Right, let’s get into the most important part of any van build: the layout. This is where you turn a cold, empty metal box into a space that actually works for you. Get this right, and day-to-day life on the road is a breeze. Get it wrong, and you’ll spend the next year tripping over your own feet, wishing you’d moved the kitchen unit two inches to the left.

A good plan is your blueprint for everything. It saves you from making expensive mistakes, maximises every last bit of space, and ultimately decides whether your van is a joy to live in or a constant frustration.

Designing Your Perfect Van Furniture Layout

In this guide, we’ll explore the essentials of van conversion furniture, ensuring your van is not just functional but also comfortable and stylish.

Before you even think about cutting a single piece of plywood, your first tools should be a good measuring tape, some graph paper (or an app), and a very clear idea of what you need. The goal here isn’t to copy a layout you saw on Instagram; it’s to design a space that fits your life. This is where the real adventure begins.

The UK van scene is booming. This surge is pushing suppliers to offer smarter, lighter materials that can slash build weight by 10–30%. For us in the UK, that’s a massive deal. We’re all battling with strict payload limits and Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW) rules, so every kilo saved counts.

Start with Accurate Measurements

I can’t stress this enough: your van is not a perfect rectangle. It has curved walls, wheel arches that get in the way of everything, and a roof that tapers. Measuring these quirks properly is non-negotiable.

• Measure Everything, Everywhere: Get the length, width, and height, but do it at multiple points. Measure at floor level, halfway up the walls, and at the ceiling. They will all be different.
• Map Your Obstacles: You need the exact location and dimensions of the wheel arches, the side door step, and any structural ribs you can’t remove. These are your fixed points.
• Think in Layers: Remember to subtract the thickness of your insulation, vapour barrier, cladding, and flooring from your initial measurements. This gives you the actual “liveable” space you have to work with.

A classic mistake is taking one measurement and running with it. A Ford Transit, for example, has a noticeable curve in the walls. If you build a dead-straight kitchen unit based on the floor measurement, you’ll find a massive gap at the top. I’ve seen it happen.

Pro Tip: Grab some old cardboard boxes and make full-size templates for tricky areas like the space around the wheel arches or the curve of the rear doors. It lets you physically test furniture shapes in the van before you commit to expensive timber.

Visualising Your Space: From Paper to Pixels

Once you have your true dimensions, it’s time to bring the layout to life. You don’t need to be an architect for this.

For many van builders, old-school graph paper and a pencil is still the best way. Draw the van’s footprint to scale, then use little paper cut-outs for your van conversion furniture, kitchen, and seats. Sliding them around gives you a real, tangible feel for the flow of the space.

If you’re more digitally minded, free software like SketchUp is a game-changer. It lets you build a full 3D model of your van and your furniture. This is brilliant for checking things like headroom, making sure drawers can actually open fully, and just generally visualising how it will all feel. Diving into a detailed guide on designing the perfect campervan layout can give you some more advanced pointers.

No matter which method you use, it helps to have a rough idea of the dimensions of some popular vans to get you started.

Popular UK Van Interior Dimensions

Here’s a quick reference table for the typical load space dimensions of some common UK van models. These are manufacturer specs, so always double-check with your own tape measure, but they provide a solid starting point for your sketches.

Remember, these figures are for an empty panel van. Your final internal dimensions will be smaller after you’ve added insulation, cladding, and flooring.

Planning Utilities Before You Build Anything

This is a big one. You have to plan where your electrics, water pipes, and gas lines will run before you build the furniture that will hide them.

Your furniture design absolutely must include access panels for maintenance. Just imagine trying to fix a leaky water pipe that’s buried behind a permanently fixed kitchen unit you’ve scribed perfectly to the wall. It’s a complete nightmare that you can easily avoid.

Design your furniture around your systems. Make sure you can get to your fuse box, water pump, and any gas shut-off valves without having to dismantle half the van. A bit of foresight here will save you a world of pain later on.

