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If you’re new around here, you probably don’t know that we have recently started experimenting with part-time van life. Mr. MMM and I had a conversation 6 months ago about how much fun it would be to dabble in a little adventure by buying a van and taking some unforgettable road trips. Turns out, this has been a dream of my husband’s since he was a kid. Who knew? Long story short, we bit the bullet, sold his car (he works from home and doesn’t drive often anyway), and bought us a van. But our van was missing an essential ingredient – A Bed. So we built one. Check out how we built a cheap van bed frame for less than $100 – with almost no carpentry skills between the two of us…
Designing Our Van Life Bed Frame
Let me start by saying that my husband and I are no experts when it comes to building stuff. Sure, we can swap out some light fixtures, paint a few walls, and build a pub table – read all about that here – but for the most part, our skills are quite limited.
Due to our limitations, we put off our van bed frame build for a long time. We even considered outsourcing the job. Alas, we could no longer ignore the fact that our fabulous van still didn’t have a bed. And since we’re starting to book plans for our upcoming 3-week road trip, it was time to tackle the project.
We started by going straight to The Source – YouTube, of course. We watched what felt like hundreds (obviously, a gross over exaggeration) of How-To videos and settled on one that seemed the quickest, easiest, and cheapest. And it delivered, I tell you. Check out the exact video out below!
Buying Materials And Gathering Supplies
Since our van is pretty similar to the one in the video, we felt confident we could emulate what they did and build a similar bed frame. After doing some measuring, we decided it would be best to build two smaller frames for maximum coverage and stability. We also decided on 4 x 4″s for our legs instead of 2 x 4″s as shown in the video.
As mentioned above, our carpentry skills aren’t anything to write home about, so we had the home store do all the cuts for us. That meant we had to measure, re-measure, and measure one more time to make sure we had the dimensions correct before we bought the wood and had it cut.
The absolute last thing we wanted to run into was something that didn’t fit. It would’ve meant wasted time and money – two things we try desperately not to waste around here. Thankfully, our measurements were spot-on. Unfortunately, though, the home store was unable to cut 4 x 4″s on their equipment. So, we opted to screw (2) 2 x 4″s together to make our own 4 x 4″s.
Building The Frame In Less Than An Hour
When we returned home from the store we had approximately 1 hour to get our bed frame built before we needed to leave the house for a prior commitment. We were also planning on testing out our bed frame the very next night and were planning to leave early in the morning to reach our destination…hence, the time crunch.
As soon as we confirmed that all of our measurements were accurate, it was fairly easy to get the bed frame assembled according to the directions laid out in the YouTube video. The two changes we made to the video, using 4 x 4″s for the legs and creating two smaller frames instead of one bigger frame did mean we spent about double what they mentioned in the video.
But even after spending twice the amount, we still came in under $100 for our bed frame. And that’s hard to beat.
We had a system: I was drawing pencil marks where the legs were to be attached while Mr. MMM was turning our 2 x 4″s into 4 x 4″s. Upon completion of leg construction, we applied a liberal amount of wood glue in the areas outlined and destined for legs. Then, we screwed the legs into place.
After completing both frames inside the garage, we carried both over to the van and put one in at a time. The second frame was a bit more troublesome to maneuver into place, but with a little wiggling and a lot of nudging, we were able to get it in the right spot. The final touch was attaching 4 brackets along the seam to keep both frames together and make the entire structure more secure.
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Project #VanLife Bed Frame Deemed A Success
Voila! After an hour of sweating and hustling we had our cheap van bed frame completed, in place, and ready for our first adventure.
So, we did it. We built our own van bed frame in about an hour and for less than a hundred bucks. #success
Oh, I forgot to mention that our measurements made sure to include a space for our camper toilet to slide right underneath. And, yes, we used it on our overnight trip and it was super convenient and awesome. As awesome as a portable toilet can be, that is. 🙂
FYI: If you’re in the market for a camper toilet, I highly recommend checking out our review for the one we have.
One Comment
I would love a bed frame and mattress for the truck, but alas, my husband uses it for work as well so needs the space free. The truck bed air mattress (goes over the wheel wells), is great, but a memory foam mattress would definitely be comfier. Haven’t thought to buy a toilet though.