10 (MORE) INGENIOUS BED DESIGNS For Your Van Conversion

[Music] the bed is the most important design factor in your van what you do with your bed will pretty much define what you can do with the entire living space seeing as you guys loved the last video with 10 different bed designs you can see the link here to that one we're going to show you 10 more bed designs all with their own unique advantages and disadvantages i hope you enjoy so this is my new van and i've been living in it now for six months and when i designed this van i really wanted to make sure that i had a table and sit in space for four people or more um now that is obviously going to conflict with an idea of an entirely huge fixed bed and i also wanted a bigger bed now those two things don't necessarily uh gel too well ginormous bed bigger than before and bigger living space however i've solved that problem so this is the living space and this is the bed so this is a super king size fixed bed and the way i make it so it can be a seat is i've made it a little bit modular as you can see under here we have two sections now when you cut off the end of a super king it kind of makes it a double so this sheet is a double normal sheet i mean i can take out this plug this end part and you can put it against the wall for your watching movies or whatever and that gives me the seat which is the other side of a table so rather than changing the whole bed and moving the whole thing round i just removed one piece and now i have a living room area so it's the advantage of a fixed bed it's always there and the advantages of a non-fixed bed you have a good seating area and the table comes in here so as i put it in you'll see at the ends it's actually kind of housed so it doesn't move out the end doesn't fall off and when you're sleeping this part is only for your feet so for your body you've got your nice sheet and for your feet you've got the cushion cover and it's basically totally fine and when you're sleeping with the waist you literally have a full super king size bed which is bloody amazing as you can see i've got an extra corner bed plug which basically you didn't have to move that i didn't have to lug a huge part out so i just lift this up take it out and then under here we have a 10mm foam seat as well cushion so that's also wrapped so basically this is the seat ready for the table and very quickly you have seating comfortable for four we've had six around it and it's been totally fine i would say about a fixed bed if you want to make your van feel spatially really nice um and to use it like a seat like system the bed's got to be relatively low um if you happen to buy the e-book all of the measurements and designs are in the e-book which will kind of give you the basic structure so if you wanted to build something similar all the measurements and details are there and it makes it very easy i hope you enjoy the next nine designs if you want to see any of the full videos of how to how to build or fan tours for each of the respective beds just look in the links in the description so for our bed setup we couldn't decide between having two couches or a permanent bed because there's advantages of both we liked the idea of having the couches to hang out and work and eat and have the space feel more open but we also didn't want to have to make our bed every night so our solution was why not have both so we made our top bed here using a happy jack bed lift system um and so it it's powered electrically and we can bring it up and down and we literally have a bed in five [Music] seconds so to get up to our bed we just step on the couch and then we're up here so we had to make the bed frame ourselves because it didn't come with the happy jack system um so we basically just bought a already made bed frame and adjusted the size to fit and then we used um wood slats to go across um to make the frame and then our mattress is basically just six inches of foam and we had someone make it to the right size [Applause] so down here we have our couch set up so we use this area to hang out and lounge we also have our table here on a lagoon table mount so it can swivel around and down here we can also convert this into a second bed so we can sleep up to four people and we feel like it's pretty open back here even though we technically can't stand up we have you know all the windows back here and we just feel like it's nice and open in this farm we have six seat belted seats obviously the driver in the passenger seat in the front and then these double one rear facing one forward facing seat all with integrated seat belts we have swivel seats in the front of the van here drive around passenger seats both turn around we've got overhead storage here for bedding and your clothes and there's storage up here for again bedding where these double seats turn into a double bed so you remove the seat belts and lift the seat tilt it forward and then the back comes off see it comes out like this [Music] oh matty you need to go out a minute this bed seat setup is made by a company called fasp who are an italian company they make them for motorhomes and they're crash-tested seats okay here we have a triple bunk um this is nearly six foot long so we wanted it to suit small children and big children and adults occasionally um down here in our bottom bunk we have the issue of the wheel arch inside so we have a drop out section here and an extra mattress that comes down to make this bed still big enough for an adult to sleep in and they all have reading lights and storage bags and there's space at the end of the bunk for smaller children to store all their belongings okay they all have curtains on here so the children can go to sleep in peace if the adults want to sit up in the van not go to bed yet we decided to design our own camper van but the biggest thing for us was wanting to use like maximize our space so we decided to design a flip bed which is what this is so essentially it's a bench that we can use for seating and obviously have our table set up so we can eat and it's our lounge area but then when you remove the seats we've actually got a flip design that lifts up and fits and slots nicely right in front of the seats here and becomes a double bed this way so we're lucky in the fiat cartos are quite long um i'm five foot nine and a half and tom is six foot so we can both sleep this way and it's all good um but basically the flip bed means that we've got loads of space underneath so we can put all of our um storage for all the bedding and actually we've got our kids mattresses which is also underneath and then our kids beds all made up like this so when we want to get ready for bed we basically just remove the table which is just a pull off super super easy taking off this leg stirring it up here in the bulkhead which fits nice and easily remove our cushions all the pretty stuff now is getting removed and you're gonna see the real stuff underneath which is what it all hides that's the point