Choosing the Best Materials for Your Build

The materials you pick are the very soul of your van build. Get this right, and you’ll have furniture that’s tough, lightweight, and feels like home. Get it wrong, and you’ll be dealing with warped wood, flattened cushions, and unnecessary weight dragging you down.

This isn’t just about what looks good on Instagram; it’s about what survives the reality of UK van life – constant vibration, temperature swings, and the inevitable damp of a rainy Tuesday in Wales. Let’s get into the stuff that actually works.

Plywood: The Backbone of Your Build

Plywood is the go-to for pretty much every van build, and for good reason. It’s strong, relatively light, and you can get it anywhere. But not all ply is created equal. Picking the right sheet for the right job is critical.

• Birch Plywood: This is the undisputed king. It’s incredibly strong, holds screws like a vice, and has a beautiful, clean finish you can leave exposed. It’s heavier and pricier, yes, but for high-stress jobs like bed frames, kitchen units, and anything structural, its durability is worth every penny.

• Poplar Plywood: If saving weight is your number one priority, poplar ply is your best friend. It’s significantly lighter than birch but still offers decent strength. I use it for overhead lockers and cabinet doors – anywhere I can shave off kilograms without compromising integrity.

• Standard Hardwood Plywood: This is your reliable workhorse, the stuff you’ll find in big DIY chains. It’s a good middle-ground option – more affordable than birch but a step up in strength from basic softwood ply. It’s perfect for general cabinetry and internal panels.

If you want to go deeper, this comprehensive guide to plywood types is a great resource for understanding the nitty-gritty of what makes a quality sheet.

A Quick Word on Moisture: Vans get damp. It’s a fact of life. Whatever wood you choose, sealing it is non-negotiable. A few coats of hardwax oil or a decent varnish will protect your hard work from the inevitable condensation and temperature shifts. Don’t skip this.

Beyond the Plywood Panels

While plywood makes the skeleton, other materials bring your living space to life. Thinking about these early on will save you headaches down the line.

The UK furniture market is valued at around £18.78 billion in 2025, which is great news for us. It means there’s a massive industry catering to modular and lightweight components. This competition keeps costs down and makes it easier to find specialist panels and fabrics without massive lead times, even for one-off van builds.

Worktops That Can Take a Beating

Your kitchen worktop needs to be tough. Solid wood looks incredible but it’s brutally heavy and needs constant oiling. A smart compromise is a thinner, 27mm solid wood worktop (like oak or beech), which gives you the look without the insane weight penalty of a full-size kitchen slab.

Another brilliant, and arguably more practical, option is high-quality laminate bonded onto lightweight ply. You get a durable, waterproof, and scratch-resistant surface in a massive range of finishes, all without weighing down your van.

Upholstery Foam and Fabrics

The foam for your seating and bed will make or break your daily comfort. Seriously, don’t skimp here.

• Foam Density: For seating cushions, you absolutely need high-density foam – it’s usually blue. It provides firm support and won’t turn into a sad, flat pancake after a few months. For a mattress, a firm base layer topped with a softer memory foam gives you the perfect mix of support for your back and comfort for a good night’s sleep.

• Fabrics: Your fabric choice needs to be tough. Look for upholstery-grade materials with a high “rub count”—they’re designed to handle daily abuse. Think about muddy boots, cooking splatters, and the general grime of life on the road. Stain-resistant or wipe-clean materials are a godsend.

Remember, your furniture is part of your van’s whole ecosystem. There’s no point having beautiful cabinets if you’re freezing cold. Head over to our article on the best insulation for campervans to make sure your build is comfortable all year round. A bit of careful planning now pays off for thousands of miles to come.

Essential Tools and Joinery Techniques for Van Life

You don’t need a pro-level workshop to build brilliant van furniture. I’ve seen some of the best builds come together on driveways and in tiny garages. The truth is, a handful of good tools and a couple of solid joinery methods are all that stand between you and a custom interior that’s strong, stylish, and free from those infuriating rattles on the road.

