Given that this a smaller van and we had to put a large mattress we didn’t have too much room to build on the inside. We made use to as much of the space we could. The layout is pretty simple, queen mattress along the passenger side and storage next to bed along the driver side. Having room under the bed to store stuff was also important to us but we did want to make sure we could sit up with enough head room on the bed.
To start we needed a base to support everything. On the passenger side this was very easy, we built a box around the wheel well using some 2×4 and 2×6. They are stacked on top each other with supports in the corners to hold it together as well as some plywood on the top as a cover.
On the driver side we started with a 2×4 and a 2×6 stacked again but this time it runs from the front to back the entire length of the bed so the bed can sit on it. On the inside we have supports to hold it together and to hold it up. We also put plywood on the walls to be one side of the storage. The storage is going to be broken up into three sections, one long one over the wheel well, a deeper one, and then another shallow one above the gas tank fill up. I also added plywood from the back to where the first section will go.
Previously I had gone ahead and made the frame for the bed. It is made of 2x4s to make sure it is strong enough for 2 people and a large dog. Our bed is a queen size and runs front to back, if you are able to I would rather have the bed side to side to have more space but I am too tall to fit that way. I needed the bed frame made already so I can measure where everything needs to be.
With the bed frame in place I can see how much space it takes up. I framed out the first section of the storage and added the sides of it. I used the wall of the van for one side of it and built the other sides off of the base I had made. I did this for each section with the middle one going all the way to the floor of the van. For the lid I used a shelve that I found at Home Depot and used hinges on the inside.
To secure everything I used L brackets. There are eight total that I used, four hold the bed frame to the base and four to hold the base to the floor. I also needed to add two legs to the bed in the corners on the side that doesn’t go the entire length of the bed. Both are in the corners, one front and one back.
