🔨The Best Laid Plans: Floorplans

💚 Hey there, fellow travelers! Crafting the perfect floorplan for our bus build was a whole task in itself. When you go down to just 165 square feet of living space, every square inch is important. 😲🤯

Birth of the Bus Blueprints

I, Mara, have been following the tiny house movement for many years now. The movement does not just include stand-alone tiny homes, but also van and bus conversions, sheds, and even boat conversions! Over the years, I’ve saved my favorite ideas. It was now finally time to use them.

Want to see some of my saved ideas? ➡️https://www.pinterest.com/marajade_xx/camper-life/

I started by creating a mock outline of a standard 13 window bus. When I first started, we didn’t know what kind of bus we would find or how big it would be. I just googled standard measurements and went from there. This did help me get my first floorplans mocked up but ultimately they were just guidelines once we found our bus, a 7 window. Standard 13 window buses are about 38-40 feet in length. By going with a medium sized bus, we cut off multiple feet of planned space - down to 28 feet.

Kitchen Layout

Bathroom + Shower Layout

Left Side

Right Side

The First Blueprints

Original blueprints included a seating area with a fold up desk area, a swivel TV near the seating area, a larger kitchen, one bathroom, and more storage in the bedroom. Below are the first blueprint layouts.

By cutting down the interior, the floorplan needed to be arranged to use the most space. We also decided that a dedicated office space was required. We sacrificed the normal wall couch. The kitchen was shrunk a bit and counters were raised to make more 3D space. (Standard cabinets are 30 or 36 inches, we are at 42in)

The Official Floorplan

1st Layer Floorplan

2nd Layer Floorplan

I was unwilling to part with our king size bed, so measurements started there. King size beds measure 76x80in so after adding walls and turning the bed sideways, there was about 2 inches on each side. We are both comfortable with the 4 inches less to our feet when it gave us more room to the sides. We knew that any heat or air would be best over our bed so we planned our mini-split over the bed. The bed ends halfway over the back tire wells. Measuring from there, I knew we still needed an office, kitchen, shower, and toilet room. The under side of the bus had the most space on the other side of the gas tank so we decided the grey water tank should go on that side, behind the driver’s side. The water lines needed to be all in line with the tank so the kitchen and shower got planned for that side. We planned the kitchen spacing by using the dimensions for the appliances we knew we wanted. Once that was marked out, the remainder became the shower. On the other side, I marked out the minimum amount of space we needed for both of us to have designated office space, marked the space for the fridge, and then the rest was for the toilet room.

The tire wells got squared off. In the shower, it is tiled and slightly sloped so that you can still step up on it and the water will run off into the drain. In the toilet room, which is a bit smaller than the shower, the tire well acts as a step up platform for the composting toilet. The fridge cubby is just big enough to fit the fridge but tight enough that we can’t pull the fridge out without removing the bathroom wall. The office measures 62 inches so we both get 31 inches to ourselves 😆. The kitchen is equipped with a deep stainless farmhouse sink, a 3 burner propane oven, a can organizer drawer, and 7 additional drawers with room under the sink. Under the sink is a water heater, cleaning supplies, and organizational drawers. The solar equipment got lined up underneath the desk space and is covered by a wood cabinet cover.

Knowing we wanted to be as comfortable as possible, I knew we needed as much storage as possible. I planned out a 2 foot raise for the bed, as much kitchen cabinets as possible, and upper cabinets above the kitchen, office, and the bed. At the foot of the bed is a 4 cubby shelf that holds 12x12 bins. A hinge lift kit was added under the bed so the under the bed storage can be accessed from lifting the bed, from moving the cubby, and from the back door.

Storage, Storage, Storage

Under the bed, there is a 75 gallon fresh water tank with an outside access port. On top is extra towels, blankets, and camping supplies. A 3 drawer organizer fit perfectly underneath so we got two and they hold extra medicines, seasonal clothes, and camping gear. Our whole camping bin fit at the back, with our backpacking bags on top. There’s also a canopy, two fold out chairs, our bows and arrows, extra shoes, extra office equipment, tools, gas can, first aid kit, a propane heater, extra clothes, camera and production equipment…I could go on but the point is, we have more than we need. A reoccurring theme in this lifestyle is “Two is One and One is None”.

In the kitchen, there is a small drawer for our pot holders and extra lighters. Our pantry has always had cans so I knew we needed a space for them. I found a 4 tier can cabinet pull out that was perfect! Under the sink, I mounted a magazine holder to hold our aluminum foil and quart bags. A basket at the back, next to the water heater, holds the cleaning supplies and a spot for our electric burner. In front of the heater was just enough room for some organizational drawers and some shoe containers. In these fit: pasta, ramen, popcorn, mashed potatoes, saffron rice, marinades, dressing and taco packets. On top, there’s enough room for my gatorade powder and dish towels. In the 4 drawers to the right is silverware and extra utensils, tupperware, a Ninja mixer, and the remaining pantry items like peanut butter, honey, rice, etc. Under the oven is a drawer for the pets with their food and supplies, jackets, and harnesses. Finally, the biggest drawer holds our pots, pans, and cutting boards. The upper cabinets house our plates, bowls, cups, extra bakeware, and our chip supply 😂

Our office upper cabinets hold documents, craft supplies, and office equipment. It’s just enough room to hold everything we need, and not much more.. In the bedroom, we each have a media closet for books and movies and the rest is clothes! When building, I decided to leave one side of the wall not closed off so that we could use the framing studs as shallow shelves. With added baskets, the bathroom stores everything we need, without having to secure it each time we drive.

If you made it to the end of this, I gander you might be looking for storage tips of your own, or may be wondering how we do it in such a small space. Trust me, we have everything we need and more!

Thank you for joining us on this journey of a lifetime. We hope our blog inspires you to embrace your own spirit of adventure and discover purpose in everything you do.

Until next time, happy trails!