The Best Mattress for a DIY Campervan Bed

A good night’s sleep can make or break how much you actually enjoy your time on the road. You can have the nicest cabinetry, a solid electrical setup, and a great layout, but if your bed is uncomfortable, van life gets old pretty quickly. That’s why I reckon your mattress is one of those parts of the build that’s worth getting right from the start.

For my custom campervan beds, I use a high-density foam mattress. Foam is ideal for DIY van builds because you can cut it to suit your exact bed shape, even if you’ve got a custom layout, split cushions, wheel arches, or a convertible bed setup. I’ve cut mine with a standard bread knife from home, and with a bit of patience, you can get a really clean result. The covers can also be sewn with a normal home sewing machine, which means you can still end up with a professional-looking bed without needing custom upholstery.

The key thing is choosing high-density foam, not just any foam mattress. In a van, you usually want to keep the mattress thinner than a normal home mattress so you don’t lose too much headroom. The mattresses I use are around 15cm thick, which is a good balance between comfort and space. The high-density foam stops you from sinking straight through the mattress and feeling the bed slats underneath, especially when you roll onto your side and your shoulder or hip digs in.

I’ve bought high-density foam mattresses both in-store and online, and this is one item where I now strongly recommend buying online. For almost identical mattresses, I’ve paid around $550 from Clark Rubber compared to about $180 from Amazon. There are definitely parts of a van build where it pays to go into a specialist store, but in my experience, this isn’t one of them. If you can get the right size, thickness, and foam density online, it’s a pretty easy place to save a few hundred dollars.

Mattress I use: https://www.journeyvanbuilds.com/mattress/affiliate

This is the mattress I use in my custom campervan beds:

Mattress I use: https://www.journeyvanbuilds.com/mattress/affiliate

And this is the sewing video I followed to make the mattress covers:
Mattress cover sewing video:https://youtu.be/mMm_irFrbHQ?si=PkkkqbM0OrhhwCKr

That mattress link is an affiliate link, which means I may earn a small commission if you buy through it, at no extra cost to you.

For most DIY van builders, a high-density foam mattress is the sweet spot. It’s easy to cut, supportive enough for proper sleep, thin enough to save headroom, and if you buy it online, it can be way cheaper than getting almost the same thing made up in-store.