Building durable furniture is less about having the flashiest gear and more about knowing which tool to grab and how to join two bits of wood so they stay joined, especially when bouncing down a B-road. Let’s get into the essential kit and the techniques that will give your build a solid, long-lasting finish.

Your Core Toolkit: The Absolute Must-Haves

Forget the fantasy of a perfectly kitted-out workshop. You can accomplish almost everything you need with just a few key items.

Here’s the short list that will see you through 90% of your furniture build:

• A Good Jigsaw: This will be your most versatile cutting tool. It’s the only way to properly scribe panels to the curved walls of your van, and it’s perfect for things like sink cut-outs and shaping corners on your units.
• A Quality Cordless Drill/Driver: You’ll use this constantly, for everything from drilling pilot holes to driving hundreds of screws. An 18V model with a couple of batteries is a solid investment you won’t regret.
• A Combination Square: Absolutely essential for marking accurate 90-degree and 45-degree angles. Don’t trust your eye; this little tool is the difference between square cabinets and wonky boxes.
• A Set of Clamps: You can never have enough clamps. They are your third and fourth hands, holding everything tight while the glue sets or while you’re trying to screw two pieces together on your own.

With just these four things, you can build the entire carcass of your van’s interior. We’ve got a more detailed breakdown in our complete list of essential tools and materials for campervan conversions, which covers absolutely everything you might need.

Tools That Give You a Professional Edge

Once you’ve got the basics covered, a couple of extra tools can seriously speed up your workflow and level up the quality of your finish. These aren’t strictly necessary, but they make a huge difference.

• A Pocket Hole Jig: This is a genuine game-changer for creating strong, hidden joints quickly. It lets you join wood at right angles without any visible screws on the outside, giving your furniture a much cleaner, more professional look.
• A Circular Saw: While a jigsaw can technically do long cuts, a circular saw with a guide rail is unbeatable for getting perfectly straight, clean edges on big sheets of plywood. It saves a massive amount of time and sanding later on.

Fundamental Joinery for Rattle-Free Furniture

The way you join your wood is critical. Your furniture will be subjected to constant vibration and twisting forces as the van moves, so your joints need to be tough. Two simple methods will cover pretty much every situation you’ll come across.

Pocket Holes: The DIYer’s Best Friend

This technique uses a special jig to drill a hole at a steep angle into one piece of wood. You then drive a self-tapping screw through that hole and into the second piece. It creates an incredibly strong joint that’s also ridiculously fast to make.

My Experience: For the strongest possible joint, always add wood glue before you screw the pieces together. The screw acts as a powerful clamp, pulling the joint tight while the glue cures, and the glue provides the long-term rigidity that stops things from loosening over time.

This method is perfect for building cabinet carcasses, face frames, and attaching panels where you want the fixings to be completely hidden.

Butt Joints with Screws: A Simple Classic

This is the most basic joinery there is: simply butting two pieces of wood together at a right angle and screwing through one into the other. It’s not as elegant as a pocket hole, but it’s strong, fast, and absolutely fine for many applications.

This approach works best for internal structures that won’t be seen, like support battens or internal cabinet dividers. Just remember to always drill a pilot hole first to stop the wood from splitting, especially when you’re working close to the edge of a plywood sheet.

Vanlifers in the UK are increasingly focused on lightweight, modular builds. This isn’t just a trend; it’s a practical response to our strict payload limits. Industry analysis shows a big shift towards designs that reduce build weight by 10–30%. This push influences everything from material choices to the construction methods we use, making efficient joinery techniques that provide strength without bulk more critical than ever.

Getting Your Hands Dirty: Real-World Furniture Builds

Theory is one thing, but sawdust on the floor and a solid piece of furniture you built yourself is where the real satisfaction kicks in. It’s time to turn those plans and material choices into something tangible. We’ll look at how three essential pieces of van conversion furniture come together.

