Once you have decided on the campervan of your dream and purchased it, it is now time to plan its interior and execute it accordingly. The most important part of making a van into a camper is designing its interior. You have to keep a lot of things in mind and it might get daunting at times.
In this post, we want to go over everything you need to know about how to design the interior of a camper van, from the inspiration behind it to the steps you should take and the programs you can use to make your design look more professional.
Create a camper that meets your needs.
To start making the van of your dreams, you first need to figure out what you want to use it for. For example, a campervan for a weekend trip is not the same as one for a month-long road trip. Not only that, but making a home for two people is very different from making a home for a family.
On the other hand, each person is unique, and each of us has our own needs and “individual expectations” to meet. What one person finds important may not be important to another. Think about the following questions for yourself:
How long are you going to be on the road? What are you going to use it for?
Living in your camper van is not the same as taking it out once for a weekend trip. The rules are very different. If you don’t plan to spend a lot of time in the van, it doesn’t matter how big it is in terms of space. However, it should be as big as possible if you are going to live in the van. This will help you to avoid stress.
How many people are you going to take on the trip?
In some cases, one or two beds, a row of seats (in front), and add a second row of seats in the back will be needed. If other people are going to be traveling with you, then you might want to think about installing a “detachable” bed in the room. Even though it’s less comfortable, it will save space.
What is your favorite way to get around?
Do you plan to spend a lot of time at campgrounds? Or are you going to spend a lot of the night alone? There are certain things that you’ll need to bring with you based on how you like to travel. If you are going camping, you need to find a place where the 220V connection system can be set up. Besides, if you plan to spend a lot of time alone, you need to be more self-sufficient. For example, you should have a bigger water tank and put a solar panel in your camper to get more power.
What is your choice for the bathroom?
Bathrooms can take up a lot of space in a camper van, especially if it isn’t very big. This will have a big impact on how the van looks. In this case, think about whether you need a separate bathroom area, or if an outdoor shower or folding shower with a chemical toilet will do.
How will you store clothes, shoes, and other personal belongings?
Of course, you’ll want to minimize as much as possible for your vanlife wardrobe, but some bulkier things are probable. You should also think about how accessible you want your ordinary products to be.
Step 1: Search for Ideas
We will look at the steps we need to take in order to get the design that is best for what we want.
Start by looking at other vans that are similar to your own and choosing which ideas or layout pieces you like best from each one. This is a great way to get started. Even if you feel a little lost, it can be beneficial. It’s not about copying, but rather about getting ideas and inspiration from a lot of different vans and making a “collage” of the parts that you like the best from each one. Then, you can make the ultimate van from that combination.
And where do you get those ideas from?
There are a lot of places online to look for ideas for your van layouts.
The Internet and social media networks are always a great source of ideas and inspiration for people to use.
- Pinterest is always a good place to look for design ideas when you need them.
- Instagram couldn’t be left out of the celebration of #VanLife. The algorithm looks for ideas by looking for hashtags like #campervanconversion, #vanlifeideas, and #vanlifelayout, among other things.
- Make sure you don’t forget about YouTube and its “VanTours” videos, as well as other online sources.
- You can also read various blogs that can help you in this matter.
Step 2: Figure out the size of the vehicle.
The next step to follow is to figure out how much space there is inside of the van. The more precise it is, even though you don’t need to measure each millimetre one by one, the better it is for you.
If you can, try to figure out the object’s size in terms of its length, width, and height. It’s important to think about the features and edges of your van as well. The wheel arch, for example, takes up a lot of space inside many vans. At some point throughout the design process, it is necessary to take this into consideration.
Step 3: Initial sketch on paper
Then, after you’ve come up with some ideas and figured out the space inside your van it’s time to act on them. If you start with a drawing, we always recommend working on paper because it helps you record ideas quickly and make changes while you’re working.
This step is all about making a drawing that shows the main idea, but doesn’t go into specifics. And don’t worry if you can’t draw very well; there will be a lot of time to make blueprints and more professional designs with the 3D design tools we’ll talk about next.
