For our floor plan, we decided we wanted a couch as secondary seating in the front of the van that could convert to a twin sized bed for guests. Our design is a combination of ideas we saw online and ideas we brainstormed on our own.

Two of the most popular designs are the couch to bed seating area with table (usually in the rear of the van) or the lengthwise bed that slides out width-wise. Both of these options were not viable for us because of the amount of space between the bathroom and the driver's seat. We needed a narrow couch that pulled out lengthwise to a twin bed. 

We ended up designing a couch that uses 3 connected 2x2 arms on each side to fold into a couch or sit flat to form a bed. Our couch is 39” wide, about 18” high, and 73” long when flat as a bed. For comfort we use two thin futon mattresses stacked and covered with a twin fitted sheet. Converting the bed is quick and easy, just slide the couch out and fold down two support legs. 

How we built it:

We started by determining the dimensions we wanted for the height, width, and length of both the couch and bed and then used some high school trigonometery to figure out the lengths of the connected arms and angles to form the structure.

SOHCAHTOA is the key:

Sin(angle)=Opposite/Hypotenuse

Cos(angle)=Adjacent/Hypotenuse

Tan(angle)=Opposite/Adjacent

You can use inverse sine, cosine and tangent to figure out angles and sine, cosine and tangent to determine lengths of the arms to use.  It helps to draw some pictures to visualize what you are trying to calculate.

For a couch it is most comfortable if the seat angle is not at 90 degrees, but somewhere above 100 degrees.  We modeled the seat height and depth after the couch in our apartment, knowing we would have to fit electronics under it.  We used trigonometry to determine the arm lengths that would give us a comfortable seating angle, enough space underneath for electronics, the depth when folded into a couch, and the width that would use all available space when flat as a bed.

We fabricated most of the skeleton out of 2x4s, 2x3s and 2x2s.  We rounded the edges of the arms using a jig saw because they would need to slide as the couch opened.  We used bolts, lock nuts and washers to create the joints.  Pocket holes using a K5 Kreg Jig (Buy on Amazon) were used for most of the right angle attachments.

Below and left is the finished skeleton.  The arms slide out along the 2x3s on either side as it turns into a bed.  We tested the motion and dry fit the couch/bed in the van.  At this point, we hadn't designed the method to support the sagging joint in the picture on the right below.

We cut slats to size and screwed them down to create support for sitting and laying down.  We had to ensure motion was still possible so extra space had to be left between slats near some of the joints.  We again dry fit the couch with a mattress make sure it fit into the space it was created for and to see how comfortable it was.

We prepped the wood for painting with wood filler and a lot of sanding (though most of the time, none of the skeleton is visible).  We primed the wood using Zinsser B.I.N. Primer (Buy on Amazon) and sprayed using Behr Paint and Primer Plus.

We covered the skeleton with painted plywood panels and screwed it into the floor.   As our electrical system is under the couch, we used the outside panel closest to the driver's seat to install a Progressive Dynamics AC/DC distribution panel, a 12v / USB outlet (Buy on Amazon), and a 120v GFCI outlet (Buy on Amazon).

To fix the sagging of the joint closest to the sliding door, we installed fold down legs on either side of the bed to support the joint closest to the van sliding door using locking hinges (Buy on Amazon) and 2x2s.

We are pretty happy with how the couch turned out and we are happy to have a place for friends and family to stay when they visit us on our travels - as long as they are ok with getting cozy on a twin bed.

We've used it for two different sets of guests in our home on wheels and it only takes a minute to set up each night.  Billie has been happy with it as well as she has had a friend to cuddle with every time we have a guest in the van.

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