By Clayton Houser – Professional van builder (50+ full builds)
Most layout mistakes happen because people start with the kitchen, the cabinets, or the “cool idea” – not the thing they’ll use every night. Clayton starts with the bed, then locks in bed height and the shower/bathroom space claim so the rest of the layout falls into place without painful compromises later.
This is the fourth article in Clayton's Van Build series - you can view the series homepage here.
When I design a van layout, I always start with the bed.
Not the kitchen.
Not the electrical cabinet.
Not the shower.
The bed.
I’ve built more than 50 vans, and every time I’ve tried to design around something else first, it caused problems later. The bed is the one thing you will use every single day. It dictates how much storage you have, how you move through the van, and how comfortable the build is long-term.
If the bed works, the rest of the layout usually falls into place.
Why the Bed Comes First
The bed anchors the entire van. Once it’s set, you’ve defined:
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How much garage space you have
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Where your plumbing and electrical can live
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How much open floor area remains
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Whether the van feels cramped or livable
Many layout mistakes I see come from trying to squeeze the bed in after everything else has already been planned.
I’ve had customers come to me with detailed drawings of kitchens and seating areas, only to realize later that the sleeping setup either didn’t fit or wasn’t practical for how they actually used the van.
That’s why I always start with one question:
How do you want to sleep – every night, not just on paper?
Platform Beds vs. Convertible Beds (My Strong Opinion)
Early on, I built vans with dinette-style beds, pull-out frames, fold-down legs, and multi-cushion setups. They look great in photos. They check a lot of boxes on Instagram.
In real life, they get old fast.
Setting up a bed every night means:
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Rearranging cushions
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Clearing surfaces
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Rebuilding the same thing over and over
After doing that myself and watching customers do the same, I stopped recommending it.
Almost every van I’ve built after that used a fixed platform bed.
Why?
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It’s always ready
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It’s structurally simple
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It creates consistent storage underneath
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It removes friction from daily life
A lot of people think they need a convertible bed because they imagine they need tons of room for entertaining inside the van – sitting around, sipping wine, hanging out.
In reality, most people are:
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Boondocking
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Camping remotely
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Staying in campgrounds
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And therefore spend as much time outside as they can
Most people don’t need a living room inside a van. You need a place to sleep well and live efficiently. Use the outdoors for your living room and hosting space – use the inside of your van for sleeping, storing, and traveling.
Bed Height Drives Everything Below It
Once you commit to your type of bed, the next critical decision is height.
Bed height determines:
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What you can store underneath
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Whether bikes fit inside
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Where tanks, batteries, and systems go
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And also, whether you’re going to hit your head every morning when you sit up
For example:
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If you’re storing mountain bikes inside, you’re usually looking at around 36 inches of clearance
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That may mean raising the bed higher than originally planned
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Which then affects headroom and cabinet placement
I’ve built vans where:
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Two bikes consumed nearly half the van
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The bed had to be higher to accommodate fork mounts
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The entire layout shifted because of that single decision
This is why purpose matters. Storage needs aren’t abstract – they physically shape the van.
Check out our favorite bed/garage system.
Do the Headroom Math Early (The Floor Counts Too)
When you are setting bed height, I recommend doing the headroom math early. People focus on the bed platform and forget the floor stack-up. A small change in floor thickness can affect how the van feels every day, especially if you are tall or you want to sit up comfortably in bed.
A simple example is subfloor thickness. Using ⅝” plywood gives you plenty of strength with less height and weight than ¾”. If you add insulation under the floor, remember that some products may seem thicker before installation, but they compress once the subfloor goes down. The main point is to treat floor thickness as part of the layout, not an afterthought (because it affects everything above it).
This is one of the easiest ways to avoid a layout that feels cramped later.
Showers and Toilets Come Right After the Bed
Once the bed decision is made, I go straight to the shower and bathroom. In my experience, the bed comes first and the shower is second – those two decisions shape the whole layout more than everything else.
For me, a shower has ended up being a must-have. I like to shower, and I like the privacy of using the bathroom in the bathroom. I’ve tried a “no shower” setup, assuming I’d use gyms or campground showers, but I never did – and I never found campground showers I actually wanted to use. I’ve also tried an outdoor shower, and where I camped it was usually either a privacy issue or it turned into more of a mess than it was worth.
I realize this is personal, but after trying life without one, I’ve learned I’m happiest with an indoor shower and some real bathroom privacy.
Once I know where the bed is going, I build forward or build back depending on that bed location. Shower comes next – I’ll build the shower pan and place it where it fits in the layout as I’m building.
If you want an indoor shower but you’re tight on space, I’ve found there are ways to make it workable without giving up the whole van. The roomiest shower I’ve ever had was a fold-down shower with a curtain, and it didn’t take up hardly any space. In smaller vans, I’d build the shower into a cabinet and then have to use a toilet that slid out from underneath the sink because there just wasn’t room for a more private setup in that footprint.
