It is hard to believe we have come this far with the van build this fast. We have finally finished Loki’s lower living space section and the garage type area in the trunk. All of our cabinet work is what we are calling our “Shanty Chic” design… aka, functional and strong.

We continue to be frugal (or shanty) in our van conversion pursuits so, as you will see, our cabinets are not perfect, shiny, or pre-fab store bought. They are, however, perfect for us, functional, and very strong. We worked so hard on pulling this part of the build together and we absolutely love the results. We are proud to call them our own and not cookie cutter premade-prebuilt and expensive.

Van Toilet Cabinet

Beginning our tour of the living area of the van, we start with the all important bathroom necessity, otherwise known as the toilet.

We have always had a plan to forgo the use of a dedicated “black tank” and opted instead for an all in one porta-potti set up. This toilet has actually been in the van for a few years now, but has never had a permanent home. We wanted it to be out of sight, unless needed, and in a spot where it was readily accessible to the door for dumping and clean out purposes.

The cabinet we built is made from ¾” plywood, 2 x 4’s, and lauan plywood; all of which we already had on hand. We built the cabinet in front of the second side door on the starboard (passenger) side so it could be easily removed and dumped at any dump station, as needed.

The lid is secured to the top with a piano hinge so, when needed, it can be lifted out of the living space against the door. The small hole you see towards the bottom is where the flush handle is located, and the space where the denim curtain is hanging is where you would sit to do your business.

The back of the toilet cabinet is a piece of lauan plywood that is held in place by velcro strips. This allows us to easily remove the panel and pull out the toilet from the van door side to dump. Clever, no?

Van Kitchen Cabinet

On to the port side of the van where we built the kitchen/galley area of the living space. We built this cabinet from 2 x 4’s and lauan plywood. The counter top is a nicer grade of wood that we purchased at Home Depot. It had a smoother surface and was the exact pre-cut size we wanted for this space.

Quick tip: when searching for a counter top, look for a “Hardwood Tool Cabinet Top for Rolling Cabinet” not a “Counter Top.” The first one is found in the lumber area, the second one is way more expensive and usually takes you over into the prefab cabinet and counter area of the home improvement store.

Scott cut all the 2 x 4’s and I painted everything before he screwed them together. Then we stapled the lauan to the sides of the cabinet. Because we installed the swivels on the seats, the extra counter space serves as a table top for eating or working.

Once the countertop was in place, we installed a “bar sink” and a small kitchen faucet that Scott hooked up to the fresh water tank. The sink drains into the grey water tank. I am (so far) very impressed with both of these items. We will see how they hold up over time.

Quick Tip: search for bar or bathroom sink to find sinks small enough for your vanlife space. Avoid looking for RV sinks, as they are also small, but way more expensive.

We were successful in finding a refrigerator that would exactly fit the space on the right side of the cabinet underneath. The right side of the under counter space has the unsightly drain pipe and hose for the sink, so I created a small curtain that would cover the space out of denim pant legs.

Garage Tools and Freezer

Dorm refrigerators are notorious for their lack of freezer space. If you do find one with an actual freezer space, it usually gets quite frost filled quickly, which makes owning one with that section more of an annoyance than a helpful feature.

I do not intend to spend a lot of my travel/fun time cooking meals and making a lot of dirty dishes, so my plan is to create meals ahead of time, vacuum freeze them, and then “heat and eat” as needed. Since I decided to plan our meals in this way, it was necessary for us to have a dedicated freezer space to keep these meals frozen.

After some tool rearranging in the boot, we were able to make a space for a dedicated deep freezer, that happened to be the same size as our refrigerator, in the garage space. This freezer may seem like a bit much to some, but at my age, I am thrilled to be able to have this tool available to keep me from having to create a meal every day of a trip. As shanty travelers, we only eat out about once a week when traveling, so home cooked meals without the hassle are a win for me. Plus, it will keep ice cream frozen. HA!

We wanted to make sure the freezer would not come open during travel, so we devised a system where a block of wood slides down on two pegs and keeps the freezer shut tight. Removal and replacement of the “lock” is as simple as lifting or replacing the sliding block on the dowels.