What happens when a van conversion company with more than seven years of custom camper projects under its belt is tasked with building a van for company owners? Something really special, in the case of Dutch outfit CustomCamp. Its tiny home-inspired Peugeot Boxer features wood construction, leather trim and residential-style fixtures among the nicest you'll see in a small home, mobile or not. Sometimes it's good to be the boss.
Tiny homes and camper vans have both been on fire in recent years, so it's never particularly surprisingly to see the two like worlds converge. In fact, it's more surprising that we don't see them converge more often - timber-clad teardrops and expanding tiny homes are pretty impressive.
CustomCamp has channeled some cross-market influence of its own and applied it to the conversion project commissioned in-house by the owners - a rather important customer from whom they can definitely expect feedback. The design is all basic, true-blue Peugeot outside, but has the warmth and aesthetic of a woodsy cabin or condo inside.
Walking through the Boxer tiny home's sliding door quickly becomes a veritable lesson in dendrology. The counters and dining table are large slabs of elm, some wearing organic, unleveled edges for added rustic appeal. The cabinets rely on lightweight poplar to keep stress off the vehicle axles, while spruce also finds use in the furniture construction.
Handmade equipment and amenities feature throughout, the most striking example being the hand-painted Moroccan bowl sink fed by a high-arching, exposed-plumbing faucet. The latter was hand-constructed by the owner's father. The cushions and seating have been sewn together by a seamstress, and custom-made leather straps work as cabinet handles.
It's easy to find yourself lost in the homey aesthetic, but this motored tiny home isn't just a showpiece. It's equipped with all the amenities a family of four will need to travel the countryside and spend the night. It sleeps two adults and two children and seats everyone at a family-size dinette set. The van even sleeps the two family dogs.
A triple-burner stove provides plenty of cooking power to help fill the decorative cups and kettles hanging and sitting about, while the refrigerator stores fresh goods. There clearly isn't space left for even the slimmest wet bath, but the combination of removable toilet and outdoor shower should fill the role just fine. The toilet stores neatly away in a lower cabinet when not in use.
The skylight and windows appear to bring plenty of natural light in, and the light-toned wood and white paint should help amplify it. We particularly like the porthole-style window over the driver's side counter and the decorative covering that shades it before removing to serve as a trivet.
The van also includes a diesel cabin heater, hot water boiler and solar power system.
The only negative we can find about this build is that it is based on a 10-year-old Boxer with 74,500 miles on it (120,000 km) behind it. Not too high, but such an ornate, one-of-a-kind build seems like it should be filling out a brand-new van with its full life ahead of it. But maybe this Boxer will find use as permanent/semi-permanent tiny home - we don't even want to think of those picture-perfect hanging cups and exposed pipes bouncing and rattling when riding over a rowdy stretch of washboard.
The Boxer tiny home van is very much a fully custom one-off, complete with family-provided equipment, but CustomCamp estimates that a similar interior would cost around €35,000 (approx. US$42,500), before the cost of the van itself.
The company specializes in custom vans all around but does provide some sample package pricing estimates starting at €12,500 ($15,000). Its €18,500 ($22,500) Opel Vivaro luxury wood interior conversion isn't quite as impressive as the Boxer kit above, but it's very attractive in its own right.
Source: CustomCamp (Dutch)
