3 Interior Designers Convert The Same Abandoned School Bus

[Narrator] These three interior designers

have been given a photograph of an empty school bus.

They have free reign to design it in any way they please.

My name is Joy,

my design style is classic, relaxed and comfortable.

I'm Darren Jett and my design approach

is crazy, sexy, cool.

Hi, I'm Noz and my design style is colorful,

textural, and sometimes a little folksy.

[Narrator] No clients, no budget, just blank space.

My first impressions of this very empty school bus housing

is, I can't wait.

I'm obsessed with skoolies, I think they're amazing.

I've actually designed a school bus RV conversion

in the past.

I've never designed for a bus before.

My challenge is really to convert this thing

into some sort of living experience

worthy of being on the road, that's conducive to living.

It's long, it's narrow.

You have wheels back here that we have to work within.

Never had a space that was as big of a challenge.

But if I'm having a bus,

I wanna make it something that is crazy, original,

never been done before, let's go for it.

[upbeat music]

I really wanna create a beautiful,

luxurious sort of home away from home with wheels

so that you aren't embarrassed

when you pull into Canyon Beach and Malibu.

How I'm approaching this space

is I want to be inside of a music video.

I'm imagining like a rock star.

It's like Beyonce, in a bus, on The Renaissance Tour.

My overall vision is this is going to be a school bus

for people who are crafty, love decorative things,

but also are like deeply practical.

I wanna do like a cuckoo clock inspired school bus.

That's what I wanna do.

[upbeat music]

Starting with the floor,

we really want the floor to go from the front of the bus

all the way to the back and be the same.

We're going to do a beautiful sort of aqua color,

think like 1990s Prada, Jil Sander,

sort of minty, slightly grayish,

but very, very, very pale

and it's gonna be something that's pretty indestructible.

We're going to do a simple epoxy finish on the floor

and it has a little bit of a sheen to it

so it makes the space feel bigger and also easy to clean.

And on the floor,

I wanna do like a naughty elder.

In a home, I love a refined wood

where there's not a ton of knots.

Here on the school bus, one, it saves funds.

Two, it's just non-precious,

it helps you hide stains 'cause you're gonna be in and out

with like gravel and dirt all over your shoes

or your slippers, whatever.

I really like to create different areas

and the flooring helps to designate lines between functions.

The bedroom space is a modular carpet tile

that could be easily replaced

if it's soiled or anything like that.

But in this living space,

you'll see the flooring is just a patterned rug.

[upbeat music]

The walls are going to be the same color as the floor

and we're going to do a sort of plastic resin on the walls.

We would carry the same color from the walls

up onto the ceiling as well.

In a bus, this is something that is going

to be very, very lightweight.

You see it often in trains, you see it often in aircraft.

And what I would like to do

is create little pillows on the wall,

but what they would do is actually hold storage.

You know, if you press a button,

they could open up and you have a cabinet.

We really want to think about the bus

as having storage everywhere,

but we also want it to be rather discreet.

I really want to think about this

as being a sort of jet set environment.

By having the windows sort of shaped almost

like the inside of a plane, I think that could be very cool

and the windows could even have that same sort of screen

integrated into it

where you pull it down if you want some privacy.

And if you wanna know where you are,

you pull it up and you can see outside.

But what I want to do is to have one area of window

that's always open and that would be a skylight.

I really wanted the palette to be very, very calm,

there's texture to the walls

and maybe we're doing like a raffia sort of feeling,

so it's feeling like nature.

But the focal points are really just to enjoy

that panoramic view and all of what's going on around you.

The ceiling of this bus

was really incredibly important to me

and one of the things I really, really wanted to consider

null and void is this solid ceiling.

So introducing a panoramic ceiling

really gives us the opportunity to enjoy the sunsets,

the sun rises and really opening that space up.

But it's a very thick glass, plexi-material

that will support some weight to it.

So we could put a ladder

so you can walk up to the roof of the bus

with a couple of little beach chairs,

hang out there and create your own little patio.

Even though it's not a plane

that actually has to be super light,

the heavier your school bus,

the more likely you are to just guzzle gas

on the way around the country.

So I actually want everything to be light wood,

like pine and Douglas fir.

