The kitchen is the bit people get most excited about and think about least.
It's understandable. It's easy to picture yourself cooking breakfast with the doors open and the sea in front of you. It's harder to picture where the pans live, or what happens to the condensation, or whether you can actually reach the hob with the bed made up.
We've built a lot of these now. A few things come up every time.
Work out how you cook before you design where you cook
There's a big difference between someone who makes coffee and heats a tin, and someone who genuinely cooks. The first needs a single burner and somewhere to put a mug down. The second needs worktop, and worktop is the thing every van is short of.
Be honest about which you are. The layout follows from it.
Two burners is usually the answer
One is limiting the first time you want a pan and a kettle at once. Three eats worktop you'll miss more than the burner.
Gas or electric depends on the rest of the system. Gas is simple and doesn't care about your battery. Electric needs the electrical build to support it, which means more solar and more battery — which means budget and roof space.
We'll walk through this with you before anything gets ordered. It's a lot cheaper to change your mind at that stage.
Cold water is fine. Hot water is a system
A cold tap and a decent sink covers more than people expect. Hot water on demand means a heater, more plumbing and more to go wrong a long way from home.
Plenty of people are glad they fitted it. Some would rather have had the storage. Worth thinking about properly rather than assuming.
Storage is the actual luxury
The single most common thing owners tell us after a year: they wish they'd thought harder about where things live.
Deep drawers beat cupboards — you can see what's in them without unpacking. Soft-close runners are worth it on a vehicle that moves. And something with a lip on it, so a mug survives the first roundabout.
This is where the cabinet-making matters. A carcass built properly out of birch ply, fitted to the van's actual shape rather than boxed out square, gives you storage you didn't think you had.
Ventilation, unglamorously
Cooking makes steam, steam becomes condensation, and condensation is what quietly ruins van interiors from the inside.
An opening window near the kitchen or a roof vent handles it. Nobody puts it on their wish list. Everybody needs it.
Thinking about your own build? Have a look at how we work, or get in touch and tell us how you cook.