When building out a van it’s easy to see how different spots in your van are uniquely shaped and compact. Which means furnishing your van isn’t as easy as picking IKEA furniture for your apartment. The easiest solution if often doing custom work, to accommodate and make the van’s space functional. This is the best reason to build a shelving unit for your van build.
There’s so many ways to customize a shelving unit for your needs. This could include different shelf structures, height, positioning and depth. A shelving unit suits any space from long and narrow to wide and small, and everything in between.
For my van build, I knew I had to build a shelving unit to address these concerns. My shelving unit is in the middle section of my van, behind the driver and passenger seats and in front of the bed frame. This shelving unit went in my Ford Econovan 1999, as part of an overhaul van build my partner and I did ourselves. Everything was done with limited tools, skills and funds—on a backpacker’s budget.
Developing a shelving unit to fit my van turned out to be one of the easier parts of the van build. And, it’s functional in more ways than just general storage. I was able to create the perfect spot for my solar power set-up, including the battery, inverter and solar panel.
Before the battery lived on the ground under my bed. It was a pain to move around or reach. For building the shelving unit, I left the bottom compartment almost completely for the battery and inverter, but with a small ledge. The ledge helps hold the battery in place going around corners, when I’m driving. The solar panel’s plug to the battery now has its own home on the ceiling of the shelf. The solar panel also leans behind the seat and the shelving unit.
Another extra useful part of this shelving unit is the top shelf, has a spot for cords to go through. This is great for charging things that won’t fall over while driving. But, it’s also become a permanent spot for my USB diffuser, for essential oils.
For the materials, I used a mixed wood plywood, only because it was free at the time. Using a regular plywood with the same thickness (about 9 mm) also works fine.
How to Build a Shelving Unit for a Van
Materials
- Two – 1200 x 600 x 9 mm Plywood sheets
- 100 – 15 mm wood screws
- Eight – 20 mm metal screws
- Battery Drill
- Jigsaw
- 8 mm wood drill
- Measuring tape
- Pencil
- 2.5 cm x 2.5 cm Wood posts 5 metres worth
- PPEs (safety glasses, dust mask) (optional)
- 2 meters Fabric elastic band
- 80 grit wood sandpaper
- Four – 90 degree angle brackets
Method
- Measure your space and design
To build my shelving unit I had about 50 cm length, 65 cm width and 130 cm height to work with. I made the shelving unit 47 cm x 63 cm x 120 cm to accommodate this space. As my van’s wall is curved, I used a cardboard cut out to work with curve. As a result, I was able to have the shelf almost to the ceiling. This also means shelves higher up have to have a smaller length. Working with the height, going from the bottom to top the distance between each shelf is 30 cm, 23 cm, 22 cm, 19 cm and 20 cm. I kept about 22 cm between the second and third shelf because it fits my boxes.
Only on the top shelf did I put a wooden barrier to hold things in—which is 10 cm high—because it’s the highest shelf. Otherwise the rest I used the elastic fabric. And for the bottom shelf I used just a wooden ledge so things won’t roll out. Next, figure out the best way for cutting the wood to build the shelving unit. - Start cutting!
Once figuring out the best way to cut your plywood, start cutting it with the jigsaw. Remember to use the pencil and measuring tape as well as something with a straight edge to cut the wood. I always start with the big pieces and work my way down. After cutting the plywood I cut the wood posts that help hold up the shelves. If there’s a ton of splinters sticking out after using the jigsaw, rub if off with sand paper. Cut an extra wood post to use as a beam for screwing together your shelves, it should be the width of the shelves between the posts.
- Assemble the shelving unit
Without making this too complicated, it should make sense when all your pieces are cut how they go together. I started with screwing the wood posts to each shelf. Then screwing those to one side of the shelving unit, then the last. If you’re doing a curved side on the back of the shelf, make sure it’s in the right position before adding the shelves. Otherwise use the previously mentioned measurements on where to screw the shelves on the sides.
- Install elastic and ledges
This is best to do after assembling the shelving unit so you can see exactly where the holes need to be made. I made the holes just below the half way point between each shelf and 2 cm inward. Once the holes are in, tie the elastic tight enough to keep things in but loose enough to move it around still. The best part of using elastic to hold things on the shelf is it’s easy to move it out of the way to pull things out, or put on. Next install the ledges, wherever you’re putting them, for me it was on the top shelf.
- Install shelving unit into van
Time to get your shelving unit situated! Surely by now you’ve decided on a location, so once the insulation, flooring, walls and ceiling is in, install the shelving unit. It’s so important to use brackets, obviously you don’t want the shelving unit to swing out while driving. I installed four, two near the bottom and two near the middle—one on each side of the unit. Once it’s in, begin filling it up with everything you’ve been wanting to!
Ready for the next step on your van build? Check out how I made a custom bed frame with drawers underneath for my van.
