I’m going to let you in on a secret, I think overhead cabinets are a waste of space. For our third van build, this time in the ‘baby’ 144” wheelbase Sprinter, we wanted to prioritise a sense of space, and openness. I think we achieved the perfect layout in this van.
With over 460 gallons or 1,750 litres of storage space, this van will satisfy the storage needs of even the most ardent container store fan, without making your van feel like a coffin. Keep reading as we show you around our latest van build and give you some tips on how you can satisfy your storage needs without making your van feel claustrophobic.
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Welcome to the most unique, and awesome van layout ever. Well, alright perhaps it isn’t the most unique, but I do stand by it being an awesome layout. But what you may ask is so awesome about it? Well, the biggest difference is that we eliminated all overhead cabinets, and full height units in our van build.
Now I once read a comment on another van tour that said a couple was, and I quote ‘brave’ for not putting overhead cabinets on both sides of their bed. Well, if that couple was brave then I think we deserve the medal of honour for this build.
Avoiding a Conventional Claustrophobic Van Layout
But why fly in the face of convention, and tradition? Well I am both blessed, and cursed with being reasonably tall, specifically I am 6 foot 1, or 186 cm for those who have seen the metric light. This means that my eyeline is at the very top of the van, so whenever I have been in RVs with overhead cabinets I immediately feel claustrophobic because my head feels like it’s boxed in on all sides. Now in an RV with square walls, that ‘box’ might still be reasonably big. But in a Mercedes Sprinter, where the van narrows a lot towards the roof, it practically becomes a coffin for my head.
The solution to this problem was really quite simple, eliminate all overhead cabinets. A secondary, but equally important benefit of this, is that it makes the van feel a lot more open, airy and spacious.
The obvious question is of course, where do I put all my junk…I mean valuable, precious and necessary items. Well we managed to fit in 160 gallons, or 607 litres, of storage just in the living area of the van. That is the same as 4 of those huge black, and yellow plastic storage totes that most of us end up with at some point in our lives, despite our best efforts.
Designing an Open Van Layout With Loads of Storage
We achieved this amount of space in four ways. First we installed flares in the side of the van, so that we can sleep sideways. This saved us 60cm (23.6”) of floor space, compared to having the bed lengthwise. We also opted for a 140cm (55 inches) wide bed, instead of the 160cm (63″) bed that we had in our previous van, which saved us another 20cm (7.9″) of floor space.
The second step was to build a floating fixed bed out of 80/20 extruded aluminium, doing this allowed us to have a huge garage. Just in the garage we have over 300 gallons of storage, or 1,150 litres.
The third step was to ensure that all our bulky systems, such as our batteries, water tank, and fridge were all installed outside of the main living space. For example our fridge is under the bed, and so is our electrical system, and water system.
The last step was to ensure that we built our furniture to be as open as possible. We achieved this by building cabinet boxes out of 16mm plywood, and pocket screws for everything. Just inside the couch we have 330l of space. Even our kitchen is extremely usable, because we were able to fit 4 large drawers, an induction cooktop, and a full size sink into it.
To help preserve the sense of space achieved by eliminating overhead cabinets, we decided not to install a full bathroom, instead opting for a toilet cabinet, with a flip up counter. This keeps the Nature’s head toilet tucked out of sight, but also has the benefit of extending our kitchen counter space, creating a very large work area, considering the size of the van.
We initially planned out a really complex curtain system that would have been attached to the ceiling, but since the weather got too cold for us to work outside before we could finish it, we left for our trip to Spain, and never ended up implementing that system. After living in the van without it for a few weeks, we quickly realised that a Spotify subscription was all the privacy we really needed.
Moving to the front of the van, we recently installed a swivel seat so that we would have a little more space for working on our laptops. But even without it the couch is big enough for two people to sit comfortably, as long as you like each other a little bit. In fact we lived, and travelled full time in the van for almost 6 months before installing a swivel seat.
Essential Tools & Products for a Van Build
It seems like 50% of van building is just finding the right product, so to help you out we’ve provided links below to some of the key products that we used in our van build. If you have any questions about the products we used, or how we set something up, please leave a comment, and we will be happy to help.
Our Favourite Van Build Tools:
➤ Makita Track Saw for perfect straight cuts without a professional table saw.
➤ Milwaukee drill/driver is the ultimate van building tool, compact and powerful.
➤ Kreg Pocket Hole Jig for professional looking van furniture, without any experience.
Our Favourite Van Build Products:
➤ MaxxAir Fan is essential for staying cool, and comfortable in a van.
➤ Cork is an excellent natural material to reduce noise in your van, and insulate the floor.
➤ Osmo Wood Wax to protect your wood counters with a natural non-toxic wax finish.
➤ Security Safe to protect your valuables when you leave the van (fits a 16″ laptop).
