The Wayward Home Podcast
The Wayward Home Podcast
47: How to Design Your Dream Van Layout with Pro Builder Steven Stolp
Ready to transform your van into a dreamy home on wheels? We're bringing you something special with Steven Stolp, a pro in campervan conversions, who lays out the roadmap to help you envision and create your ideal van space. In our chat, he unveils the benefits of preplanning your layout, prioritizing your must-have features, and the unique edge you gain by sketching out your interior design with masking tape. And for those who are on the fence about what they want from their van build, Steven's got some golden advice, like spending some time in a van to truly comprehend the space.
But it doesn't stop at planning. As we go deeper into the conversation, we explore the heart of a successful van build - creativity. Steven opens up about the benefits of a modular design and the delicate art of balancing luxury and space, particularly in a 144 wheelbase Sprinter. He's got you covered with some common pitfalls to avoid in your build, and top-notch tips on enjoying outdoor showers, even in cold weather.
Whether you've been living the van life for years or just starting out, this episode is jam-packed with insights that can help you take your van conversion to the next level.
Follow Steven Stolp:
@stolp_solutions on Instagram
Book a van build at Sandy Vans
Connect with Kristin Hanes and The Wayward Home!
So building out a campervan can be a crazy difficult experience, especially if you don't really have an eye for design, like me, but luckily I really like how our Sprinter Van layout came out. We have tons of floor space, which even allows me to do yoga inside our van. Well, you might be feeling stumped as to how to layout your campervan conversion, and in this episode I chat with professional van builder Steven Stolp, who has some great tips on how to plan out your van's layout and how to apply your creative vision to your dream home on wheels. Let's go.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Wayward Home podcast. All about van life, boat life and nomadic living. We'll bring you tips, interviews and stories from the road and on the water. Now here's your host, kristen Haynes. Hey there, I'm Kristen Haynes with thewaywardhomecom and I spend half the year in my campervan and half on my sailboat in Mexico. My goal is to inspire you to pursue your nomadic living dreams.
Speaker 1:So we've been building out our Sprinter Van for a couple of years now. It's often on, really, because we spend a lot of time south on the border on our sailboat in Mexico. But the van is coming along really nicely and I just love being inside our van. Even though it's not quite finished, it's still a great place to sleep, live, work and cook. My van feels just like home and I even prefer living in it to living in a house, which I'm doing right now just for a week or so. If you're also building out a van and wanting some layout tips, this episode is for you. This interview first appeared as part of the Van Life virtual summit I put on with Project Van Life. So, stephen, first of all tell us about yourself and what led you to start building vans.
Speaker 2:Well, as you said, I am Stephen Stulp. I am proud owner of Stulp Solutions and St Evans. Basically I got into van building kind of as an accident. I converted in ambulance randomly one year and got a lot of positive feedback on the good old internet. So before I knew it, after I graduated business school, I had a long list of people wanting me to build Lutigird ambulances for them. And then I got well known in the ambulance community, which now propelled me into the Mercedes Sprinter community.
Speaker 1:So very cool, so you mostly work on. Do you only work on Sprinters now?
Speaker 2:Yes, st Evans is a Mercedes Sprinter 144 wheelbase only, and I kind of had to pull it on something, because when I first started I was just like, yes, I will build you a rocket ship and didn't have enough planning that went into that. The builds turned out great, but it wasn't a sustainable business for me. So that is why I'm going to St Evans.
Speaker 1:Very cool and tell me a little bit about why you chose to go with the Sprinter over the other vans.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm down in San Diego, so the market definitely dictated that If I was in some, like you know, backwoods kind of country or Colorado or something like that, I probably would have done great at continuing the four by four off-road ambulances that I was creating. But yeah, just strictly based off market being able to take care of my family, I decided to do Mercedes Sprinters.
Speaker 1:Very cool. Tell me a little bit about designing van build interiors that's. You know that's a difficult task. What are some things that you have in your head before you start on a new van and the interior layout?
