned food & other heavy food, coffee gear and water boiler, and our garbage & recycling. These drawers need a heavy-duty latch so they don’t fly open while we drive, so we use these strong latches with great success. The door on the right is where we store our pressurized jerry can for water as well as a fire extinguisher and bear spray.
You’ve got an endless amount of options for what type and how much storage you want to build in your van, but try to make as best an educated guess as you can to how much space you’ll really need. Clothes, food, and kitchen appliances take up the most storage, but you’ll need more depending on what you’re deciding to bring with you.
Van Garage
If you decided to install a garage in your van, we’ve got a few tips to make the most of your space. Odds are you installed it to house some big gear, so you want to make sure you make the most of your space!
Our first tip is to install a slide or two to make everything more accessible. You don’t want to have to pull out boxes and boxes of gear to grab the bag in the back — you want to be able to easily get what you need. Consider adding a slide for your mountain bikes, your skis, or even your boxes of gear.
We installed a ski slide in our van so that we could easily pull our skis out of the back, even if it’s dumping snow and we’re in a hurry to close the door. The perks: it has a waterproof bottom to catch all the snow and water that drips off the skis. It’s space-efficient since we stack our skis vertically. And of course, the slides make our skis accessible so we don’t have to move things around to grab the skis. This is the only slide we built in our van, but we might add another later to easily pull out totes of gear.
Our second tip is to buy large containers for your gear so you can easily pull them out and store like-minded things together. A container store has a ton of options for custom sizes, different materials, and different colors. They can be especially helpful for storing smaller items together, too. Read up on Kon Mari to make your storage practical and not a chaotic mess (unless you live for the chaos).
Our third tip is to use hooks and shoe storage hangers to make clever use of space in the garage. This is great for smaller items you don’t use often or things like electrical cord and climbing ropes.
It’s easy for your garage to become an organized mess of less-used gear. But by using totes and slides, you’ll help ensure everything is accessible and easy to find, which is much easier than unloading the back and digging around in a parking lot with all your gear out for everyone to see.
In Summary
We hope this post on choosing your bed and storage options was helpful in guiding you toward the best options for your build. Storage in particular can be a frustrating decision: it’s self-explanatory, but with so many options for how much and what kind of storage to build, it can be opaque. Remember: it’s better to make a plan and build it than get paralyzed — you can always update things later.