right so take off the throw now there is a way of doing it where you can keep the cushions on the bed and do it but i'm not very good at that so super easy these are memory foam mattresses um so basically one side is memory foam which you sleep on but the slide you seat on sit on isn't so you just put the matches there fold it and the other one on top so you can see the kind of basic design of this now this is what stops it from flipping down when we're driving you just unhook pull it up and flip it down underneath is the middle part mattress so basically these mattresses as i say the seating parts are not memory foam so you flip it over so you've got the memory foam side to sleep on and then they basically join together with velcro to make a double bed so easily going together like that now had i've been sensible i would have got the other piece out which fits here but i wasn't but that would make up the whole double bed and it is the size of a small double so basically normal double bed like quilts and sheets and everything all fit on this so it sleeps two adults really comfortably if you co-sleep it's awesome because you can fit a little child in there as well which we did last night um but otherwise that's pretty much it and then that is your main bed we actually keep our kids mattresses under here as well and we've got one bed set up here but you would just do your kid's beds first because obviously you want to get everything out from underneath before you do this bit so when you're putting it back up you literally take everything off and just it folds as it goes so you just want to make sure there's nothing in the way the curtain sometimes gets in the way and then back up it goes like that so we basically utilize the two workshop areas for our children to sleep and we have these which are really cool because they're super lightweight they're actually a decent thickness and they feel really nice but basically they fold out to make the perfect size mattress i'd love to say this wasn't an accident but um turns out we just uh really lucky with the the space that we've got so this would be the mattress and obviously we would put the sheet on um in this case it's actually a single bed sheet so it is too big but you get the idea at this point you probably put your child on here too basically we have these which we designed and my friend made for us and they've been through various uh stages but we finally decided the fabric ones were the best ones so we've got two eyelets here and here and you basically just thread the pole through and then we have some eyelets from the ceiling and a velcro system so basically once your child is in bed you can just pull these down and you can pull them really tight and it's super strong velcro um my kids thrash around in the night and they don't fall out which is a result and basically once they're in you've got a bed guard so as i say they're super comfortable mattresses so the kids are actually really comfortable want to sleep in them and they're excited to sleep in them um we have the same on this side but as i say with this side we would extend so we'd lift this up which clicks into place and then we have a eyelet here now excuse that bit did come off and same again you just put it through and the mattress is on top so it just means that you can sleep we think up to a sort of age six maybe um so we don't know how much longer will that yeah we've got another two years in us i think with our children and then also we might need to reconfigure but if we do reconfigure we can just take out the bottom part of this upright and make it the whole length of this so we've still got a little while to go in this fan we don't have to give up too soon so with this bed um i decided to go for a central bench seat that could extend out to become a full six foot length bed um the reason i did this because i wanted to be able to remove the whole thing if i wanted uh to use this whole space for a van and it's also quite nice to be able to just sit here and look out either side the bed works by pulling out these two extensions comes outside um i then put an inflatable mattress on the top of this um there's a slight dip here which you can either put in foam but with most mattresses they're hard enough to be able to just sort of go straight over the top it also means that once the mattress is up here you've got this whole space as a bed and somewhere to put your your phone in your keys this is uh the table during the day so you can take out the table and put away the bed and then you've got a seat with a table on either side as well so this is your table and then if i then you have a full camping setup as well so in this van we've got fixed beds we've got a fixed double on the bottom and it's a full six foot length and on the top um a single which is five foot eight in in length and the reason i went for fixed beds is because the way we really use the van is um going out and doing a lot of walking and the last thing i ever want to do if i've spent the day on a mountain is to come down and have to make my bed so the bed is already made we can just easily make something to eat and go straight to bed so the bunk has been designed to be removable it's it's undoing some bolts it's not something you do every day we kind of have to remove a few other things first but in the long term if we needed to run it as a tube earth so the top bunk can come out completely we have the l-shaped lodge sofa here which then doubles across as a bed so remove books cushions on one side and then slide this across that goes faster here and there's your bed obviously blankets etc but you get the idea five inch thick memory foam mattress as well so it's um very very comfortable all the curtains are complete blackout so even if the sun's shining you want a nice light in it could be the middle of the night you wouldn't know and it's extremely comfortable to to lie on and then to put back just in reverse take the sausages off seat back back into the sofa so we also have a elevating roof bed um which doubles as a second double bed or if you just want to sleep up there if there's just two of you pull this down and then you can climb up and sleep up here when not in use it goes up and just gives you that extra head height so the benefit of this van is when the roof is down um you can still fit into multi-story car parks and the likes and basically go anywhere a car can go i've got sleeping for one here this would be for someone sort of at the age of about five or six maybe and then underneath we've got a double bed that comes out here this back bit folds down to make a double bed and then this bunk here this folds up to make another bunk here and they're both about um six foot one long all right so i'll show you how to how the bed's made um there's there's three beds here first of all i have to get this table out of the way and put the cushions up so this is the double bed the back of it is just slatted wood like that it's not attached to