The reason I wanna do wood everywhere,

on the ceiling and on the walls,

is because I can put paneling there

and hide insulation inside.

Because if you're in a metal tube,

driving around the country,

you're gonna get freezing ass cold at night

or you're gonna be sweltering hot.

So insulation is key.

And also you wanna be able to dumb down

some of the noise outside.

I very deliberately did not do anything

with the windows themselves,

so we need to be able to cover them up

because you need privacy on a school bus.

So I'm gonna do roller shades.

So I'm gonna use this very amazing Pindler fabric.

It is indoor-outdoor, using sunbrella yarn,

so it's actually like fade resistant.

A solution died acrylic.

Again, I'm not gonna change the windows here.

But you can cut metal, especially in the ceiling.

So I actually wanna do skylights all the way down the bus

and they're gonna be dome bubble skylights.

That curvature allows airflow to pass over them

when you're going 65 whole miles per hour.

Don't break the speed limit.

They're going to be UV coated

so they don't bleach everything inside the school bus.

We're gonna put little shades

so you can like close those off

and have darkness when you need that.

[upbeat music]

We have to address the layout of the bus.

Let's put the bathroom in the back,

we're gonna hide the toilet back there,

we're gonna hide the sink back there

and we can also hide the shower back there.

But we can do something kind of cool

where the shower is sort of a peekaboo moment

to the rest of the space.

About the last quarter of that rounded wall,

that'll actually be a glass that's sort of tinted.

You can sort of see but you can't fully see

and that's where you would have the shower just beyond that.

Even though you're not gonna see it

from the front of the bus,

I put the bathroom and a small kitchenette

at the very rear of the bus.

Moving forward, we're going to have a sleeping area.

My approach to concealing the wheel wells

is to have storage units directly on top of them.

So from a distance they just look like

three quarter high storage units.

But within the little sleeping alcove,

we've got a day bed that's covered in a sumptuous velvet.

The main challenges of a school bus conversion

are principally that wheels at the back are huge

and you need to basically accommodate a design

that reconciles that the wheels have to be here.

So what I wanna do in order to make sure

that these wheels are accounted for,

I'm gonna give you a giant, king sized bed.

So luxurious, right?

It's gonna be raised up so that you can actually use

the area under the bed as storage.

I'm very specifically going to hang onto

the emergency rear exit.

This is super valuable as access to storage underneath.

And also while I'm at it,

I mean there's all this room at the back of the bus.

I'm gonna put bookcases above the rear door, over the bed,

with a railing for all of your books and magazines.

Then coming forward from there, the bed is really raised up.

So I'm gonna put stairs.

So stairs are gonna kind of cascade down

off of that king-sized bed.

The stairs are also storage.

Have you seen those beautiful little stairs

you pull the drawers out?

I love it.

I'm envisioning sort of a lot of people

in the space at one time.

What I like is the idea of the bed area

and the sort of seating area as being integrated together.

What I also like in a space like this

is to always have a focal point.

So in this case,

we're actually gonna have the bed be the center point.

And if we're designing a bus for a pop star diva,

let's have the bed be round, why not?

We have these wheel wells in the back

and what we're going to do is actually have the bed

on top of one.

So the circular bed is gonna live on top of

the right hand wheel well,

and the steps that go from the main area of the bus

into the bathroom are covering the one on the left.

I started thinking about references

from Betty and Francois Catroux, their apartment in Paris,

and they have this sort of serpentine sofa

where it's one color on the seat

and one color on the front and back.

And that would be the sort of seating group

in front of that bed.

I really wanted the living space

to be the focal point of the bus.

I like using furniture that's off the floor,

that doesn't feel heavy,

particularly in very narrow spaces like this.

So they don't feel as though everything

has to be totally static.

These beautiful CB2 side chairs, which are wood framed

with a beautiful, washable velvet.

So anyone who might be concerned about

the use of these lightweight chairs,

what I do then is I hook the back of the chair

to the hook on the wall

and that eliminates any movement throughout the bus.

The coffee table that you see here

is actually an antique design

that was inspired by Splendid Antiques,

and it's meant to elevate from coffee table height

to dining height.

We need to consider all sorts of flexible elements

when you are in a space

that really can't be expanded very much.

So the coffee table is the perfect opportunity

to customize furniture.

