Let’s face it: exploring different places while knowing you have a cozy place to go home to at night is highly appealing, especially for young adults, hence the ongoing trend of school bus conversions, or skoolies. Make no mistake, though; families with small children can still enjoy life in a skoolie, giving the kids a chance to see the wider world without having them live in hotel after hotel.

Typically, these used school buses are completely gutted save for the engine and other mechanical parts that help keep the “mobile” in “mobile home”, and then renovated by the owners or with the help of professionals. If you’ve decided to try the skoolie life, whether because of wanderlust or a desire to own your own place and still be able to travel quite a bit, the first thing to do is to find the best bus for the conversion. Once you have that, you can start working on a floor plan that works for you. 

Deciding on a floor plan and layout can be difficult; the same goes for choosing the overall appearance of your skoolie’s interior. In light of that, here are a few of the best school bus conversions to help kick start some ideas of your own.

 

Monochromatic with warm wood accents

On their own, white and black can be boring. But if you’ve seen examples of interior design that used those two colors together, you’d agree that they can be modern and sleek. Quite a few couples have used a white-and-black color motif for their own skoolies, typically with more white than black in the overall color scheme, since white makes a space look lighter and roomier. 

Adding accents using warm-colored wood, though, serves as a counterpoint as well as to balance the play of dark against light. Just picture it: a white couch with black throw pillows and a white stove with a black stovetop and oven door on either end of a white counter with a warm wooden countertop. Or a light wooden floor leading up to a bed with white covers and light gray pillows, with hints of darker, cheerfully warm-colored wood peeking from under said covers.

If you’re looking for a simple and clean aesthetic, you can’t get much simpler than that. 

Earth, sea, and sky

If you and your loved ones are fond of nature-based activities such as hiking, swimming, and snorkeling, bringing a bit of that into the design for your skoolie just makes sense. Instead of limiting yourself to just three colors, you can choose a range instead, such as light blues and blue-greens to light grays as the sea and sky colors, with brown or dark brown for earth. 

One possible way to use these colors is to have dark wooden floors, white or light gray cabinets and couches, and cushions and throw pillows in seafoam green and light blue. If you add any curtains to the windows, make sure to keep them drawn to let in as much light as possible and give the space a more airy feel. 

Earth tones and reds and yellows

If light colors aren’t your thing or you just feel more comfortable when your surroundings are geared more towards earthy colors, then this would be a good color scheme to consider. With dark wood floors as the base and black cabinetry and counters, you can start adding other earth tones and even some red or yellow for contrast. A light gray that’s neither warm nor cool can serve as another neutral in such a color scheme. 

With potentially strong colors as the basis, it’s a good idea to break up the solid blocks with a few prints here and there. Instead of cushions or throw pillows in a single color, don’t be afraid to choose prints that follow the overall color scheme, and reinforce the gray and brown with, say, a small area rug, or an ottoman that hinges open at the top and doubles as storage space.

Now, you may be wondering if the above ideas can’t work for an RV, or if it’s better to choose an RV instead of a school bus conversion. The truth is, they would likely work, but if your dream is to live a life on the road, it may well be more beneficial to choose a skoolie rather than an RV. 

Basics of Bus Conversions

In any case, whatever aesthetic you end up choosing, there are a few basics to remember.

Plan

First, plan the layout well. If you want to have an open floor plan for the living areas but still keep the sleeping quarters separate, it’s not a good idea to put the bed in the middle of what will become the living room/dining room area. One helpful tip is to pinpoint where the bathroom will be and then work from there. You could even extend the bathroom a little to one side to slightly obscure the bedroom-to-be, so you don’t actually have to put some kind of divider.

Maximize

Second, maximize the space. If you can have something pull double duty, such as a study desk that unfolds into a dining table, or a sofa that can become another bed, then do so. Use hanging cabinets and floating shelves where you can free up floor space. As hinted at above, have furniture or part of a room act as a divider instead of using an actual divider, so you’ll have more space for appliances or furniture that you’ll need.

Get a professional

Third, don’t be afraid to consult a professional. They’re bound to have more experience than you when it comes to designing interiors or finding ways to make an idea work. That way, you won’t have to settle for a haphazard design and layout that makes your skoolie more uncomfortable than you’d like.

 

And as for finding the best vehicle to convert, you can always visit UsedVending.com for a wide range of school buses for sale.