After I’ve locked in the bed and the shower and bathroom, I shift to the garage area under the bed and start thinking through systems and storage.
Think Garage Next, Not Cabinets
Most people underestimate how much space they need in the “garage” (the space under the bed, in the back of the van).
Under the bed is where I and others typically house:
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Electrical systems (on one side)
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Plumbing and tanks (on the other side)
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Gear, tools, or bikes
In many builds, the only permanent cabinetry I installed lived over the wheel wells. Everything else was modular or removable.
That approach keeps the van flexible and makes future changes easier.
If you fill the van with fixed cabinets too early, you lose the ability to adapt.
Design for Living Outside the Van
Once the bed and garage are figured out, the next thing I always try to reset for people is this idea that everything needs to happen inside the van.
Most daily life happens in your home – but most vanlife happens outside.
People picture sitting inside their vans with friends, drinking wine, playing cards, and hanging out for hours. In reality, when you’re at a campsite or boondocking, there often aren’t other people around – and even when there are, you’re usually hanging out outside. By the fire. By the river. Under an awning.
This realization changes layouts fast.
When customers rented a van or walked through builds at a van show, they started to see it. Chairs, tables, grills, and even cooking setups didn’t need to live inside permanently. Once you assume outdoor living is the default, you stop trying to cram everything into the van.
Designing with the outside in mind:
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Frees up interior space
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Reduces clutter
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Makes the van feel calmer and more functional
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Remember to leave no trace
The van doesn’t need to do everything. It just needs to support how you actually live. I like to think of my vans as comfy tents more than complete houses.
Be Realistic About Seating and Hosting
Seating is one of the most overthought parts of most van builds.
A lot of people want seating for six inside a 144 van. Even if you manage to fit it, it’s cramped, loud, and not very comfortable. Multiple conversations at once don’t work well in a small metal box.
What usually makes more sense is keeping interior seating simple and flexible.
Swivel seats are a great example. Swiveling the factory driver and passenger seats instantly creates usable seating without building bulky benches or sacrificing floor space. For most people, that’s plenty.
There’s also an important difference between seating for driving and seating for hanging out. If people are riding in the van, those seats need to be properly mounted to the van’s frame – not just attached to L-track. That alone limits how creative interior seating can be.
In practice:
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Interior seating gets used less than people expect
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Hosting mostly happens outside
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Having fewer seats usually means a better layout
Design for how many people will actually be inside at the same time, most of the time – not how many you imagine hosting.
Simplify Cooking and Make Cleaning Easy
Kitchens are another area where people tend to overbuild.
I’ve seen a lot of vans with four-burner stoves, microwaves, induction cooktops, and appliances people didn’t even use at home. And many of them barely cooked in their vans.
What matters far more than appliances is cleanup and usability.
That’s why I almost always used a full-size sink in my builds (often farmhouse-style, but those are a bit trickier to install). Tiny sinks might look good in pictures, but they make daily life harder in my opinion. A big sink makes everything easier – washing dishes, cleaning up, filling bottles, rinsing gear, and even just washing your hands.
Plus, great big sinks are amazing for storing bags of groceries you just picked up at the store. And I’ve seen many sinks that have a built-in cover that adds to a van’s counter space.
Portable setups usually worked better for cooking. I’ve never put them in my vans, but butane or propane cooktops can be stored in a drawer and used on the counter or outside, giving you flexibility without permanently eating up counter space. You don’t need a dedicated cutout for every appliance.
I don’t think that most people should want a house kitchen in a van. They should focus on:
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Counter space
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Easy cleanup
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Fewer things to work around
If storage and cleaning are easy, everything else feels easier too.
Modular Layouts Solve Real-World Problems
A lot of my customers didn’t want a van that only did one thing.
Some needed to:
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Camp on weekends
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Haul dirt bikes
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Move cargo like tools and wood
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Use the van as a daily driver or work vehicle
For those builds, I used:
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L-track-mounted furniture
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Aluminum framing
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Plug-in electrical connections
Beds could be broken down. Galleys could be removed. In some cases, the entire van could be reconfigured in about 30 minutes.
That flexibility always started with the bed design.
If the bed was simple and well-placed, everything else could move around it.
Tape It Out and Act It Out
One thing I always encouraged customers to do was physically simulate the layout.
Before building anything:
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Tape the bed footprint on the van floor
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Pretend to climb in and out
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Sit where you think seating will be
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Imagine cooking, changing clothes, grabbing gear
I also strongly recommended:
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Renting a van
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Visiting van shows
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Laying in beds
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Acting like it’s your van
About a third of people who did this completely changed their layout – many often switching from a convertible bed to a platform bed.