Also the three seat sofa that you see here is from CB2,

but that as well is something that can be customized.

So it flips up to provide more circulation space.

Right in front of this wheel well

that's where the bathroom's gonna go.

So I'm gonna have the bathroom door open

from inside the bus hallway, that way you have more privacy.

I'm gonna make it a minimal sized thing,

but it's going to be one giant wet room.

I'm just imagining maybe like me, you still have to work,

but you can be a remote worker,

a digital nomad as they call them.

So I need you to have a desk.

So I'm gonna put a fold down desk here

so it's not always in the way.

In between the seating area and the driver

would be the kitchen and storage area.

So that's where you would have your stove top

next to your sink,

you would have lots of storage for your pantry items,

and below that you would have storage

for all of your cooking and kitchen equipment.

On the opposite side, right by the door,

you're really creating a sort of entry area,

kitchen seating group

and then a really cool bed moment in the back.

Then we're gonna have storage,

a little shallow additional drawer area or cabinet area

for you to be able to house more things.

I just love the intimacy of a real built-in dining area.

So I'll have a round table

just in front of this right hand wheel well

and then two built in banquettes.

And then I wanna use this stunning,

spectacular Pierre Frey 100% wool flannel.

We're wanting to keep all the material on the bus

as close to each other as possible.

What I'd like to do for the kitchen is actually think about

how do we reflect that material into the space?

We also want something that's very durable

and can take a beating.

So what I want to do is actually clade the cabinetry

in the kitchen area in a stainless steel.

But I want to do something

that is actually super reflective,

almost like a mirror polish,

which would look something sort of like this,

and then I would carry that back

into the rest of the space by the seating.

So we're really thinking about materiality here

more or less in the same color family,

keeps everything very simple, keeps everything very tonal,

and just really makes the eye expand.

Now we're gonna have the kitchen on the side

and I'm envisioning that in like a very wild,

like eggplant, aubergine stained wood.

So one of the things that I like to do,

and I'm just borrowing from traditional

like cabinetry design, is cutouts, heart cutouts,

little diamond floral shapes

that are like sort of clover, four point things.

I'm just gonna cut all of this out

of a lot of the cabinet things to ventilate them.

So in the kitchen, we're gonna have all of the essentials.

We'll have a perfectly big enough sink

and we're going to have like an 18-inch dishwasher

because you can hook up enough water in your tank

underneath the bus

to be able to run a dishwasher once in a while.

And then we'll have like the little cooktop oven.

Let's utilize the sort of space above the windows

at the kitchen area for a little shelf that has a rail

all the way across for things like soy sauce

and ketchup and mustard, like your regular condiments.

And then everything else iws storage and trash.

Like I actually think it's important for you to make room

inside of a skoolie for trash.

So the one that is against the bathroom,

let's have that one be the trash bin.

And the other really important thing is the hardware.

One of the things that bugs me all the time

is school buses where I see the conversion

and like everything rattles around and is crazy.

So instead of using like regular cabinet hinges,

everything has to lock.

So this is kind of how I would do it.

So this hardware is from Rejuvenation.

I think it's very important for you to have a lounging area

inside the skoolie.

So for the couch,

we're going to have like this Pierre Frey fabric,

which is one of my personal favorites.

It's actually called Country,

which almost feels too good to be true.

And then we're going to do in this like wild green leather,

I'm gonna do a bolster right at the back,

because sometimes you just wanna nap, right?

And then underneath the couch

I wanna put built-in coffee tables.

So if you haven't seen this thing,

there is actually an motorized or mechanical

lift up KitchenAid stand mixer hardware thing

that you can put inside of a cabinet.

So I actually am gonna utilize that mechanism

and that engineering for underneath the sofa.

So you can actually pull out one of these pieces

or two of them, if you wanted, to serve as a coffee table

that's just built into the couch.

Again, everything has to be built in

'cause anything that wiggles around or is loose

is just gonna go sloshing itself around your bus

and damage all of your hard work.

So then it cross on the couch, I'm gonna hide a roll up TV.

There are these literal TV up and down motors,

I actually personally have one,

and I'm going to hide the TV inside of this cabinet.

And then in front of it

you have shallow room for additional storage.