anything when we're driving along we tend to have it flat down like that so that doesn't roll around and all that does is lip onto the side i get some help [Music] so that's the that's the double bed so it's a fixed uh bunk up here there's a ladder that goes up to it and fits in like that [Music] like that so there's a there's another bunk here as well so put that over there a couple of wooden struts so there's one wooden strap that goes there there's another wooden strap that goes back and then the pillow goes on top and then this is just to stop kids rolling out of their bed so it sort of goes in here and ties up at the top [Music] so we went for fixed beds because uh basically i've fallen in love with instagram photos where people were living in transverse beds and with their back doors open to the sea and the beach and i was like this this is the life i want so we had to have a transverse bed um people often think like oh it's impossible to fit in a master it's really narrow or how does how does that work or actually um the bed itself is like i think five foot five foot eight or i think it's about five for eight and then these um sort of cut ins to the back of the van on both sides mean that the actual stretch out room you've got is six foot two six foot three so it's actually wider than say like a standard sprinter van um it's just a little bit of creativity to get that extra room out of your vans um and short of paying a heck of a lot of money to have the flares put on the side of any van i think this is a really easy solution just to get extra space in both sides so fixed bed obviously just means there's no faffing and you can come straight into bed and also if one of you has had an argument one of you can be in the bed and one of you is you know ignoring the other one on a sofa which is pretty cool um the best thing in my opinion uh about having a this sort of setup here is my little netflix shelf so you literally put this down here it's got a little sort of um shelf bit routed out here uh which perfectly fits my kindle which means this is like the spot on viewing positions i'm never going to miss any any flight to be honest i'm working my way through suits at the moment so that is that is just perfect viewing viewing area so both of these literally pull out in the middle pull your cushions out into the middle here um and then you've got a third a pretty decent third berth technically you can fit two acceptable sized adults uh in here it has been done so although it is one berth yet four people can sleep in this van the bed this is my key feature took me quite a long time to design i wanted to make it as simple as possible but with that problem of breaking it down so you can turn it into a sofa with um a table as well so as simple as it can be this slides out clicks into place under here we have a jigsaw puzzle that fits in here oh we should have the extra foam this is that goes in to position here now we have storage under here and under here for bags etc so you've got your basic cushions now the piece of resistance lifting up the flap pulling out your slats this pillow goes across this one drops down and there you have your double bed if these get in the way and you might not want to lay on them they have little sockets they can just drop into inside the woodwork and they just drop in there drop away at night time and they come out for when you need them for when you're driving that goes up this felt grows on the slats just push away and drop back into their little hole cushion comes up there jigsaw puzzle comes off under there lift up push back and there we have back into two sort of bench seats and there is a table that fits here for your dining and i'll come to that [Music] so coming to the bunks this is another thing that took me quite a long time to design i wanted something obviously that could fit um potentially two more adults they're just under six foot um but also uh for older children sort of teenage style so the the van itself can sleep up to five with a cab bed so you can sleep four adults and one child or anywhere in that mix basically so these bunk beds very straightforward they have um their own little lighting each one has uh a little noggin with some lighting this top one has a usb charger as well for the that maybe older teenager that wants to charge their phone in secret um they have to stop the children rolling out they have um these canvas supports that hook up so they they go tight and that just gives a little bit more support in case someone's going to roll out underneath the camp beds we have some more storage so the design of the bunks there's a little foot hold here so that child can hold on put the foot on there and jump up to the top bunk but also i wanted something a little bit different with these bunks um and so when designing them i thought how can we make a bit more space if we don't necessarily want the bunk beds so what i've done is i've made some big bolts that pull out and down and then the bunk bed slides down into a nice sort of sofa effect so you've got more room when you're cooking or if you want to just hang out sit and read look out the back window so you've got like a bench seat sofa for that position and then straight forward as it can be again to go back into a bunk just lift up making sure the bolts go all the way in and the handles of the bolts slide back up so no one's going to bump their head and then back into the bunk [Music] i hope you enjoyed that content um if you hadn't noticed we do have an ebook that we sell and the link is just in the description uh it contains 160 pages crowned full of practical advice walkthrough information electronic schematics and part lists which will make your job a lot easier for doing a van conversion and it will save you time and money also we've created special videos for the ebook which enable you to see walkthroughs for how to do loads of things in a van conversion so that's for water systems for your electrics for how to do simple woodwork joints that anyone can do i really believe that anyone regardless of their experience can make a half decent fan conversion thanks for watching we really appreciate you watching our content and we put a lot of effort to make it interesting informative and find those cool projects that feature on our channel consider subscribing leave a comment and we'll see you next week you

Channel: Nate Murphy

Views: 1,362,360

Keywords: van conversion bed, van conversion bed design, camper bed design, sprinter bed design, self build van bed, self build bed design, bed designs camper van, van conversion how to, van conversion, sprinter conversion, transit conversion, dodge pro master van conversion, how to van conversion, how to convert a van, nate murphy, van conversion ideas, van conversion tour, van conversion build, van conversion with shower, van conversion winter, van conversion cost

Id: ewmpsIAT6TA

Length: 25min 57sec (1557 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 12 2020