Materials/Spend:
- 12V Sockets x2 - £13.32
- Bluetooth Speaker - £29.99
- Carbon Monoxide Detector - £25.00
- Coat Hanger - £15.00
- Curtains - £22.00
- Door Mat - £5.00
- Drainer - £3.00
- Drawer Organisers x3 - £36.00
- EU Driving Kit - £34.99
- Fairy Lights - £4.99
- Fire Safety - £28.70
- Garage Light - £23.98
- Hangers x2 - £4.00
- Internet - £59.50
- Monitor - £179.49
- Spice Racks x2 - £9.00
- Kitchen Roll Holder - £12.98
- Kitchen clasps - £8.99
- Mattress - £214.99
- Mirror - £8.99
- Pictures - £30.00
- Reverse Camera - £199.99
- Shower Curtain - £16.00
- Shower Mat - £18.99
- Sorting Bins x2 - £26.00
- Toolkit - £30.99
TOTAL: £1,058.88
It is done. I’ve finally finished the van! (For now)...
Since my last post I’ve been spending time getting a bunch of little bits together in order to finish off the van and I thought I’d list them all here in this final build post.
Wall Space
Starting off with the wall space, I basically bought every single variety of IKEA spice rack/shelf that you can get. Ranging from £4.50, they’re so ridiculously cheap, I thought it would save me so much time and money than making them from scratch. I bought some smaller racks and placed them around the van, as well as a rail which I can hang things off using hooks or hanging bags.
I also wall-mounted a couple of photographs that my very talented friend Zak took. I’ve added a link to his Etsy here, I highly recommend checking him out.
Storage
In terms of storage space in cupboards and drawers, as I’m yet to live in my van full time I haven’t quite coordinated where everything’s going to go yet, but I bought a range of organisers from IKEA to help arrange things.
Ranging from simple in-drawer clothing dividers, to little wooden in-cupboard boxes, IKEA has so many different cheap options. I also bought a couple of kitchen drawer organisers whereby you place a grid-style mat at the bottom of the drawer and then you can fix in place plastic pegs wherever you need them in order to keep things like plates and bowls firmly in place.
Also for the kitchen drawers, I fitted some simple ball latches on the inside of each of the drawers to stop them from opening as I’m driving around.
On the side of my kitchen unit facing out of the side of the van, I fitted a coat hanger and then below I made a simple wooden box to hold my shoes.
In the front of the van, I found an electrician’s tool bag that fits perfectly under the passenger seat where I have a few emergency tools for when I’m on the road, such as a drill and screwdrivers.
Under the other passenger seat, I have a few safety items such as a fire extinguisher, fire blanket and first aid safety kit, as well as a EU driving kit.
Furnishings
Next to my shoe rack on the side step of the van, I cut a doormat lengthways and stuck it down with velcro so I can remove it if I need to clean it.
I bought a small circular mirror and stuck it head height on the side of my cabinets just so I can check I don’t have toothpaste on my face when I leave the van.
My mother kindly helped trim and sew some curtains to fit the side windows of the van and then my sister made me a magnetic curtain I can place on the window on the sliding door. She was also kind enough to sew me some foam seat cushions, as well as some lovely placemats.
Lastly, I bought a custom cut mattress as my bed is slightly shorter than a single bed but slightly wider. This mattress has a memory foam layer and I was surprised to find it didn’t cost that much more than a standard mattress.
Electrical Items
When finishing off my electrical system, I fitted a couple sets of 12V sockets, mainly for more USB charging. I read a really good tip to keep your sockets just a standard 12V fitting and then buy a USB adapter for them. The reason for this is because USB technology is always being updated so you want to be able to buy a new adapter whenever USB-C1000TURBO is released.
As I run LPG in the van, I’m 99% sure I need a carbon monoxide detector. Either way, it’s good to be safe so I bought one. I also bought a cheap bluetooth speaker which fits perfectly in my spice rack towards the front of the van.
I plan to do a lot of work from the van (as well as watching loads of Netflix) so I wanted to wall mount a monitor. It was actually really hard to find a smaller monitor that had both in-built speakers as well as a HDMI input. I’ve got a Chromecast set up on it so I can cast my laptop screen or stream movies. Probably the latter.
For my internet, I picked up a little portable wifi router which I’ve tested in numerous locations in the UK and hasn’t let me down yet. For actual internet, as I’m planning on saying in the UK for now, I sorted a PAYG sim with 1pMobile. They either charge you for what you use or you can buy bolt-ons up to 200GB for £20.
As I’m driving around a lot on my own, it’s understandably hard to park when you only have wing mirrors to use. I wanted to buy a rear view camera but I really didn’t want to take my van apart again so I managed to find a wireless camera that sits behind your license plate and then uses small solar panels to charge. This then wirelessly feeds back to a monitor you can place in the front of the van and power from your cigarette lighter.
Garage
Finally, in the garage I fitted a long sheet of ply width ways across the top of my benches for simple storage, as well as using some simple hooks from B&Q to fashion a little rack for my skateboard.
I also mounted a magnetic strip light to illuminate the garage at night time but can also unmount it and use it as a flashlight if need be.
I used a couple of hooks to wall mount a bamboo shower mat to the inner door of the van so I can easily take it off and pop it on the floor when showering. As for the shower curtain, it may be the best (and only) piece of engineering I’ve ever invented!
The rails themselves sit across the top of both my rear windows, but when you have the doors open, they’re fitted on hinges so they extend out across the width of the van and I can connect the two using a section of plastic piping. The curtains then spread across the newly joined shower rail and stick together with velcro. The bottom corners closest to the van have a little loop of string fitted so I can attach both corners to a hook on the door of the van. This creates a little shower room I can use at the rear of the van.
Finally, to signify the end of the build, my dear friend Chris kindly 3D-printed me a Green Horn Country Club logo to fit on the rear door to replace the Mercedes logo. Absolutely chuffed to bits with it!
If you have any questions at all, feel free to ping me an email or drop me a message on Instagram!
