After living in a prefabricated travel trailer for a little over a year, Mike and I have shared more than just a few gripes about the layout.
We typically complain about stuff like the awkwardly deep cabinets, the lack of outlets, our janky dinette table, and our ill-equipped ac unit. To be fair, the trailer was created for a nuclear 2000s-era family to temporarily live in while camping (go figure!)… probably not your mid-twenty some-things living life like a road trip.
Our previous experience living minimally has really helped us mold our layout for the bus. Mike and I have thought, discussed, and debated on every aspect of our school bus and compromised on this space-saving and ultra-efficient layout.
What we’ve concluded with is a beautiful open concept design!
Open Concept
Although we’ll be living in a tiny space, we don’t want it to feel tiny. Having interior walls would close off the area, making it feel even smaller… some may even dare to say “claustrophobic!”
I also want to always be able to see the whole length of the bus and not be visually impaired by a clustered of large cabinets lining all the walls. In order to accomplish this, I moved all the highest items to the right side of the bus.
The overhead cabinets, the fridge, the bathroom, and the bed all lay on the right side, creating visually clear path right to the back of the bus.
Of course, we’ll also want our privacy at times. This can be easily enough by installing a curtain between the bedroom and the rest of the bus.
Door Placements
For a skoolie, we’ll have unusual door placements. This was brought on by the fact that we want to add a passenger coach seat. Not only will a passenger seat be good for safety reasons, but Mike and I will get the added benefit of being able to hang out together on long road trips!
Due to the seat’s placement, we’ll have to move the door towards the middle of the bus to work with our layout.
Another absolute must is a large door in the bedroom!
After visiting a Tiny Living Festival, I became infatuated with the skoolies that had large handicap doors. People who owned these types of skoolies would open their doors to bring in the fresh air and natural lighting. I was hooked!
I’d also like to have extra cushions to lay on the floor space while the door is open to have an indoor/outdoor reading nook.
Living Room
When living in a tiny space, no item should only serve one use. With every item that you bring into a tiny living area, you should be able to concoct several purposes for it.
Actually, that’s my motto!
“Every item should serve multiple purposes!”
And you’ll be able to repeat that motto to yourself after seeing how everything in this skoolie has been designed.
Our living room will be equipped with a couch that can be pulled out to make a full-sized bed. Under the bed will be storage for extra sheets and blankets. Between the front door and the couch, we’ll have a large shoe cubby that also works as our side table to the couch.
Over the shoe storage will be a small clothing rack hanging from the ceiling. This rack will be great for hanging wet rain jackets and everyday winter jackets.
Kitchen & Home Office
Since Mike and I both work from home, we needed a comfortable workspace. I also wanted our workspace to merge in seamlessly with the kitchen cabinets creating one long countertop.
This way, if Mike and I need to meal prep for the week, we can move our laptop and monitors to the side and use the extra counter space for cooking.
Although lots of skoolies feature tiny refrigerators, I’ve learned from past experiences that a tiny fridge doesn’t work for our lifestyle. I enjoy meal prepping and keeping a variety of cold beverages that can only be made possible with a large refrigerator.
On the same note as the refrigerator, another item that is very important to us is getting a REAL oven range.
While the RV ovens are smaller, they are the worst ovens ever made! Expect everything you cook using them to burn.
Luckily, it’s easy to find a reasonably priced apartment sized oven range from any big boxed-store website. Ours will take up a 2′ x 2′ space.
Above the kitchen & office counters will be narrow overhead cabinets with enough room to house plates, cups, tupperware, seasonings, office supplies, etc. (All the small things!)
Bathroom
The bathroom is still a source of a lot of debate. Mike really wants the shower and the toilet to have their own rooms, but I feel that separating the shower and toilet will just create rooms that are a tight fit to squeeze in.
For efficiency, I’ve incorporated our composting toilet into the shower. This will eliminate the need for an extra wall and door along with having more space while taking a shower and using the restroom.
Washroom
Across from the bathroom will be what I call the wash area. This area will include a large sink (since it will be our only sink!), a pullout pantry, ac unit, and a combination washer and dryer.