Speaker 2:I have this weird snapshot that happens that in the end I look at the van after it's done and I'm like it's like a deja vu, so that's. I know that's a really weird way to describe it, but you know, creatives are kind of weird people. But basically I just kind of I get the layout and I think about how the ceiling is going to work with the cabinets and the wall material and the counters, and I can kind of all see it once. So my biggest challenge when I first started build is like telling people what I see as far as the entire vision. So I don't do sketch up or anything. I'm definitely a pencil or paper kind of guy. But yeah, it really helps to have a customer that trusts, or you know, my build team that knows that I'm going to direct them in the right path.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. And so if someone's building out their own van and they have ideas in their head, how do they narrow in on a layout? Do you have any tips for like translating the ideas into an actual layout?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I mean I keep it very simple. I just literally go through the van. After I put the subfloor and the laminated flooring down, I go through and just take masking tape and tape everything off and I kind of just stand around and navigate it and see, you know, you got to have butt room, you got to have. You know, I even tape on the walls and stuff so I know where all the cabinetry is and I just kind of go in there. It looks like a little bit of a mess in the beginning with with masking tape, but it really helps you visualize where everything's going to go. But that's, yeah, that's what I would recommend, that's what I did in the beginning. I don't do that stuff anymore but as a DIYer it's just much easier to visualize it if you have that physical representation right in front of you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I've heard some people say that you should go and like live in the van before building it out, or at least go try it and see what it feels like. Do you have any recommendations about that?
Speaker 2:Knowing what you want is very important, especially if you're going in to hire somebody like me or build your van yourself. I definitely sorry he wants to be in front of the camera for whatever reason, but yes, it's very important knowing what you want. So some people they're just like I want the same here, I want oven, here, I want this, and that's great for a builder. I've been in situations where people were not clear on what they wanted as a layout and one time it didn't go so well because they didn't know what they wanted. So I really strongly recommend you go in, you go camping with it or you hang out in another person's van or you rent a van and figure out the things that you truly want before you start any sort of process.
Speaker 1:Right, that makes a lot of sense. So people should think about like their lifestyle and what components they need. What should they be like thinking about when deciding what to put in the van?
Speaker 2:Well, creature comforts. You know I could go pitch a tent in the woods just about anywhere. So my personal van very, very bare-boned, simple. It just has a whole lot of cheetah print on the inside and that's what I like, but yeah. So if you're kind of more of a bougie individual and you live in like a high-rising downtown, you're probably gonna want no heated floors and a shower inside and all that stuff. But if you're trying to get more in punch with nature, you may decide that you went outdoor shower or things like that. You just really gotta hone in this kind of goes back to our previous subject of knowing what you want and pretty easy to discover that quickly if you're not okay with just a plant of fitness membership to go shower and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:So yeah, what are some like common questions you get from people trying to decide on their layout? I'm sure you work with them to try to hone in on their vision. What kinds of amenities do people typically like, want or ask for?
Speaker 2:I mean, I've done things as far as a bamboo steam room inside of an ambulance or an athlete. So I've had questions like all the way over there I've had people wanna put you know, big giant soaps in the middle of their bands and all sorts of stuff. And it's really the responsibility of the builder or yourself to know what works and don't flew in on one thing Like if you're like I absolutely have to have this, then before you know it you have an entire build based off that one attribute that you probably could have sacrificed. So it's good to take everything into consideration and not get tunnel vision on this one thing. That's what I do see a lot. I see a lot of people say I want an oven and a floor-to-ceiling fridge and a shower and this and that, and then when it's done, they're like oh, it feels cramped in here it's like well, back to the masking tape.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so yeah, just knowing what you want and being practical about your ideas, cause it is a band, it's not. You can't look at this like a five star hotel. I'll make it look like a five star hotel, but it's still. It's still gotta bounce down the road, it's still gotta be strong and it's gotta be practical.
Speaker 1:Totally. Yeah, I wanted to ask you about that, cause I do see a lot of luxury, you know, looking bands and I have heard stories of. When they're not built correctly, they can kind of break apart, especially if you want to go down bumpy roads, have you like? What do you think about that and how do you ensure that components are like, not gonna fall apart?
Speaker 2:So other cabinets are definitely one of those scary ones that I see a lot with people's builds. I don't like seeing videos. It's like kind of like hanging from the ceiling and I'm like you have like a you have a child in the back of your van and you have like cabinets hanging off the ceiling. So yeah, securing cabinets and things like that is very important, cause you have to basically create an earthquake proof home and not just earthquake proof like constant earthquake. That's how you have to treat it all. So you know, securing your cabinetry down properly I mean that can kill somebody. So that's why, as builder, I try to.
