Safety kit for the van

Van safety is cool yo!

I recommend having a gas leak detector, a carbon monoxide detector and a fire extinguisher at minimum.

I put my Carbon Monoxide detector under the chair.

My fire extinguisher has it’s own little alcove – it feels out the way (but easily in reach) and does not affect the over all look of the van very much.

Fire extinguisher alcove

Again, get your systems checked by people who know what they are doing. Your life is worth it.

Get the Van Conversion Guide:

https://www.thevanconversionguide.com/

Installing a sound system in your van conversion

I looked in to fancy sound systems but it got fairly complicated and expensive; needing amplifiers, speakers, Bluetooth modules.. and honestly I do like music but adding this technology was going to cost about $500 if it is going to be good.

On top of that there is a space aspect, where will the speakers go.. where will they even look good.

In the end I decided not to bother. I did not really want to put in technology that might just go out of date – or require more maintenance.

The simple solution is simply some USB Bluetooth speakers. I think this is better for the following reasons;

• They can deliver great quality sound
• You can use them on your adventures
• Powered by USB – simple is always good!
• Can connect to your phone
• If it breaks – it does not affect the van build
• You can move it around the van as you wish
• If the technology goes out of date.. doesn’t matter

For me it was a relief not to have to think about an inbuilt sound system and this solution is by far better.

I got these Taotronic Bluetooth speakers and they work well:

I got them from Amazon here for about £40.

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Get the Van Conversion Guide: https://www.thevanconversionguide.com/

Bin & Door Light

The bin

I got this bin from Ikea.

It has a flap lid that stops odours escaping. It is not too big which means you will empty it often enough to stop it smelling too bad.

Simply I made this slot for it in the corner. I screwed a couple of blocks of wood in – tight to the bin. Now the bin push-fits in and does not move.

I do not tend to put big bits of rubbish in this bin – just finding a bin for them during the day. It is most used during cooking for food waste or other bits and pieces.

Bin in situ

The blocks that wedge the bin in to place.

Door light

I had a couple of spare LEDs due to an over-ordering mistake.

I decided to add a door light – basically a light by the door that you can easily switch on if you need to see in to the van. It has turned out to be a useful light for watching movies or other activities where the main lights can feel a bit bright.

Luckily, because I installed conduit, I was able to push another wire through (over the roof – which was now fully clad) and was able to have an independently controlled light.

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Get the Van Conversion Guide: https://www.thevanconversionguide.com/

Fabric panels and Side Lights

As I did not want to have the van fully looking like a sauna, and I wanted to create a separation between the kitchen and sleeping area, I decided to have these fabric covered panels.

I had them covered with 5mm foam, and then fabric, so they are nice to touch – nice in the sleeping area. Plus I think it gives the van better acoustics!

Some have thought the yellow under side part to be a strange colour choice, but this is in part to create a nice warm glow when reflecting the side lights.

First I attached some upright batons to the van. These were screwed in directly to the metal work.

Upright batons

Afterward I basically made the panels, a narrow strip of wood for the LEDs to sit on, and created a way to attach the panels to the wall.

The distance from the bottom of the blue bit, to the LED is based on the angle that the eye gets to the side of the van. I did not want you to be able to directly see the LEDs without really going to some effort!

This also means that the light is all reflected off the yellow fabric! It is amazing!

Making the panels

They are easy to make – just using ply, 5mm foam and fabric. You need spray glue and a staple gun. One tube of spray glue was (just) enough for the four panels.

Below shows the panels in place, checking them for size. I just screwed them up temporarily to do this.

The panels are pretty simple to make;

1. Spray glue on to the wood

2. Lay down the foam, turn it over and staple the foam edges to the back

a. Note use lots of staples evenly on the edges if you want the shape of the edge to look straight

3. Cut off excess foam

4. Spray glue on to the foam

5. Apply the upholstery fabric, turn it over and staple the fabric, as above staple evenly to keep the edge looking straight

6. Cut off excess fabric!

Spray glue, apply foam, turn over.