You might be able to see how the furniture will look inside the van if you use cardboard boxes as templates. You have to go through a lot of steps to do this, but it will remove any uncertainty about how distribution will be done in the future.
There are programs that can help you make a camper van.
You can visualize at the finished camperization in a 3D model, which is more realistic than seeing the design on paper. The end result is much more professional and appealing: it looks like the van in which we are going to camp has come to life (at least on the screen, of course).
We’ll go over the main programs that can be used to make a 3D design for a camper, like SketchUp and Maya.
VanSpace 3D is the best program for making camper designs.
With VanSpace 3D you can create a 3D model, which is more realistic than seeing the design on paper. The end result is much more professional and appealing: it looks like the van in which we are going to camp has come to life (at least on the screen, of course).
People who go camping might find the application interesting, because it comes with a lot of templates for vans and other things (like furniture), which makes it easy to choose the one that fits your van and drag the parts into it.
It is possible to make very “attractive” designs very quickly and easily with this tool. Even though it costs money to get your camper ready for camping, it’s worth the money if you want to get it done right. You can buy this software from the official website.
This program has many features that will help you to bring your ideas to life. You may also use their extensive documentation to help you with the design. The interface of the program is very intuitive and you would get the knack of it pretty soon.
AutoCad: The “professional” option.
AutoCad is likely to be familiar to anyone who has worked in the fields of architecture or engineering. It is the most widely used, most professional, and most complete design and modelling tool in the world right now. This software is mostly used for industrial design, but it can also be used to make 3D models of camper vans.
If you have used AutoCAD before, it might be a good idea to use it to make the final plans for your camper van. If you don’t, you’re out of luck. On the one hand, it costs a lot (although it has a 30-day trial version). It is hard to use as it has a very steep learning curve. The worst part is that you will have to learn it for a few weeks before you even use it to make a design for your camper. In my opinion it is not worth it if you are using it for the first time and only want to design your camper.
If you don’t want to pay for Adobe Illustrator, you can use SketchUp instead.
SketchUp is a free (though there are paid versions) and more general alternatives to Photoshop. With this popular 3D modeling software, you can make any kind of design you can think of (not just camper vans).
Besides the desktop version, there is also an online version that doesn’t need any software or plug-ins to be downloaded. Sketchup also has a good collection of designs that have been made and shared by the community and other users. You can use these designs as a starting point for your own design.
Step 4: Take safety into consideration.
When designing the arrangement of your new house on wheels, safety should be at the top of your priority list.
After all, it’s a moving vehicle, and because it’s a compact place, there are added considerations and safeguards.
To ensure your safety when driving or sleeping in your vehicle, you should:
- Place your cooking area (most notably your cooking gas or propane tank) near a door or ventilation system. To conserve space, you may keep your backup gas outside the vehicle, but the one you’re actively using should always have ventilation to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning.
- Keep any electrical systems away from fuel or cooking gas tanks. These may include, but are not limited to, your auxiliary battery, solar power converters, charge controllers, and other similar devices.
- Plan 1-2 inches of additional space around the vent of your refrigerator or fridge/freezer combo to keep it running at peak efficiency.
- To achieve the optimum air flow, position your air vent or fan as far away from the window or sunlight as possible.
- Place your power inverter somewhere you can quickly access it so you can turn it off when not in use. This will assist you in saving power and lowering your carbon impact. If you have a remote-powered inverter, you may place it wherever you want as long as you maintain the batteries in your remote charged!
We hope that some of the concepts we mentioned in this post will be of use to you as you create your van plan. With so much to consider and plan for, we found the process of brainstorming and strategizing to be quite enjoyable and productive.
Take your time and list the things of van life that are most important to you on your paper. We believe that if you do your study, you will walk away with your very own spectacular van plan and construction!
Related Link: Kev’s Travel and Van Life Essentials