Speaker 2:When I do see issues, I don't give unsolicited advice, but when people reach out to me, I usually just like maybe like drop it off in my shop, I'll fix all that for you. But as far as the Sandy vans go, we tie all of cabinetry into frame that Mercedes provides us so you could rest assured that none of that's gonna come down. I've seen inadequate like drywall screws, folding cabinets up and things like that, and it's just very dangerous. So I do recommend people know a thing or two about fastening and glue and all that stuff before they go ahead and take on being yeah, for sure, and I'm still intrigued by you building a steam room in someone's van.
Speaker 1:That's very interesting and creative. What other interesting components have you put in vans that might be surprising to people?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, so this one called Amber Some of you may have seen it on the interwebs. I did a band tour with Jared Tochi. I hope I said that right, Jared, You're friends. We did a tour and that had an RFID gun safe inside of it, that it looked like regular cabinetry and you swiped a card on the shelf on the bottom shelf of the cabinet and then the entire hatch dropped open and it was like oh, it was like this long, obviously requested by the client, and yeah, that was a really cool feature.
Speaker 2:I've gotten a lot of emails about you know people like hey, let me, let me get one of those gun safes in my van, and I'm just like, well, that's, that's a custom job. My very first van I did, though, was a Ford Triumph that I called Bandemic and it's because I built it during the pandemic and that had a Murphy or not a Murphy, but it had a robotic bed that folded into the ceiling. So it literally like, as it lowered, it pushed into the wheel or into the window wells, and then, when you had to go up, it folded into the ceiling, and it wasn't a happy jack, it wasn't anything like that. It was literally like a $200 thing I bought off Amazon and made it work. So those are some of the cool ones. Made robotic Murphy beds before. That's a weird electronics on. A lot of people know me for my light features that I do as well, so it's kind of across the boards.
Speaker 1:Cool. So what are your light features? What do those look like?
Speaker 2:So I I got into van building because before I was into furniture making, I was like kind of working a lot with epoxy and fully winging it. I like no formal training or anything. I mean I was selling coffee tables for a good buck and I would. I mean I've done light features where the like the actual epoxy has lights cut into the bottom of it and like walk in the band and all the countertops turn on, because they're like on motion sensors and they're blocked, so if you're sleeping they won't set off. But just like you know, a mixture between, like, electronics and art, and it's always been very cool to me, so that's why I really enjoy kind of messing with lights.
Speaker 2:I do like the strip lighting through through the ceiling and it's all diffused and everything, and it looks indirect. Um, which that is the scalable design that you won't be seeing in more sandy bands moving forward. But, um, yeah, my favorite light feature I did, though, was I did tire epoxy edge on a counter, and it looked like the ocean crashing onto and I fan car about like sandbars and stuff like inside, and then I poured the mold, and it wasn't just a straight counter either, it was all like it was curved and everything. And then I put blue inside of it. That was fully diffused. So then when it turned on, it just looked like a glowing blue ocean, like crashing onto a woodchower top. It wasn't something that the customer asked for, um, it was just something that I felt like adding to there.
Speaker 1:That's really cool and that's inspiring for people that people can be creative and artistic when, when building out vans, it sounds like um, is there anything they should keep in mind? Surrounding me, the artistic part of a van build.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, so careful also with the artistic stuff, because you could hone in on one artistic design or like like, if you want, like a wall in a certain spot that correlates with something.
Speaker 2:If you, if you tunnel in on stuff too much with the art, you're just going to build your van around one piece of bar, which, if that's what you're trying to do, that's cool. But, um, beware of trying to incorporate one thing into your entire van. Um, but I think the best way to go about that stuff is to kind of piecemeal it out and and figure out like, have solution, base creativity. So, while you're doing something, you're like, oh, if I add a piece here, it may like hide this imperfection or it may, you know, make this look better, rather than, from the beginning, knowing exactly what kind of art you're gonna put in there. Cause everything that I just described to you in the previous question was on the fly. It was. I was inside the band and I was like kind of feeling the flow of it and I'm like, okay, well, if this goes here and that goes here, it'll look amazing, and I think that that is the best way to harness your creativity inside one of these builds.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, totally. And you mentioned you work on 144 wheelbase and that's what I have as well, and there's only so much you can shove into that. You were saying that some people want so much that they have like no room inside. It's not just curious, like how do you balance like luxury with the space to move around?
