Past Projects
Louisa's Van
(Betty)
Betty is an absolute stunner!! Louisa came to me last year with a very precise brief. A professionally compiled brief with mood boards, inspiration pics and detailed instructions of what she wanted from this build.
​
Louisa is a Sydneysider, and lived in a beautiful apartment with furniture and decorations that meant a lot to her. She wanted to maintain that homely feel and vibe that her apartment offered, and sent me lots of pics of her apartment to help me get inspired.
​
From the bone inlay floor to ceiling mirror to the chevron timber cabinet at the rear, these are all items of furniture that Louisa owns, and we managed to incorporate them all into the design.
​
Louisa has started a new business and can work from the road, so this van also must be a home office, and natural light was high on the agenda. Lots of windows, skylights and bright fresh cabinetry make being inside this van a joy, no matter what time of day it is. The camphor Laurel timberwork, and brass hardware give this van a subtle luxury vibe without being too pretentious. And with a huge 200ah lithium system, toilet, shower and gas cooking, Louisa can now work wherever she wants....when she's not being distracted by the beautiful views from those windows.
Tim & Jessica's Coaster
Tim and Jessica are no strangers to bus life!! They created a huge coach conversion in New Zealand a few years ago, but since moving over the pond, haven't had a converted bus to enjoy. After making the decision to do it all again, they opted this time to not do the conversion themselves. So they contacted us and we were so pleased to work on this project.
​
From a floorspace point of view, this is a huge space for a conversion, with over 5.2m in interior space length, plus the cabin space, this truly is as close to a ‘Schoolie’ as most of us will get in Australia. A caveat of the coaster is its limited headroom, which is considerably less than a high roof Sprinter. A finished ceiling height is only 1.8m, but is a great compromise for those that don’t mind the low ceiling, to get such a large floor area and up to 1.9m in width to allow comfortable East to West sleeping.
​
The design concept for this bus was an area the was user friendly for their two children that require stimulation in their space and ability to climb around all areas of the bus and feel like it’s as much theirs as their parents.
Also creating an extra couch area up front was a game changer for this build. The front passenger seat was removed and a little reading nook was created, whilst still allowing access beneath it for the engine bay, fuse box and washer wiper bottle. A styling concept of a barn was decided upon early on, but with a more high end finish. We opted for French oak wide planks for the ceiling and rear cabinetry, and black shaker cabinet lowers with complimentary white shaker uppers to lighten the visual space at eye level. A mixture of brass and black hardware contrasts wonderfully with the black and white cabinetry, liming white stained countertop and Tasmanian oak trim, and those timber look tiles!!
​
Another large part of the brief was to maintain as much of the windows as possible, but to cover as much of the steel structure, creating a softer feel that sometimes you need to look twice to realise you're inside a bus.
A large rear adult bed creates a large garage area, allowing for a huge pull out drawer that turns that comfy lounge/dining area into a kids double bed in less than a minute. And you can't miss that massive skylight that allows for stargazing at night or just flooding the bus with natural light during the day.
Storage is abundant in this bus, with those huge underbed drawers that even open with the lounge upholstery in place, its all about the ease of use. And forward facing drawers can be a problem with opening whilst travelling, so an electro magnet setup keeps those drawers tightly locked, whilst minimising visual locking mechanisms that would spoil the clean detailed finish of this space.
​
200ah of lithium, 540watts of solar, 40amp DCDC, 40 amp AC charger and 2000w inverter make this bus quite the weightlifter when it comes to power setup. And a portable toilet and outdoor shower meet the usage needs of this family, and maximising the space inside as much as possible.
​
Brass coach lights, Kensington style front door and warm lighting throughout make this the cosiest space whilst maintaining a very high end finish, and the huge awning with pull out Webber BBQ mean that there's plenty of room to play, entertain and just relax in and around this absolutely stunning rolling home!!!