We are Dee & Simon a couple of UK based van dwellers who love to travel and create hand-built campervan conversions.
Our passion for building van conversions started when we decided we wanted to live and travel in a van over five years ago. We wanted our van to feel like home and have all the features we would need to live comfortably off-grid. Using Simon’s experience in design engineering we came up with a plan for our first home-on-wheels, complete with a large solar system, bathroom with shower and toilet and masses of storage.
We learnt a lot from this first build after spending time researching all the best components, materials and techniques for creating the ideal campervan.
We have since had the pleasure of building a wide range of van conversions for customers around the UK. From micro-campers to large full-time live-in vans, our conversions are rustic and homely whilst also being built to a high-finish, feeling clean and bright. Everything is built by hand from quality materials to ensure the conversion will withstand many years of off-grid living and travel.
We put a lot of love and care in to every detail of our conversions so each van we build is a one-of-a-kind living space.
Our story…
Since we first met over ten years ago we’ve shared a big love of camping and being outdoors. Our first experiences of wild camping were pitching tents at any secluded spots we could find around Hampshire and Dorset. Even though this was one of our favourite things to do we were focussed on getting degrees and eventually jobs, so the time we spent exploring the outdoors decreased and our priorities shifted to starting careers and paying rent.
We spent a few years living out the normal routine of renting a house, going to work Mon-Fri and making the most of weekends, but we kept feeling like there had to be an alternative way of living that would better suit us.
Simon had always liked the idea of living in a van and considered it as an option whilst living on a budget at uni but we didn’t know anyone that had done it and weren’t convinced it was a realistic idea. We started looking in to it online and the more we saw the more inspired we were to start our own project.
Simon spent years researching the perfect van to convert and eventually decided on a Fiat Ducato. We found a second hand one that had been used by a carpet fitting company and after lots of apprehensive mulling it over we took the plunge and bought it.
At first our self-build motorhome project was about creating our perfect living space in a van. We weren’t totally certain about where it would lead but knew that it was the first step towards a whole new lifestyle.
We started taking our van out at the weekends and sleeping in it when we visited friends or went to gigs, with only a matress and camping stove in the back. We quickly fell in love with the freedom it gave us and found ourselves spending more and more time in the van, until eventually we decided to give up our house completely and live in the van full-time. It seemed a bit scary and even like a reckless idea but we knew it was the right way to live for us and it’s made us the happiest we’ve ever been.
We’d always talked about travelling but were never sure how we’d go about it – where we’d go, where we’d stay, how we’d pay for it, how long we’d be able to do it for…living in our van seemed to be the answer to almost all of these uncertainties.
We’ve been living in our van since October 2015 and in May 2016 we finished the build, quit our jobs and started our first big adventure of travelling in our van. We spent an amazing nine months travelling across Europe and even made it to Morocco.
Now we want to give others the same freedom and adventure that’s become such an important part of our lives by building handcrafted homes-on-wheels that are completely custom and personalised. We have a workshop just outside of Romsey, Hampshire, where we love to welcome visitors interested in van life! If you’d like to come and have a look, please get in touch.
Dee & Simon x