Speaker 2:So with Sandy Band specifically, we're doing modular lights. So this the whole back half of this band be kind of configured however you want, because it's based off. You know, all of the custom jobs that I've done in my past was SELT solutions and it's combined into this 144. One of the things that I really like about the modular design is, physically, when you go camping and stuff, there's a lot of setup. But if you have a van that's designed to be set up and taken down, it's not very inconvenient. I've lived in a Sandy Van full time and it has a king side bed in the back but it also has dining for eight. So I think keeping the modular aspect of the thing in 144 specifically is very important. If you do a fixed bag, you're really kind of stuck with that, but some people want to be that way. If you want more, then you need to get a bigger van. But I personally like the 144s because I don't mind taking 45 seconds to set up my bed after having seven homies sitting down with me in the same location.
Speaker 1:So Cool, yeah, give me some more, some examples of the modular. So that's just with the. Is it a bed, couch conversion, or what are some of your modular components?
Speaker 2:So the table is just a simple U-bench dinette. It's a very popular design that a lot of companies have already done. I don't think it's buddy's idea to steal at this point. But yeah, it's as simple as the table drops in and then there's another read and then that full back half of the actually more than the back half of the van burns into a king-side bed. And I'm currently working on having the ability to take the benches out as well and then having a bench platform that can attach to the L-track that is already installed in the Sandy Vans. That can be a fixed bed across. So then the customer has the ability to customize the modular portion of the design for themselves. So I don't have to sit there with a pen and paper for hours trying to pick my client's brain anymore. This is, you know, I'm kind of trying to make the Swiss army eyes of a band.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a great point to do the modular so people can configure it how they want. And then there are so many options.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah, Right now, I mean, there's at least like 30 different configurations.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah. Are you seeing that most people want like a bathroom and a shower inside? I know that, again, the 144s are small. What are you seeing surrounding that?
Speaker 2:So toilets are. Obviously a lot of people really want toilets in their band. The reason I separate toilet from bathroom because you know I try to steer as many people as I can away from having a wet bath inside their band, because I am big fan of, like old school vehicles and I've had old RVs and all sorts of stuff and every single one of them has mold, mildew, all that stuff in the wet bath area. So it does not matter how talented you are at installing, how much you waterproof things, at some point water will get in places that you do not want it. It could be three years, it could be 10 years, but eventually it will happen. So to increase the longevity of your build, I strongly recommend outdoor shower solutions and things like that. And if you're kind of worried about the cold, well, I've had a diesel heater cranking in one of the Sandy Vans, blowing heat out the back, and I was taking a shower like in the snow out the back.
Speaker 1:I had a curtain and everything.
Speaker 2:but yeah, so you can take an outdoor shower even if it's cold out.
Speaker 1:That's true. That's only what we do, so I highly recommend it, and so what are some of your like outdoor shower options that people can put?
Speaker 2:Well, I mean outdoor showers, it's Sprinter. It's probably the easiest thing to do. You run a hot water line back. I mean, I usually run hot and cold so we'd find a mixer. But yeah, you just run water to the back and then you have like either a hose or, if you want to use fancy, I could put like whatever shower head handle on it and you just hook it to the door and the Sprinter width of the doors are actually the exact same size as a standard shower curtain that you could get at Target or whatever. So really nice. If somebody gets one of these vehicles like you, don't have to find it a poultry place to make yourself a new shower curtain. But basically they just magnetized with little leg, first magnets with carabiners on them and then they just hook to the outside. In San Diego it's very popular to have the outdoor shower because we build for a lot of surfers and things like that. So it's a very common practice for them already.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, for sure. When you look at DIY builds, what are some common mistakes that you see that hopefully people can avoid by listening to this?
Speaker 2:If you are not an electrician, if you have never been certified or anything with electricity sold, at least with somebody I recommend hiring. I have seen very, very dangerous things. So to kind of cycle back my background, I was in the Navy for six years in the advanced electronic computer field, so I'm well versed in electronics before I went into building bands. So that's just one thing. I just don't recommend people tackling on their own if they've never done it before. There's a ton of stuff on YouTube but there are a million mistakes you can make that those videos will not show you and those mistakes could burn down your vision. God forbid, god forbid, you're idiot if that happened. So electrical is definitely a strength to know. With me a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, and I do have people writing to me and asking I just need this component installed or I need help with this part. How do people go about finding someone to help with just small build projects instead of getting a whole custom build?