[upbeat music]

Now for the lighting, I really love sconces in a skoolie.

Personally I want there to be plenty of light

because a lot of times

when you're going around in the winter,

it's actually dark in the bus by like 4:00 PM right?

So ONG Studio makes some of the most charming, beautiful,

perfect match between like folks cabiny,

traditional and very modern, contemporary,

wooden and glass light fixtures.

So I want those sconces everywhere.

And they'll mostly be the single bulb

except over the kitchen where we'll do a double sconce.

We have a three seat sofa flanked by two side tables

with lighting and we have sconces

on these three quarter high storage units.

We have a continuous beam of light

running from the back of the bus to the front

and that would connect the skylight

all the way to the front.

It could be bright, but it could also be turned down

very, very dim.

And I think it could really actually be something

that's very calming in a space

that is otherwise pretty energetic.

And then on top of that,

you would also have storage for clothing,

everyone's gonna have odds and ends,

so why not have a little decorative lamp on top?

Of course the lamp would be fully affixed to the surface

so it wouldn't move in case

you had a little bump in the road.

[upbeat music]

By the seating, you would have the bed covered in the fur,

you would have the base of the seating

also covered in the fur,

and then underneath that would be velvet in the same color.

So we're really thinking about materiality here.

It makes it feel like you're inside of a music video.

It makes it feel like you're inside this tunnel

that's traveling through time.

How cool is that?

I'm feeling really good about all of the material choices

that I've made for my skoolie,

but I still want there

to be an additional decorative folksy element

that just like really brings this whole skoolie bus to life.

So I wanna just hand paint, stencil folk art

all over the place.

I could see it going all the way around all of the skylights

and really framing each beautiful round skylight.

I wanna do it on the side of the TV cabinet.

At the rear wall, we'll find an art piece because it's nice,

to have a focal point instead of just a blank wall.

And the art need not be expensive,

it just has to be a piece that you absolutely love.

The secondary purpose of the art wall

is to create a barrier that hides the bathroom

and the kitchenette space,

'cause I really didn't want you to have to

look into the drudgeries

when you're looking down that corridor.

So it creates a nice line of demarcation

between the utilitarian spaces and the living spaces.

[upbeat music]

Stemming from the original view, which was this heaviness,

this dark, dank bus meant to roll to the final garage

of its lifetime.

Breathing new energy and life into it,

is a bus that I would definitely wanna roll into town on.

Because it's got newness to it, it's got some edge to it,

it's got some light to it, and live life,

hit the road, mama.

I think that any musician would love this bus,

whether it's a pop diva or an R&B superstar,

or if it's a 1990s TLC, CrazySexyCool,

whatever it might be, they would love this bus.

I'm thinking about how can this space transport someone

from an everyday world into their own environment?

And I would love to spend a night here for sure.

Overall, I feel absolutely personally in love with

and very invested in this skoolie.

It is everything that I wanted personally and practically.

The opportunity to design little spaces,

especially little spaces that move around,

to make it deeply functional, storage first,

very much mindful of the actual things

that you need to bring with you on the road,

but still beautiful.

[upbeat music]

Wow. Oh, sweet baby Jesus.

What we got going here?

Look at yours. Oh, sleekness.

Oh my.

This is giving like the best of NSYNC.

Yeah or like TLC, maybe.

Yes, definitely Missy Misdemeanor Elliott.

Yes, yes. You know.

But I think more of like a Nanda Vigo style,

so everything's kind of like all the same finish

more or less to make it feel bigger

instead of less cacophonous.

I love it, and you, my dear?

[Noz] Mine is a cuckoo skoolie

and it's inspired by cuckoo clocks.

She's cute though. Thanks.

I went very practical.

So I've actually designed a school bus

for exactly this purpose, I've done a skoolie before,

so I went very practical.

My whole thing center's very much about storage

and versatility of use.

And then after that I just was like,

I really am in a folk art season.

Oh, I love. Keep it serene.

Is that an art piece back there?

Oh, you gotta have some art, you know, good quality art.

You gotta make it your home that you can enjoy.

Like it's, you know.

Just because you're on the road

doesn't mean you have to reduce your quality of living.

Thank you, thank you. That is very very true.

Keep the living alive.

[upbeat music]