I’ve been anticipating this build for over a month. I’ve always felt this would be the most important part of the interior. When in “sleep mode” the bed will take up at least 50% of living space in the van, so a good design is very important. I went through what felt like hundreds of designs. I flip flopped between simple, plywood sheet based beds and eccentric, pulley based beds. I sweated over materials, size, strength, and just about everything else you can think of.

Eventually I found exactly what I was looking for when I stumbled on VanDogTraveller’s great sliding bed, which I later found out was inspired by the classic Deep Red build. It had everything I wanted. When it wasn’t a full size bed it doubled as a nearly full-sized couch. It had a huge amount of easy access storage and was also a beautiful piece of furniture compared to most plywood beds I had been considering. So after mocking up the bed in SketchUp (which you can see here), I knew this was the bed for me.

After I had finished the shell of the van (insulation, walls, ceiling, floor, etc), the next step was the bed. Because I’m taking a “fly by the seat of my pants” approach to this build out, I wanted to finish the bed before planning the rest of the interior. It would be the largest piece in the van, so everything would need to be built around it.

First step was acquiring materials. Here is my material breakdown:

1×3 – Qty 11

2×3 – Qty 6

2×4 – Qty 2

3″ Deck Screws – 1 lb

1″ Screws – 1/2 lb

Hinges (w/ 1/4″ screws) – Qty 4

After I had everything, I set-up shop on the grass outside of our apartment. I parked the van on the gravel beside the road. I was lucky I had all this space available to me, as it made the process much easier. Had I been forced to build the bed IN the van, it would have been a frustrating experience. With all this space, it was rather easy. I got my laptop out with my SketchUp design and got to work. I saw right away I forgot to factor in the wheel well. Silly mistake, but luckily it was a rather easy modification to frame around. After taking measurements for the wheel well, I got to work cutting wood for the frame. I got all the pieces cut and assembled them on the grass using 3″ screws (overkill but why not? I already had them). I tried to use at least three screws in each butt joint.

Once the pieces were assembled I put them into the van and made sure my measurements were accurate. This was when I really kicked myself. When I set the frame inside the van I realized that even the TOP of my frame didn’t have enough clearance to clear the wheel well. I thought for a few minutes on this one. I knew I didn’t have the clearance to make the frame taller. It would already be tight with the 8″ mattress we planned on using. I could either frame around it like I did on the bottom, or I could piece out so the frame rested on the wheel well. I decided to go with the latter because of how the bed would sit in the cab. The cab of the van isn’t a perfect rectangle (as you probably guessed), it’s more egg shaped. The middle is several inches wider then the front and rear. In order to maximize space, the bed would need to sit at a slight angle so that the back is always touching the wall. Framing around this would be somewhat difficult.

So I made the cut, dry fit the frame to the wheel well, cut again, dry fit, then sanded until it was perfect. I’m pretty happy with my decision now, as this doesn’t seem to have affected the stability or comfort of the bed in any way. The detailed picture below is after the first cut. .

Once the frame was done, I got to work on the first lid piece. This design required me to create two lid pieces. One would be attached to the frame and act as a lid, the other would slide out freely and only be attached to two legs on the front. Each would consist of two 1×3’s running the length of the frame. The back of the first lid would be attached to the frame with hinges and the back of the second would be floating, while the slates from the first lid would hold it in place.

I spaced each slat one inch apart using a square. Then I used a pencil to trace the slat, and then used the square to space another inch past that. That allowed me to finish the first lid and be confident I would have the spacing correct for the second. I also had to keep one slat longer than the rest to act as a handle for opening the lid. Since the first lid would be attached to the frame with hinges, this is where I wanted the handle. Now I would be able to access the storage space underneath the bed.

After the first lid was finished I framed out the second lid. Since the long 1×3 in the back acted as a runner board, this had to be done in place. I then created the front legs using two small pieces of 2×4 and a 2×3 running the length of the frame for support. This ended up weighing more then I would like and it’s actually a bit of a struggle to lift.

UPDATE: I ended up removing the 2×3. I added a third leg in the middle for support.

After both lids were finished I secured the hinges. I used 3″ non-mortise hinges . At first I only used two, but because of the weight of the lids combined with the front legs, I decided to add two more.

After that it was just a matter of sanding the whole thing down to make it look nice (including rounding the handle) and waxing the slats and lid pieces so they would slide freely. Later I will add pine paneling to the front and sides to conceal the storage to have a more finished look.

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What do you guys think? I’m pretty happy with it how it turned out! Can’t wait to get the mattress and try it out. If you have any questions leave a comment below!