You don’t need to buy a costly large or mid-size van to start living the van life. If you own a minivan, you can get started wherever you’re at, even if you have zero DIY skills. Build custom furniture out of plywood, install a conversion kit, or opt for a no-build setup – there are no rules.
We’ve put together a list of 16 ingenious minivan conversion interior ideas. You can steal the elements you like from each and use them to design the perfect floor plan for your minivan camper.
We’ve included DIY conversions, pre-assembled professional kits, custom conversions, and no-build rigs. There are so many clever features you could include in your design in there!
Ready to turn your trusty old minivan into a cozy home on wheels?
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Table of Contents
1) Minivan Man’s DIY Camper
This incredible-looking DIY conversion is by Gustavo Stickery, who shares his work on Instagram as Minivan Man.
Rather than going for the classic slide-out kitchen under the tailgate, Gustavo installed a fixed kitchen with a sink and counter space behind the front seats by the sliding door. Positioning it here makes cooking both inside and outside the vehicle easy. You can make a warm meal while sitting inside your minivan, out of the elements, or cook outside by setting up a camping table next to the kitchenette.
Another great feature of Gustavo’s conversion is the outdoor sink and shower – he installed a tank and shower hose inside the minivan. This allows him to either clean sandy feet before getting into the minivan or wash the dishes outside using a portable sink. Genius.
2) Vanpacker’s Dodge Grand Caravan Conversion Kit
Want to spend more time inside your minivan? Check out this conversion kit for the Dodge Grand Caravan made by Vapackers. It comes with a living room!
During the day, the minivan’s interior looks as shown in the photo. There are two benches facing each other – one behind the front seats and one at the back. The benches are made of four wooden boxes.
There’s enough space between them to fit a removable table. At night, the benches turn into a comfy double bed. If you’re traveling solo, you can leave two boxes at home to set up a single bed, so there’s a lot of space next to it.
The kitchen at the back is slim, so it doesn’t take up much space. Some of it is fixed, while some parts slide out. It’s designed so you can access the sink, worktop, hob, and cooler at the same time. Super clever.
3) RiverLeaf’s Grand Teton Camper Box
Looking to build a classic minivan conversion? The Grand Teton camper box by RiverLeaf provides the perfect inspiration. Inside it, you’ll find a double bed that folds away towards the trunk to create a bench and a slide-out kitchen at the back.
The bed platform is high enough to fit a portable toilet underneath. You can fold away all of it, creating a single bench in the back of your vehicle, or you can fold a third of it away. This creates a nice lounge area that leaves enough space to easily get in and out of the minivan.
The kitchen has two long slide-out drawers containing a sink, a portable stove, two small worktop areas, and a cooler. You can use both drawers at the same time if you stand on either side of them. The stove is next to the sink, so filling up the kettle is easy.
This conversion design is great if you have a minivan with decent headroom, like the Ford Transit or the Nissan NV. You can elevate the bed to fit all your kitchen gear in the drawers at the back.
4) Freeway Camper Kit’s Malibu 2 Minivan Conversion
This professional minivan conversion kit manufactured by Freeway Camper Kit is ideal for campers who want – or need – to make the most of the space available inside their vehicle as a sleeping place.
It features a large double bed that extends to the back of the front seats and folds away during the day and a large fixed kitchen in the back. This comes with a sink, a top-opening cooler, and two flip-up tables for counter space. The sink’s faucet is extendable, so you can use it as an outdoor shower. If you don’t like to go to the toilet outdoors, you can store a Porta Potti under the bed.
This type of floor plan suits vehicles like the Chrysler Pacifica, Volkswagen Routan, Mercedes Metris, and Chrysler Town and Country.
5) Amanda’s DIY Minivan Conversion With Shelves
Do you need to take lots of gear and clothes with you when you go adventuring in your minivan? Then you have to check out Amanda’s Dodge Grand Caravan conversion.
It features a double bed that turns into a couch with shelves on both sides and a kitchen on the left-hand side of the vehicle. When the bed is folded away, there’s space to fit a floating table in front of it to eat and work.