You learn more in one night sleeping in a van than weeks of planning on a screen.
Don’t Design for the Internet
This is where a lot of layouts go wrong.
People design for:
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Photos
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Videos
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Social media
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What looks good
Instead of:
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How they actually live
I’ve seen vans packed with seating that never gets used, oversized kitchens for people who don’t cook, and elaborate bed systems that become daily annoyances.
A good layout isn’t impressive – it’s invisible. It works without you thinking about it.
Final Thought on Layout
If I had to boil all of this down to one rule, it would be this:
If the bed works, the van works.
Start there.
Build around it.
Keep it simple.
Everything else – electrical, plumbing, storage, finishes – becomes easier once the sleeping setup is right.
Frequently Asked Questions About Camper Van Layout Design
What is the best camper van layout for a DIY build?
There isn’t a single “best” layout for everyone. The best layout is the one that matches how you actually plan to use the van. In my experience, the most reliable layouts start with a fixed platform bed and build everything else around that. Once the bed works, storage, systems, and daily movement through the van tend to fall into place.
Should I choose a platform bed or a convertible bed in my camper van?
After building and living with both, I strongly prefer a fixed platform bed. Convertible beds look flexible on paper, but setting them up every night gets old quickly. A platform bed is always ready, simpler to build, and creates consistent storage underneath. In my experience, most builders who try both end up switching to a platform bed.
How high should a camper van bed be?
Bed height depends on what you need to store underneath it. If you’re carrying large items like mountain bikes, you may need roughly 36 inches of clearance. If you’re mostly storing systems and gear, you may be able to go lower. The key is deciding what must live under the bed before locking in the height.
How does the bed affect the rest of the camper van layout?
The bed determines:
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How much garage space you have
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Where electrical and plumbing systems can be installed
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How much open floor space remains
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Whether the van feels livable or cramped
That’s why I always design the bed first. Everything else depends on it.
Is a fixed bed bad for entertaining or seating in a camper van?
Most people overestimate how much they’ll entertain inside a van. In reality, you spend most of your time outside – especially when camping at a site or boondocking. Designing a van around interior seating often sacrifices comfort and storage for something that rarely gets used.
Can I still have a modular layout with a platform bed in my camper van?
Yes. Many of the vans I built used fixed beds with modular components underneath or in front of them. Using L-track, removable furniture, and plug-in systems allows you to keep flexibility without rebuilding your bed every night.
Should I design my camper van layout before seeing one in person?
No. I always recommend renting a van or, at least, visiting a van show before finalizing a layout. Lay in the bed. Pretend to cook. Move through the space. A lot of people change their layout after just one night in a van – especially their bed choice.
What’s the biggest mistake people make with camper van layouts?
Designing for photos instead of daily life. A good layout doesn’t look impressive – it works quietly in the background. If you don’t think about it while using the van, that usually means it’s done right.
Can I change my camper van layout later if I get it wrong?
You can, but it’s much easier if you design with flexibility from the start. Simple bed designs, modular components, and leaving room for future changes all make adjustments less painful down the road.
What should I design first when planning a camper van layout?
Start with how you sleep. Once the bed is right, everything else – storage, systems, and flow – becomes easier to design.
Should I design my camper van mainly for indoor living?
In practice, most vanlife happens outside the van. People often expect to spend a lot of time inside, but once they’re actually traveling, they find themselves cooking, relaxing, and spending time outdoors. Designing the interior with that reality in mind helps avoid overcrowding the space and leads to simpler, more functional layouts.
What should I plan to use outside instead of inside the camper van?
Things like chairs, tables, and even cooking setups often work better outside. Planning for outdoor living frees up interior space and keeps the van focused on sleeping, storage, and daily essentials.
How much seating do I actually need inside my camper van?
Most builders need far less seating than they initially think. For many vans, swivel seats on the driver and passenger side provide enough interior seating without sacrificing space or adding complexity. Limiting seating to only what you will actually need helps save space for storage, large counters, more elbow room, etc.
Are swivel seats worth it in a camper van build?
Yes. Swivel seats are a good example of seating that makes sense in many builds. Swiveling the factory driver and passenger seats creates usable interior seating without building bulky benches or giving up floor space. For a lot of people, that ends up being enough.
Do I need a built-in stove or cooktop in my camper van?
Not necessarily. Many people find portable propane or butane cooktops more flexible. They can be stored away when not in use and often work just as well inside or outside the van.
What matters more in a camper van kitchen: appliances or cleanup space?
From a real-use standpoint, cleanup tends to matter more than having multiple built-in appliances. Many builders focus on stoves or cooktops, but day-to-day comfort often comes down to having enough counter space and an easy way to wash dishes, clean up spills, and rinse gear. Prioritizing cleanup makes the kitchen feel more usable, even if the cooking setup stays simple.