These are based on common, road-tested designs that I’ve seen work time and again. Think of them as reliable blueprints you can adapt to fit the unique dimensions and quirks of your own van, not as rigid instructions.

We’ll start with the heart of any good layout: the bed. Then, we’ll move on to a hardworking kitchen unit and finish with some much-needed overhead storage.

The Convertible Bed and Dinette System

Let’s be honest, a permanent fixed bed is a luxury most medium-sized vans just can’t afford. The classic solution is a clever convertible system that serves as a comfy seating and dining area by day and a spacious bed by night. The U-shaped or L-shaped lounge is popular for a reason—it’s just incredibly efficient with the space you have.

The core of this build is three simple boxes: two long benches running down the sides of the van and a shorter box connecting them at the back to form your seating. When it’s time to sleep, you bridge the gap between the benches with slats or removable panels. These rest on ledges you’ve built into the bench framework. Then, you just rearrange the seat cushions to form a surprisingly comfortable mattress. Simple, but it works.

A Few Key Pointers:

• Bench Height: Aim for a comfortable seating height of around 45cm, and don’t forget to include the thickness of your cushions in that measurement. This is the sweet spot that lets most people sit with their feet flat on the floor.
• Support Ledges: Grab a sturdy wooden batten (something around 40mm x 20mm is perfect) and fix it along the inside top edge of each long bench. This is what your bed slats will rest on, so glue and screw it properly—it’s taking a lot of weight.
• Lid Access: Make your life easier by hinging the tops of the benches. This creates massive, easily accessible storage bins underneath. Piano hinges are brilliant for this as they spread the load evenly along the whole lid.
• Table Mount: You’ll want to install a table leg mount in the floor space between the benches. Something like a Sequoia or a Lagun leg system lets you have a removable table that can be stowed away at night or when you just need more room to move.

I’d build the main structure from 15mm birch plywood. It has all the strength you need to support people sitting and sleeping, but you can build the internal framing with lightweight timber battens to keep the weight down.

A Tip from Experience: When you’re cutting the plywood panels for the benches, think about ventilation. I always use a hole saw to drill a series of large holes in the panels that face inwards. This allows air to circulate inside those big storage areas, which is absolutely crucial for preventing condensation and damp, especially if you plan on storing bedding or clothes in there.

The Compact Kitchen Galley

Your kitchen unit is probably the hardest-working piece of furniture in the entire van. It needs to house a sink, a hob, your water containers, and provide that precious bit of worktop space, all within a tiny footprint. A simple, strong cabinet is the only way to go.

The basic structure is just a box. I typically build the main carcass from 15mm or 18mm plywood to make sure it’s robust enough to handle the weight of water tanks and a solid worktop. An internal divider is a good idea to separate the “wet” area (water tanks) from the “dry” area where you might keep your gas bottle or other supplies.

Making Those Critical Cut-Outs:

Your new sink and hob will come with a paper template. Whatever you do, don’t lose it.

1. Positioning: Lay the template on your worktop and play around with the position. Make sure you leave enough structural wood around the edges for strength. Just as important, have a quick check underneath to ensure you have enough clearance for the depth of the sink bowl and the gas fittings for the hob.
2. Drilling Corners: Drill a pilot hole inside each corner of the template’s cut-out line. Make the hole big enough for your jigsaw blade to easily fit through.
3. Cutting: Using a jigsaw with a fine-toothed blade (this gives a much cleaner cut on plywood), carefully follow the template line from one corner hole to the next. The key here is to go slow. Rushing is how you make mistakes you can’t undo.

For the cabinet doors, you can drop down to a lighter 12mm plywood to save a few kilograms. A set of concealed cabinet hinges and some strong magnetic catches will give you a clean, professional finish and, more importantly, stop the doors flying open every time you take a sharp corner.