The kitchen is compact but has a sink and portable stove. It also has a flip-up table you can use to place the stove outside the vehicle to limit condensation.
To create this DIY conversion, Amanda had to remove all the seats inside her vehicle. So she can’t use it as a people carrier.
6) DIY Conversion With Central Kitchen
This DIY minivan camper features two benches facing each other in the back. On the left-hand side of the vehicle, between them, there’s a fixed kitchen. This spills out of the sliding door, allowing you to cook outdoors when the weather is good.
The kitchen unit includes a cooler, sink, and three flip-up worktop areas. When everything’s folded away, it might look tiny, but it quickly becomes a very practical cooking area.
The benches turn into a very long double bed. If you prefer a narrower but longer bed, this floor plan is right up your street.
7) VW-Inspired Minivan Camper Conversion
Do you dream of owning an iconic VW campervan, like the Westfalia, but you don’t like the price tag? Why not turn your minivan into one? You can copy and shrink any VW California floor plan to fit your vehicle.
Take a look at this camper. It features a sleek fixed kitchen with a wooden countertop on the left-hand side of the vehicle. This is narrow but functional—it comes with a sink and plenty of chopping space. You can also attach a removable table to the unit to create a dinette.
On the other side of the vehicle, there’s a cooler you can access from inside or outside the minivan. Towards the back of the vehicle, a bench turns into a bed. There you have it – you’ve turned your minivan into a mini VW campervan.
8) RoadLoft’s Minivan Camper Conversion
Do you have a small minivan to convert? Then check out this conversion kit by Roadloft. All the furniture sits low on the van’s floor to maximize the available headroom. The bed extends to the back of the vehicle to maximize the interior space.
The kitchen slides out from under the bed. It’s made of two drawers—one on each side of the minivan. There’s a gap between them, so you can stand there to cook and pull out the cooler that’s stored under the bed. The bed can turn into a dinette with a narrow table. Because everything’s so low, there’s decent headroom to sit inside.
This design works great on smaller vehicles, like the Kia Sedona, Honda Odyssey, Kia Carnival, and Toyota Sienna.
9) Glenn’s Budget DIY Toyota Sienna Conversion
On a budget, Glenn converted his Toyota Sienna into a mini campervan DIY. When you look at it, you’d never be able to tell it’s not been made professionally – it’s so cozy! And the cushions look extra plush.
His floor plan features a platform bed, a fixed kitchen area, and shelves on one side of the minivan. Simple yet effective.
The unique thing about Glenn’s conversion is the hinge in the middle of the bed. This allows him to create a bench in the front of the vehicle, next to the kitchen, and leave a nice sitting area at the back.
Glenn also built a DIY side awning using a cheap tarp and two bamboo sticks, so he and his wife can hang out outside even when it’s hot or rainy.
10) Freeway Camper Kit’s Sleeping Giant Minivan Conversion
If you want to include lots of ingenious details and features in your conversion, you need to check out the Sleeping Giant minivan camper by Freeway Camper Kit.
Every detail is designed to offer the maximum comfort. For example, the upper storage in the back can be used from the inside, so you can cook indoors, watch a movie on your laptop, or grab anything you want from the kitchen without getting out of the vehicle.
What’s different about the Sleeping Giant is the dinette area – rather than featuring benches going across the vehicles, it comes with longitudinal benches. So you sit next to the sliding doors. Under the benches, there’s space to fit a portable toilet. You can place this next to the sliding doors, so it’s easy to pick it up and use it outdoors.
The kitchen is located in the back and features two big slide-out compartments that hide a sink with a shower faucet, worktop, and cooler.
Every piece of furniture in this conversion kit comes with holes, which create great ventilation inside the storage compartments. This is a great feature for campers who want to keep their gear, like sleeping bags or backpacks, inside their camper full-time.
11) Egoe Nesxtbox’s Hiker 100 Box
The Nestboard is a camping box designed to fold away to become a compact rectangular box when not in use.
