1. Planning Out Your Couch Bed
2. Getting The Right Materials
3. Building The Frame For My Convertible Sofabed
4. Adding The Pull-Out Part And Wooden Slats
5. Attaching a Final Slat for Pull-Out Stability

Your van isn’t a real camper van if it doesn’t have a bed. After I finished my floor, walls and ceiling, the next step in this conversion was a convertible sofa bed. Why convertible? Because you need to use every inch or centimeter as efficiently as possible. And that’s especially true for a minivan as small as mine.

Planning Out Your Couch Bed

Other people plan out their whole van before they start converting it, but I prefer to plan each phase of my van conversion when it arrives. Keep in mind that I’m just a beginner sharing his experiences. If you need space for two people, plan accordingly. You’ll need space for two and your pull out bed must carry your combined weight. I had to carefully calculate the height for my bed so it could fit a foam mattress on it and I would still be able to sit up right in my tiny van. And a single bed is all I could fit.

Getting The Right Materials

I chose wood to build a pull-out bed from scratch, because that’s the material all vanlifers use on YouTube (as far as I saw). Wood is also widely available and beginner friendly. You need to find wooden slats and planks that can support your weight, but aren’t too thick, heavy or expensive. For the frame of my slat bed, I chose slats with a thickness of 5 x 2,2 cm or around 2 x 0,85 inches.

Building The Frame For My Convertible Sofabed

If you don’t want your bed to collapse, you’ll need a solid frame. (Naturally, if you want your bed to collapse, you can skip this part.) I began with the upper cadre of the frame. After that, I attached legs to the inner corners and connected them to increase stability. A tip throughout this build: pre-drill holes for longer or thicker screws, or the wood might split. You might need to use different sizes of screws, depending on the thickness and direction of your planks.

Adding The Pull-Out Part And Wooden Slats

I made the second part of my pull-out bed as you can see in the image below. The next step is attaching slats to this frame. Half of the planks will go on the main frame, whilst the other half will go on the pull-out part of this couch. I bought long planks of 1,2 cm thick or 0.5 inches, which I cut into multiple slats of the required size.

Of course, you must attach them alternately to the frame and the pull-out section.

Attaching a Final Slat for Pull-Out Stability

To make sure that your convertible sofa-bed is stable, you’ll need to connect the slats of the pull-out part together. Some people use a thin aluminum slat on top of their planks. Aluminum is very strong, thin and lightweight, so this is a great choice. Other people, including me, use a wooden slat. There is one BIG DISADVANTAGE: you’ll feel a wooden slat through your mattress because it’s thicker than aluminum.

My slat is relatively thin. On top of that, I will make a custom foam mattress with a notch for this thin plank. That’s why I won’t be bothered by this slat. But you might be, if your slat is too thick or you can’t customize your mattress.

Eventually, it’s up to you how you make your couch that turns into a bed. If you’re not that skillful or you’re not good with improvising, you better think through the details before you begin. With a solid plan, you should be able to make it work.