Lightweight Overhead Storage Lockers

Overhead lockers are absolutely essential. They get clothes, food, and all sorts of other stuff up and out of the way, freeing up that valuable floor-level space. The real challenge here is building them strong enough to hold your gear but light enough that they don’t pose a safety risk or eat into your precious payload.

The secret is to use lighter materials and clever construction. I’ve found a combination of 12mm poplar plywood for the main body and a thinner 4mm or 6mm plywood back panel is a great recipe for saving weight. It’s that back panel, scribed perfectly to the curve of your van’s wall and ceiling, that gives the whole unit its rigidity once you fix it in place.

My Go-To Construction and Mounting Strategy:

• First, build the locker as a simple box on your workbench. It’s far easier than trying to build it in-situ.
• I use pocket holes and wood glue for the main joints. This creates a really strong but surprisingly lightweight frame without adding bulky timber battens.
• For the door, go with an upward-opening design supported by gas struts or locker stays. Trust me, it’s far more convenient than a side-opening door when you’re standing right underneath it.
• When it comes to mounting, you must secure the locker to the van’s metal ribs, not just to the wooden cladding. Use rivet nuts (also called nutserts) inserted directly into the van’s structural metalwork. This creates a rock-solid mounting point that will never, ever come loose.

How to Securely Mount Furniture in Your Van

Right, let’s talk about the single most important part of your furniture build: anchoring it so it doesn’t try to kill you. You can craft the most beautiful birch ply kitchen unit in the world, but if it isn’t bolted down properly, it’s just a massive, dangerous projectile waiting for you to brake hard.

This isn’t about stopping a few annoying rattles on a bumpy road; this is a fundamental safety issue. We need to attach every single piece of furniture directly to the van’s strong, structural metal frame—not the lovely but flimsy plywood cladding you just spent weeks installing.

Let’s be crystal clear: a few screws into your wall panels will do precisely nothing. They have zero structural integrity and will rip out with the slightest bit of force. We’re going to cover the proper methods for creating rock-solid anchor points that keep your furniture, and you, safe on the road.

Before you get the saw out, it’s worth thinking about what you should build first. Your core needs should dictate your priorities.

This simple decision tree helps you figure it out. If your main goal is having a place to sleep, the bed frame comes first. If it’s cooking, the kitchen pod is your starting point. Don’t overcomplicate it.

Finding and Using Structural Points

Your van’s chassis is its skeleton. It’s a network of vertical ribs and horizontal support beams that give the vehicle all its strength. These are the only places you should be anchoring heavy items like beds, kitchens, or overhead lockers.

Finding them is easy. Just tap along the inside of your van walls—you’ll hear a solid thud instead of a hollow echo when you’re over a rib. A strong magnet slid along the wall works just as well, as it will stick firmly to the steel frame underneath.

Once you’ve located these structural points, you’ve got a few solid options for creating a fixing point. The method you pick really depends on how heavy the furniture is and where you’re mounting it.

Common Fixing Methods

Securing your furniture properly is non-negotiable, and there are several tried-and-tested methods. Below is a quick comparison of the most common techniques I’ve used and seen in countless other builds.

Comparing Furniture Fixing Methods

Each method has its place, but for anything that carries significant weight, through-bolting and rivet nuts are the only options I’d ever trust.

Safety First: Always Check Before You Drill
This is the golden rule. Before you drill a single hole, get under the van and check what’s on the other side. The last thing you want is to drill through your fuel tank, a brake line, or a critical wiring loom. This is a five-minute check that can save you from a catastrophic and expensive mistake.

Dealing with Those Annoying Curved Van Walls

One of the biggest headaches in any van build is that absolutely nothing is flat or straight. Trying to fix a square-backed cabinet to a curved van wall will leave you with ugly gaps and a unit that isn’t properly supported, leading to squeaks and stress fractures down the line.