I’m hoping to find a water heater that fits under the sink. Since I’ve grouped together all the water using appliances in one area, we’ll be able to use less piping for the plumbing.
Wheel Wells
By now, you’ve might be asking yourself what this platform is for. Due to the engineering of the school bus, these buses have two large wheel wells protruding from the floors.
While we’ve entertained the option of shaving the wheel wells, for the safety of the bus, we’ve found that we can only shave about 2 inches off the top… hardly an endeavor worth doing.
So, I’ve decided to leave the wheel wells be and incorporate them into the bus design.
The wheel well on the right side will serve as a raised area for the composting toilet. This does create some separation between the toilet and the shower.
On the other side, I’ve left the wheel well open to allow for walking space into the under-the-bed storage. The wheel well will also act as a step to get onto the elevated bed.
Bedroom
The bed will be lifted 3 feet off the ground to create storage underneath!
Our dog, Winona, is happiest when she has her own space. A portion of the space under the bed will be dedicated to Winona as a crate and sleeping area. It’ll be large enough to include her large Molly Mutt bed (27″ x 36″).
Mike and I will get four (2’x2′) drawers each for clothing items. Next to the drawers is a 2-foot wide wall embedded closet for hanging formal wear, nicer causals, and jackets. The drawer underneath will be a laundry hamper used to hide dirty clothes until they get washed.
At the top of the closet will be a small platform that extends a foot from the wall. This will act a night stand for drinks and charging phones.
A 36″ TV will be mounted to the bathroom wall with a platform underneath to house our Xbox. There will also be two flexible reading lights stationed on both sides of the bed.
Garage
Since our hanging closet will be embedded into our bedroom wall, the back of the closet will protrude into the garage.
We’ll add heavy duty baskets to the wall for housing tools, outdoor items, bike gear, and other items that we need stored away.
I have a water heater pictured in the garage, but this is our plan B option. If possible, the water heater will be under the sink.
The garage will extend to a portion of underneath the bed, making excellent storage for both of our bikes after the front wheels have been removed.
The open area underneath the bed and behind the bikes will either be used for large item storage or for our heater core.
Roof Deck
One exciting feature of a school will be a roof deck very similar to the one pictured below, although, ours may be a little longer.
We’ve decided against an outdoor ladder to access the roof deck since anyone could just use the ladder to hop right up there. We rather not have crazy stranger decide to chill on top of our bus.
So, the ladder will be anchored up against the wall next to the combo washer/dryer unit leading to a trap door in the roof.
When the ladder is not in use, we can use it to hang towels or air dry clothing items.
Blueprints
While floor plans are essential for preparing for your skoolie build. Technical blueprints are just as important!
Although I haven’t researched very much into doing electricity and plumbing for our build yet, sooner than later, I’d like map out the course of electrical wires, conduit, and piping.
Before I get too far into the building process, I’d like to have blueprints created for every project so I won’t have to second guess myself when I get into the nit and grit of the work.
Blueprints I’ve created for now include an outlet blueprint and windows blueprint.
Outlets
I’m always looking for more outlets, so my plan is to equip my skoolie with plenty of outlets to power our phones, Xbox, laptops, monitors, kitchen appliances, power banks, headphones, essential oil diffuser, or one of the hundreds of other things that require an electron transport!
Windows
Although it’d be nice to keep all those natural light bearing school bus windows, the truth is that they kind of suck. School bus windows never want to close all the way and love collecting condensation that eventually leads to mold.
That’s why we plan on saying “Sayonara!” to those old bus windows and hello to pretty tinted RV windows.
Side Note: I do have a plan to make a cute little bus window greenhouse for Mike’s grandmother‘s back yard. Check back later for the DIY guide 😉
Check Back Later for Other Blueprints!
The planning process is not yet complete! Check back later for an updated article that will include:
- Skylight map
- Interior lighting map
- Complete electrical map
- Plumbing map
- Roof Deck Map
- Solar Panel Map
What do you think?
What do you think of our skoolie plans? Is there anything you would have done differently? Do you have any questions about our blueprints? Comment down below and we’ll try to respond as soon as possible!
Things I Learned from the Nashville Tiny Home Festival