Staple down, cut off excess.

Srapy glue on to foam, put on the fabric/smooth down, turn over

Staple fabric (evenly) and cut off excess.

The yellow panels either slotted behind the cupboard unit, or were screwed on (screws where they would be not seen).

Note: Be careful when screwing these on – I found that one time the screw bunched up and ripped the foam inside – making it uneven and a bit messy! It was hard to sort out!

Attaching the top panels so no fixing is visible

I wanted to attach the top panels without screws being visible – so they look nice! Here is how I did it.

Do it BEFORE you add the fabric and foam!

1.   Get standard electrical conduit pipe

2. Get some screw-in pipe clips

3. Make some dowels (or buy some if you can)

4. Screw the pipe clips to the frame you made (I used 5 per board)

5. Screw the pipes, with dowel in, to the back of the panel in the right places

Now you can just pop-on and pop-off the whole panel – and it is help securely without any ugly screws!

See photo below:

Plastic pipe clips & electrical pipe. The pipe is screwed in through the ply in to the dowel inside the pipe. The pipe can now just ‘pop’ on to the clip.

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Get the Van Conversion Guide: https://www.thevanconversionguide.com/

Above the Cab & Bathroom Cabinet

I had this idea of finding a bathroom cabinet and just screwing it in to the space above the cab. It took a while to find a suitable cabinet – in the end I found this one on Amazon.

It works really well, to open the cabinet you push the button, and when you close it, it locks shut on a magnet. It is nice to have a mirror directly above the sink.

This I screwed into two uprights and, in turn, screwed these in to the wooden block work.

I added these two pieces of work to the bottom of the cupboard areas (see wood under door in image below). This is because the doors need to be a little higher than the shelf to stop them getting blocked by stuff on the shelf.

Using cladding and spare wood I made the doors to fit – cutting out the hinge profile to keep them tidy.

Cut out hinge profile. The wood the hinges are screwed into was offset to the right of the edge of the cladding.

Although you can find all sorts of fancy push-button cupboard door handles I just went for a couple of locking slider bolts.

I think the brass looks good on the pine and I aligned them to the push button on the mirror unit and it looks tidy.

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Get the Van Conversion Guide: https://www.thevanconversionguide.com/

Chair & Upholstery

Some relatives were throwing out this futon so I used it to make the recliner chair.

The base of the chair is in two parts. They can be removed independently to access various areas for potential maintenance reasons.

I simply stapled the fabric to the base parts. Perhaps not the best solution and in the future I may re-upholster the chair with separate cushions – but for now it works.

Not my best work.. but it is effective!

The back is an independent cushion with a shape that works in a reclined position. I have a sleeping bag I store behind it to keep it in place. It’s a good place to put the sleeping bag and serves a purpose.

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Get the Van Conversion Guide: https://www.thevanconversionguide.com/

 

Bed-side Cupboards

 These are my bed-side cupboards.

The design is actually pretty awesome because it means you can put a pillow against it and turn it in to a comfortable place to sit.

I have actually had four people sitting comfortably along this to watch a film. I used mahogany – because I had it – it presented some added challenges and using 22mm ply (or similar) would have been easier. But you could use any sturdy material to make them.

I originally planned on having four flap lids but in the end I went for two. It is better this way as you can see more inside. I did not put dividers in the cupboards. I use it for clothes and I have these fabric dividers which have worked well so far.

At the ends of the unit I used some bent-open brackets to secure it – before screwing on the end-pieces, and glueing the edges together for structural support.

The handles from Hafele were kind of pricey but they look great.

The cupboard also has my main light switches. This is nice as you do not have to leave bed to turn them on. I tend to just use my toes to do so! The switch layout is designed to avoid needing labels.

Switches. Front LEDs, Back LEDS and, separated; side light LEDs.

In the middle, and at the end of the cupboard I have put USB plugs.

This means you can have your phone or other device charging at a place you can easily reach it to kill that damn alarm..