A campervan is a vehicle that has been converted into a living space. It can be used to house a family of four or five, or it can be used as a mobile office. There are many different layouts and designs.
Campervan layouts are an essential part of the design process. Numerous considerations need to be made before beginning construction of your own campervan.
The difficulty, though, will be in designing the inside of your campervan. Does it come with any kind of assurance that it will live up to your expectations? What steps can I take to ensure the greatest amount of convenience?
This article will guide you through the process of designing the interior layout of your campervan based on your own preferences and requirements.
Campervan Layouts and Design Essentials
The process of designing campervan layouts may be fascinating. To design the ideal campervan for your requirements, you will need to put a lot of effort into research, planning, and imagination. On the other hand, it’s not always easy to figure out where to begin.
Identify Your Objectives
Consider your intended uses for the vehicle before making any campervan layouts and design decisions.
Spending time in the great outdoors to get some work done? If so, a nice, cosy workstation can be a need.
Boondocking? A bathroom with a toilet and a shower may be required, so plan accordingly.
Moving covertly? Instead of investing in solar panels and a refrigerator, you might use a huge cooler.
Check Out Some Inspiring Interior Details
Spend some time perusing other people’s creations so you may obtain a sense of the style that appeals to you. Instagram and Youtube are fantastic places to look for ideas while constructing a van.
There is no guarantee that an artistic construction is fit for permanent human habitation just because an artist made it.
Put the Van Way of Life to the Test
You can’t expect perfection on the first attempt, but a trial run in the van will give you a head start on your new way of life. For a few nights, use it as your home, just like you would if you lived out of a van.
After a short period of time in the real world, you may find that your priorities are different from what you first thought they would be.
Lease a Van
You may lease a conversion even before you purchase a van. It’s a good idea to check out the lifestyle for a few weekends and a few different automobiles if you can afford it.
That will help you differentiate between the features you desire and the features you need in a car.
Needs vs Wants
Once your imagination runs wild with all the potential uses for your creation, it’s time to focus on the nuts and bolts of making it a reality. Put these concerns to the test:
- The number of passengers. (How many sleepers are required?)
- Is travelling for business in your future?
- Is there going to be a bathroom facility on board?
- Have you thought of installing a sink?
- Is a bath or shower planned?
- How big is your water storage tank?
- Is indoor/outdoor cooking more your speed, or do you plan to do both?
- Is there a need for a location to store propane as well as a venting system for it?
- How much room would you want for clothing and other personal items?
Then, create a list of the significant things that you want to include in your construction, including but not limited to the following:
- Refrigerator or icebox
- Table / desk
- The bathroom, the sink, or the shower
- Stove / oven
- Propane tanks
- Water storage
- Mattress
- Equipment such as skis, surfboards, mountain bikes, etc.
Taking the Van’s Interior Measurements
Once you have a vehicle, you may first start your campervan layouts by obtaining the approximate dimensions. If you need to know how big your vehicle is, measuring it yourself is usually faster and more accurate than looking it up online.
Your measurements are just approximations; do not expect them to be precise. Some vehicles include very noticeable curves and are clearly not square boxes.
Create a Plan for Your Home’s Interior
First, sketch out your car’s floor using a piece of graph paper. Get the dimensions as near as you can without making them perfect.
Put stickers on the vehicle to indicate where the windows and doors are.
Putting Stuff Down
Your bed and mattress are likely to be the biggest single items in your bedroom, so it’s crucial that you get them just right.
The location of utilities such as electricity, gas, and water is also crucial. For obvious reasons, you should position your propane tanks close to an exit (or provide a vent to the outdoors).
Remember: A cargo hitch is a fantastic place to keep propane tanks, which frees up valuable inside space.
- Batteries, charge regulators, and inverters are all potentially dangerous if placed too close to a fuel source.
- The inverter has to be easily accessible so that it may be turned off when not in use (unless you have a remote).
- For optimal performance, provide at least 2–3 inches of clearance around the vent area of your 12v refrigerator.
- Maintain easy access to at least one water container from inside the car.
- Use trailer hitches and roof racks if you aren’t trying to blend in.
- The optimum airflow from a vent fan is achieved when it is placed away from a window.
- Get creative and see if you can connect as many things as possible. A bed may serve as a sofa or office chair. There are many creative ways to incorporate toilets and garbage cans into furniture.
Adding Interior Drawers and Shelving
The storage space available in your car, van, or truck may be significantly increased by installing long sliding drawers or other storage solutions.
Store your tools in stackable, portable containers for convenience in relocation and rearrangement.
Payload
When doing your campervan layouts and designs, many people overlook weight. Every vehicle’s owner’s handbook has a max payload; don’t exceed it. The van’s cargo includes liquids, gear, and people.
Overloading reduces vehicle longevity and is dangerous. We suggest weighing your car before building, so you know how much weight you have. People overbuild their cars with wood, tile, and granite worktops.
Distribution of Weight
It would help if you thought about the cargo and how to disperse the weight throughout the structure. You’ll get better gas economy and less uneven tyre wear if you do this.
Heavy items like water tanks, batteries, and a fully stocked fridge can take up a lot of space in your van. If at all feasible, you should position the items on different sides of the car.
You’ll have greater control on the icy mountain roads if you keep your heavy items low to the ground, which lowers the vehicle’s centre of gravity.
Modeling the Innards in 3D
Using a 3D modelling application to create a representation of your campervan might provide you with a fresh viewpoint of how it could seem from various vantage points.
Put Your Campervan Layouts and Design to the Test
After you’ve settled on a possible design, the following step is to put it to the test. Get a roll of cheap painter’s tape and use it to make marks on the floor and walls of your vehicle to indicate where you want to place bulky items.
Even if you do not have a car right now, you can accomplish this without leaving the convenience of your residence.
The amount of available space may come as a pleasant shock to you.
Some individuals construct cardboard mockups of the items in advance to better visualise how their future cabinets and seats would look.
Give yourself permission to abandon your first strategy and begin anew from scratch.
Decorating Your Campervan
Find motivation, such as these space-saving design ideas. Use light colours for painting to make the space inside feel bigger. To better mix with the outside, wood panelling or shiplap might be an option.
Ways to Make a Campervan Seem More Like a Second Home?
Include homey touches like throw cushions, a comfortable blanket, and family photographs in the space. To maintain a cosy atmosphere in the room, look for hues and tones with a warm undertone.
Instead of sleeping bags, you could use linen and a nice mattress. Maintaining order in your environment will result in less chaos.
Conclusion
When it comes to campervan layouts, your needs are different from other people’s. You might want a kitchen, dorm beds, or access to the roof. Making sure you have adequate space for your bed, storage, sitting, and cooking area is crucial when planning the designs of your campervan layouts.
