Best Campervan Ideas for your DIY Van Conversion
Converting a camper van isn't for the faint-hearted, especially if this is your first project needing carpentry skills. Read this blog for our best campervan ideas based on our favourite features in our campervan. We spent 537 days living full-time in our van so we have had some good use out of these features and can hand-on-heart say how good they are.
You will be surprised with what you’re capable of, so if you’re on the fence about doing your own van conversion, you should go for it.
Table of Contents
Best Campervan Ideas
1. Cube Storage Boxes
This storage was the best way to use the space we had in the van between our cupboards and the wheel arches. We made use of pre-made cube storage boxes, which is a great tip, you don’t need to make everything from scratch in your campervan conversion if there is something that will do the job! They maximise the space and offer us a great solution for storage, we use these boxes for everything from undies to cables and technology. They’re a great addition to living in a tiny space. You may wonder how we manage to keep the boxes in place and we use a simple bit of rope pulled tight across the boxes to keep them in place. We have never had any issues, apart from when we forget to secure the rope, oops.
2. Pull Out Fridge
Positioned beneath the cooking surface, our fridge pulls out on heavy-duty runners, ensuring convenient access. We have a fridge that opens at the top, so it was important we could pull it out to easily access the contents. It also means that we can easily pull the van out if we have any worries about it overheating in the summer months.
3. Pull Out Sofa/Bed
Our pull out sofa bed is another thing we are so glad we have in our campervan conversion. The sofa position is ideal for the daytime or when it rains, when you don’t want to still be lying in bed but you want a comfy seat. Many people choose to have their beds width ways but this wasn’t possible due to Harry being 6ft3 and unable to fit lying down that way. In the end we were really glad that we didn’t have a permanent bed and it really doesn’t take much time to make and put the bed away. This is a great campervan idea if you are also tall or if you just don't want a permanent bed.
After building the frame that bulls out we bought a memory foam mattress off Facebook. We tailored it down to the right size and made some durable fabric protectors to cover them and voila. This bed and the mattress have lasted us for well over a year of full-time van life so we are pretty happy with what we made. In fact, Harry finds this set up comfier than his bed at home.
4. Magnetic Latches
A game-changer for your DIY campervan conversion, these latches prevent items from shifting during travel, offering peace of mind and minimising potential mess when driving. When travelling in a campervan, you move your home around all the time and it can be easy to forget those little things you need to prepare before driving, however, with these latches you don’t need to worry because every time you close your cupboards, they are secure.
While you want heavy duty latches to ensure your cupboards stay close, you also need to consider whether your door is strong enough to pull and release the magnets without giving way. The ones we used in our campervan have a pulling strength of 20kg.
5. Pull Out Cooker
Perhaps the best campervan idea, this cooking setup slides out from the main counter, allowing for outdoor cooking with heavy-duty runners ensuring stability.
We absolutely love this for many reasons, Harry is pretty tall so its much more ideal for him to be able to cook outside rather than be hunched over in the van. When the weather is good, we are able to cook while socialising with new friends and enjoy the beautiful evenings.
The best part about this setup is that we have the option to cook inside or outside depending on the weather, which is ideal because we wouldn’t want to be stuck outside cooking in the rain!
We hope that our favourite feature provide you with some campervan ideas for your own DIY van conversion and shows that you can come up with innovative solutions for your tiny space. As we said, we lived full-time in our van for over a year and there isn’t much we would have changed about the van features.