The solution is simple and effective: wooden battens.

By fixing timber battens horizontally to the van’s structural ribs first, you create a perfectly flat, vertical mounting surface for your furniture to sit flush against. This makes installation a thousand times easier and adds another layer of strength to the entire structure. For a pro finish, take the time to scribe the back of the batten to match the van’s curve. This gives you a perfect, solid fit and ensures your van conversion furniture is rock-solid and completely silent on the move.

Common Questions About Van Conversion Furniture

As you get deeper into the build, you’ll start hitting the same walls everyone else does. It’s totally normal. Every single van lifer has wrestled with the exact same dilemmas over weight, the DVLA, and getting a finish on their plywood that actually lasts.

I’m going to tackle some of the most frequent questions I hear from fellow UK builders. These are clear, practical answers based on years of doing this stuff for real, designed to get you past the roadblocks and building with confidence.

How Can I Make Furniture Lighter Without Sacrificing Strength?

This is the classic van conversion balancing act, and the secret isn’t just using thicker wood everywhere. It’s about being clever with your materials and design. It’s about building smarter, not just bigger.

First up, your choice of plywood is critical. Go for lightweight poplar or a quality birch ply instead of standard MDF or those heavy, cheap sheets you see at DIY stores. Using thinner sheets, like 12mm or 15mm for the main cabinet carcasses, makes a massive difference straight away. You can then reinforce the critical stress points with internal timber battens rather than making the whole thing from heavy 18mm board.

Another fantastic technique is to build frames from aluminium angle or box section. Once you have these super-strong, feather-light frames, you can clad them with very thin plywood—maybe only 4-6mm thick. This composite approach gives you incredible rigidity for a fraction of the weight of a solid timber build.

Here’s a simple but brilliant weight-saving trick: use a hole saw to cut large circles out of any internal panels that aren’t visible, like cabinet dividers or the base of your bed. It might not look like much, but shaving off all those little bits of wood really adds up to a significant weight reduction across the entire build.

Do I Need to Inform the DVLA About My Furniture?

This is a big one for UK converters, and the short answer is: it depends on how permanent your build is. If you bolt in fixed furniture that fundamentally changes the vehicle’s purpose from a panel van to a ‘motor caravan’, then yes, you absolutely need to apply for reclassification with the DVLA.

To meet the DVLA’s official criteria for a motor caravan, your conversion generally needs to have fixed features like:

• A bed, which can be converted from seating
• A water storage tank and a tap
• A fixed table and seating area
• Permanent cooking facilities
• At least one window on the side of the main living area

Now, if your van conversion furniture is modular and designed to be easily taken out, you might not need to re-register the vehicle. But—and this is the crucial part—you must inform your insurance provider of all modifications, no matter how temporary. They often have much stricter requirements than the DVLA, and failing to declare your conversion could completely invalidate your policy if you need to make a claim.

What Is the Best Way to Finish Plywood Furniture?

Getting a durable finish on your plywood is vital. It’s what protects your hard work from the knocks, spills, and condensation that are just part of van life.

For a beautiful, natural look, a couple of coats of a hardwax oil (like Osmo Polyx-Oil) is a brilliant choice. It soaks into the wood to protect it from within and is incredibly easy to touch up if you get a scratch. No sanding the whole thing down, just a quick dab on the affected area.

If you need something tougher and more waterproof, especially for a kitchen worktop, you can’t beat a polyurethane varnish.

For those wanting a painted finish, preparation is everything. Seriously, don’t skip this. Always start with a quality wood primer to seal the ply and stop the grain from bleeding through your paint. Once that’s dry, follow up with two or three coats of a durable satin or eggshell paint. This will give you a hard-wearing surface that’s a doddle to wipe clean.

At The Feral Way, we provide tried-and-tested advice for every stage of your UK van conversion, from initial planning to hitting the road. Check out our other guides for more no-nonsense tips at https://www.theferalway.com.