Creating a camper that you can neatly stash away in the back of your vehicle or leave in your garage is super convenient if you don’t want to go camping full-time. The secret to building a camper like this is to design modular elements to expand and retract every part of the box.
The Hiker 100 has a collapsible sink and worktop, drawers, and a fold-out double bed. The box also fits a cooker, a refrigerator, and essential crockery.
Another clever idea Egoe Nestbox incorporated into their kits is the expandable bed slats – you can expand the bed as much as you like to fit your minivan interior perfectly, making the most of all available space. This is a genius idea that’s not too difficult to replicate DIY.
12) Minivan Custom Conversion By Oasis Campervans
The Classic conversion by Oasis Campervans offers a unique idea for a dinette. The platform bed turns into a U-shaped couch, which extends from the front to the back of the vehicle.
This huge living room lets you sit back and chill out in the van in bad weather. There’s also a swivel table in the middle, so one person can work on their laptop while the other is lounging, reading a book. Or, if you’d like to invite some friends over, the couch can seat up to four people. Neat.
This kit also features a fixed kitchen at the back of the van with a fold-up countertop and top-opening cooler.
The Classic conversion suits most minivans popular in the US, like the Toyota Sienna, Honda Odyssey, Kia Sedona, and Chrysler Pacifica.
13) Compass Camper’s Universal Camper Bed Platform
Want to keep things super simple? If you don’t have the time – or the will – to spend weeks creating complicated custom furniture for your minivan, opt for a basic, practical design. Build an elevated platform bed that takes up the back of your vehicle, like the Compass Camper Universal Bed Platform.
This type of kit simply adds a bed to the back of your vehicle. Place storage boxes underneath it so you can easily pull out your gear. That’s it!
You’ll probably need to play around with the height of the legs so the platform sits evenly in the minivan, but you can keep the construction extra simple by building a rectangular platform rather than templating the interior of your minivan.
The Compass Camper kit also comes with a flip-up extension at the front of the platform bed, so you can pull the front seats forward to make the most of the space inside your vehicle. That’s a nice idea for taller campers.
14) Unicamp’s Pop-Top Roof For The Kia Carnival
You likely haven’t considered this, but hear us out. If your budget allows it, you could add a pop-top to your minivan, like this one from Unicamp.
This would allow you to use the “lower floor” as a living room and kitchen area while expanding the headroom in your vehicle. Your camper will essentially be double the size!
Sleeping in a pop-top is also fantastic when you need lots of ventilation in the summer. Many minivan conversions don’t include a rooftop fan, so you need to lower the windows before sleeping. This is not ideal, even if you install rain guards to keep the rain and hail out.
If installing a pop-top is out of your budget but you love the idea of having an “upstairs” bedroom, consider adding a rooftop tent to your rig.
15) Camp N Car’s Solo Minivan Conversion
Are you a solo camper who wants to live in their minivan full-time? Then you should take a look at the Camp N Car Home On Wheels furniture kit.
It features a single expandible bunk and an L-shaped storage unit with eight compartments at the back. You can access the rear shelves from both inside and outside the vehicle. Under the bed, there are two big drawers.
As you can see, this kit maximizes the space in a minivan to create as much storage space as possible. You can build the furniture as tall as you like to make the most of the available headroom in your vehicle.
16) The No-Build Minivan Camper
Don’t want to spend much time or money on building your minivan conversion? You don’t need to! Opt for a no-build conversion like this one.
Simply remove the seats and lay mats on the floor of your minivan. When you’re ready to sleep, inflate your sleeping mat and place your sleeping bag on top of it.
Use transparent storage boxes to carry all your needed gear and keep the camper organized. For example, you could assemble a kitchen box with a portable stove and sink, pots, pans, and essential crockery.
If removing or lowering your minivan’s seats is easy and quick, this is a great way to become a weekend warrior.
More Articles to Read:
- Our Ultimate Minivan Camper Guide: Your One-Stop Shop for Kits and Inspiration
- Stunning Minivan Camper Conversion Kits to Transform Your Van
- The Top 5 Minivan Camping Tents for Easy Car Camping
