Here Are 5 Ways To Bring Back Your Spark| Van Build

Drove the van to Boulder — After we drove the van to Boulder

Feeling Uninspired With Your Van Build?

Trust me, I’ve been there! Reed and I are about halfway- if not 60% done with the van build. If I am being honest, this has been the most challenging project of my life. I have recently found myself feeling very uninspired and uncreative. There has been so much time, and energy spent learning a new set of skills that interior design has almost been an afterthought. Reed and I would work full-time jobs, and then spend our nights on youtube learning everything we possibly could about this project. We have gleaned a lot of insight and knowledge from enrolling in the so-called youtube academy. (Note: thank you past van builders for paving the way and documenting the process for people like us!)

Upper cabinet frame pre paint job — Upper cabinet frame pre-paint job

We were building our first home tohether, this was supposed to be fun and exciting! But it wasnt fun, it was exhausting.

Comparison overload

Instead of asking ourselves what we want our home-to-be to look and feel like, we spent a lot of the build basing it on other builds that we liked. None of that is necessarily wrong, but I have realized that we have been doing more of a copy-paste van build than making this a creative endeavor. After all, this van is our first home together, and our needs will be different from anyone else’s.

Burnout

This all came to a head when Reed and I were having a hard time finding the motivation to continue working on the van. We were so close to being done, more than halfway through! But getting outside to work felt like a chore. This was supposed to be at least somewhat fun and exciting! We were building our first home together after all! But it wasn’t fun, it was exhausting. We realized that we had to find a way to fix this dilemma, or we would become burned out and unable to move forward on creating our dream home.

Remember: it’s not always linear

Much to our initial belief, a van build is not necessarily a linear process. You will be working on a hundred different projects at the same time and not all of these projects will be completed when you expect them to be. This may be due to parts not coming in when expected, convenience, having the time available that is required for a certain task, and so on. There will also be days where you are feeling great and checking things off of your to-do list left and right. While some days, or weeks, may feel unmotivated or unsuccessful. Reed and I came into this process with no outside experience. We had no idea what we were doing the majority of the time, but our curiosity and belief in ourselves have gotten us this far. Remembering the big picture is essential to keeping you on task and moving forward.

Back To Basics

When we first came up with our plan to build a van, the ideas came pouring out of us. We were inspired and invigorated to take this project on. It’s likely that our influx of ideas probably led us to become overwhelmed with possibilities. I have learned from experience that a project as long as this one requires stamina and patience, and the ability to go with the flow. It has been essential for us to come back to our why. When we remember that all of this hard work, long days, research, and time is going into making our dream a reality, it reenergizes us. We will remind each other of our reason for taking on such an enormous project and that gets us back on track.

How To Kickstart Your Creativity And Find Your Spark:

Think Outside The Box

This has looked like Reed and I having creativity sessions where no idea is too extreme. Reed and I will offer up ideas left and right, and as we go, the ideas get more and more out there, and by the end, we are laughing so hard that we are in tears. The beauty of these sessions is that it allows us to practice stretching our creativity muscles and we often end up with a few viable ideas that are really great. It’s nice to break from the stress and rigor of a project like this and remember to reconnect and have fun! Highly recommend!

You Do You!

I have decreased my social media by at least 40% over the last four or five months and it shows. As first-time builders, we are by no means experts, (obvi!) and so this build has been a practice in imperfection. When you look up the hashtag vanlife, you are inundated by the most beautiful van build that you have ever seen. The builds we have seen ourselves drawn to are out of this world amazing and we have often caught ourselves comparing our build to the ones online. DO NOT DO IT. Remind yourself of the hard work, dedication, and energy that has gone into your work. No one can take that away from you. Ultimately, for us, vanlife isn’t about having the most beautiful van on the block. It’s about seeing amazing places, minimizing our lives, coming back to the Earth, and spending time together and with our furbabies. Our van is simply a way to make those things possible.

Draw It Out

I am no artist, by any stretch of the imagination. Yet I have countless chicken scratch drawings of our van strewn around our space, and it’s helped. Drawing out our projects enables me to see them from a new perspective and allows me to put the things I have been trying to express on paper. Your drawing doesn’t have to be a piece of art, it only needs to make sense to you.

Make A List

When in doubt write it out! If it’s not already obvious, I love to write and I also love lists. I suggest that you make a list of the top 10 or so things that you absolutely want in your house. It can be specific utilities or it can be more general feelings and vibes. DO you want it to be beachy? Homey? Minimalist? do you want to feel comfortable, or productive or relaxed, or alert? There’s an aesthetic for all of that, you just have to get specific about what you want and bring that to life. You can also take a few online quizzes to learn more about your ideal home design style.

Halfway through our build, we packed up and took a trip to remind us why we were doing this. And it worked! We came back rejuvenated.

Take A Break

This may feel counter-intuitive and there have been points where if someone told me to take a break, I would have flipped out, but taking some time off was exactly what I needed in order to spark my creativity. It took me stepping away to really find my inspiration and figure out how I wanted to turn our van into the perfect home on wheels for us.

Strong Finish

As we near the final quarter, I am feeling excited and reenergized. Acknowledging my fatigue and stress was the first step in me doing something about it. You’ve got this! Just remember that all the hours, time, and love you are putting into this project will be well worth it.