Speaker 2:There are builders out there that are willing to do just an electrical system. Typically, I would advise people against just adding something to your existing electrical system, like presenting that to somebody. I think it should be worried like, hey, can you go through my electrical system and add this piece? Because I've had pretty much every electrical system that's come to my shop. I've had a full year overall and it's very unfortunate because I know they paid money to have that done or spent a lot of time doing it and then they had to pay me to overhaul it. But it's just safety, safety, safe. So, yeah, I have all your ducks in a row with electrical and plumbing before you go down to anyone, definitely.
Speaker 1:And I'm curious just off the top of my head have you ever seen a bathtub in a van? Has anybody ever done that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I've seen one of the SoCal builders one of his first client builds they put a bathtub in and I won't name names because I thought it was pretty ridiculous. Just like you know, the client's always right, but that's something I think as a professional company, you should really try to steer the client in the correct direction. The reason I think bathtubs are not a good idea is because you're looking at a tub and a tub to fit its human is about the size of a 55, 60 gallon water tank. Each gallon of water is eight pounds, so that kind of it's still up that tub. I mean you would need a hundred gallon water take in order to support stuff, and in advance.
Speaker 2:So, if you're a giant school leader or something where you could do stuff like that, I'd like go for it, but it'd be like, yeah, it's just weight. Weight is really the biggest issue, I think, with that. For sure, sounds like it Practicality is a big one. Don't put clock-quick pubs in your springers, please.
Speaker 1:Just go to a hot spring. That's what I would advise people Way easier.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what's the point of having a mobile home if you can't travel to a hot spring to you know.
Speaker 1:Exactly, yeah, so what does the process look like with you if someone was interested in building out like a van with you and you working with them on the layout?
Speaker 2:Well, so with Sandy Vans, I kind of did all the layout work for you. I've designed a van that I think is very practical, and if I'm not the right builder for you because you don't like that layout, it could probably be a custom build by all means. However, at Sandy Vans we are operating very affordable brand new Sprinter, fully built out, fully financed, in 15 years. So it's just yeah, I mean the whole process. To me it's a lot easier to do it this way because league times are much less. My custom builds were taking four to six months and my Sandy Vans builds can be gone in like two weeks. So it's more about me being able to help more people, and that's why I dictate this layout, so that I can provide you a van that I think will suit your needs faster.
Speaker 1:Very cool. So are people choosing the interior colors and stuff, or does it?
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah. So if they want crazy fancy lighting and they want a different kind of countertop, they have customizable attributes. Absolutely, and they do look very. They're CNC but they don't look CNC because it's a very simple layout but with all the lighting and I use real wood on the countertops and all the areas that well, I use real wood on them, but I'm just all the areas that are high visual, high traffic. They look custom and that's the whole. Goal is to still give people the ability to make their van the way they want it to. But you'll have let me do the work, because I'm vending the industry of telling you you're getting an easel heater, you're getting this kind of easel heater. You're getting this kind of water heater, you're getting this. So I'm trying to do all the work for you, basically.
Speaker 1:Fantastic. So how can people find you on the internet if they want to work with you?
Speaker 2:Well, if you want a good laugh, you can follow me on Instagram at Sculpt Solutions. I do quite a bit of goofy stuff on there, and then, if you want to look a build with me or even come down and check out the shop, I'd like you guys to visit wwwsantyvanscom and I'm hanging out with us and check out our vans.
Speaker 1:Very cool, all right. Well, thank you so much for coming on the summit. Anything else you wanted to say?
Speaker 2:We also sell exterior products. No, I don't want the sales pitch, but yeah, I mean, and if you have any questions that you want to come directly to me, I try my best to answer everybody on social media. So if you just want to DM me directly at Sculpt Solutions, I'd be happy to try my best to help you out in any way I can. But yeah, be paid, you know, because I do get questions quite frequently.
Speaker 1:So totally, Well, that's a great service you offer and hopefully people go check out your vans. And thanks for all the amazing tips.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you for really appreciating this opportunity.
Speaker 1:Well, thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Wayward Home Podcast. Remember to like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, so you don't miss the next episode. See you next time.