Putting a Bedroom in My Cargo Van

For the past few months, I’ve been on a mission to turn my cargo van into a tiny home. The exterior is done, the electrical is totally installed, the flooring is finished, and the framing is pretty solid.

Honestly, my goal for this next part of the build was to finish the plumbing. But after weeks of setbacks, a pile of fittings, and enough YouTube tutorials to earn a fake plumbing license, I hadtotally hit a wall.

Needless to say, the pipes are on pause, my sanity is completely on the line, and instead of waterworks, we’re going in a totally different and less soggy direction.

Let’s build my bedroom friends!

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Van to Tiny Home Series

If you want to see how we got to this place in the build be sure to check out what I’ve already done. It’s been a journey friends!

Tools + Materials

Tools

Check out my favorite tools here

Materials

Recap

Because we’ve jumped around a bit with this van build, here’s a really quick recap to get you to where we are.

The bedroom portion of the van started with these awesome window flares. These flares are are essentially just bumpouts that go on the side of the van so that we have enough room to sleep sideways once the bed is in.

At first I was intimidated by the idea of installing these because they required me to cut these giant holes in the side of the van, but they were actually surprisingly really easy to install.

Once those holes were cut, we then had to just make sure everything was ground down nice and smooth.

And then it was time to add the flares using the adhesive that came with them.

The adhesive keeps the window in place, and it also keeps water out. And since I’ve installed these, we’ve had no issues with water.

Once the flares were in place, it was then time to install the windows. You can get flares with or without windows.

I obviously chose to put windows in ours, and they just applied by screwing them in with the provided screws.

So, overall, a really easy install, and I’m so happy that it went the way that it went. Now we’re on our way to building a bedroom in this van and these flares are really coming in handy because now we can fit a full size mattress in here. Let me show you how!

1. Bed Platform

When you’re building in a tiny space, you really have to keep space in consideration, sounds obvious, I know.

And the reason that I made the cabinets for my electrical and my plumbing so tall is because I wanted to be able to put the bed on top of these two cabinets and have them basically act as my pseudo bed legs.

As you can see here, nothing in a van is straight, so the first piece of the bed platform needed a bit of a trim in order for me to be able to get it into place.

Once I got that piece in I realized that I had to finish itstalling the insulation around the window.

I’ll explain this a little more later but I did end up insulating all of the windows before putting in the second piece of the bed platform and that was definitely the right call.

I don’t know why I thought getting the second piece in would be easier but it was definitely more challenging.

Once it was screwed in we had a bed! And I could lay across it.

2. Garage Lighting & Mattress Ventilation

I was originally so scared to do electrical on the van, but now I think I’ve literally created a monster because I can’t stop wiring lights in the van. As you can see here I added wiring for a light under the bed in the “garage” to have some better visibility.

Ok so one thing I’ve learned is that an RV Mattress needs ventilation.

So I used a hole saw to drill out the holes, no moldly mattresses allowed in my tiny home.

And then I used a router to smooth out the cuts.

I finished the platform by rolling on some halcyon.

3. Window Boxes

I’ve actually had a lot of people ask me how I’m finishing these windows after seeing the first part of the van build. And Flarespace sent me these really awesome trim rings for the flares.

But the reality is is that because I had to hang the supports for the cabinet utility boxes so high, I unfortunately could not fit these flares, which was such a bummer because they’re so easy to use and so cool.

So what we’ve got now is a window box and put together with pocket hole joinery.

This is a template of the window. I made this a while ago and had just been squirreling it away, so it felt really good to finally be ready to use it.

So, I placed it on top of a piece of plywood, traced it, and then cut it out with my jig saw.

The real question was if it was going to fit because hypothetically it should fit…but we had to check before attaching it to the window. Spoiler alert, it did!

After the dry fit, I secured the back to the box with my brad nailer. All in all these window boxes took me 2 days in the shop to make, which is kind of a bummer because if I was able to use the trim rings it would’ve taken way less time. But alas, we did what we had to do.

Once I saw that everything fit I marked the extra and used my track saw to trim it to size.

The cool thing about my custom window boxes is that I was able to add some pretty cool reading lights. So we pulled out the hole saw again and wired it up.

I mean look how happy these lights make me! I can’t wait to make the rest of the van pretty.

4. Last Look Before We Close Up The Walls

Can we believe the progress? I am so excited about where we are in this process. I’m frustratingly still waiting on parts for the bathroom but everywhere else has come so far and I couldn’t be more proud.

5. Closing Up The Walls

There has been so much going on in my life and it’s been really hard to balance it all. Between the van, the dormer on the house and being a new aunt it’s just been a lot.

But closing up the walls on the van signifies finishing another room and that feels really exciting and hopeful.

6. Some Finishing touches

I mean, how cool does this look?

It still needs a lot of filling and sanding and trim work. And paint too of course.

I also added a frame to the back wall and I screwed it into the same cleat as the A/C unit. I think it helps it look a little more finished.

You know I like to be a little extra. So, I actually decided to cut a piece of trim to put along the back wall of the bed. This way once I put the mattress in, it’s not flying around while we drive.

I’m not so worried about being perfect right now, there are still some bumps and bruises and imperfections that I need to fix but I will focus on those finishing touches that make everything look pristine once all of the big stuff is complete. Which is going to be really soon!

Little things like these hooks for storage are getting me so excited to finish everything up.

Final Reveal of the Bedroom

It’s really starting to come together, right? Are you starting to see my vision? The timeline may have shifted, but that’s just part of the adventure.

The plumbing delays are so frustrating and I can’t wait to finish that portion of the van, but pivoting to finish the bedroom gave me the momentum I needed. Closing up walls and seeing the space take shape was so cool, and even if it wasn’t the order I planned, every step still gets me closer to a van that feels like home.

Thanks for coming on this journey with me friends, I hope it inspires you to pivot when you need to or to get creative in your own projects. The road to van life may have its bumps, but at least now I’ve got a cozy spot to ride them out. Until next time, happy DIYing, friends!