A family of 6 transformed a 60-square-foot van into a tiny home with bunk beds, a pop-up shower, and a 'movie theater'

Tamika, who works as a photographer and also goes by Mika, told Insider that her family has always been big on traveling. The family, originally from New York, is currently based in Germany.

Mika and Ryen share four young children — Noah, Atlas, Briséis, and Tallulah. The oldest, Noah, is five while the youngest, Tallulah, is six months old.

"We used to go on road trips, nonstop. We've driven cross-country, from one side of the United States to the other, multiple times now," she told Insider.

Last year, when Ryen was first offered a job in Germany, the family saw this as an opportunity to embrace van life by starting their very first van conversion and bringing it with them to Europe with the goal to "travel as much as possible."

It also helps that Mika and her family are "part-time" van lifers. They split their time between the van, living in it when they travel, and a duplex in Germany that serves as their home base. They travel and live in their van about half the time.

Even in their home away from the van, Mika said that they're conscious about what they buy and make sure nothing they bring into the house is wasteful. They all have capsule wardrobes, which means instead of buying whatever is trendy at the moment, they buy the essentials and then mix it up in various ways.

Mika believes that the actual conversion would have probably cost less had they been more experienced van-lifers. An issue they encountered is that they'd buy something at the store, but when it was time to put it in the van, it wouldn't work.

"So I went to the store multiple times to buy things over and over again to do it correctly the next time," she said, explaining how they spent more money on the renovation than they probably needed to.

It was "pretty much" done at the beginning of fall 2020 and Mika estimates they spent around six months total working on it. As she was pregnant, she said that Ryen did most of the heavy labor for the renovation.

It was a "complete deal-breaker" for the couple if the van was unable to seat the four kids safely.

Towards the back of the van is a steel bench where the kids' car seats go when the family is driving. Mika told Insider that the bench is secured to the frame of the van and has seat belts. She said she spent weeks coming up with the idea to install the bench there, in a manner that wouldn't take up too much space but would still keep the kids safe and secure.

"I would just stay up and layout things inside on our kitchen floor to try and figure out a way to utilize and maximize the space in there," she said.

The mattress for the bed is made up of individual cushions cut into different sections. A fitted sheet goes over them to keep them in place. While the kids are seated on the bench, the cushions are stored away in the back.

Mika told Insider that they had it set up so she and Ryen would sleep on the bottom bunk while the kids would be in the upper bunk, but in reality, the sleeping arrangement is a lot more flexible.

"It depends on who's sleeping where. Sometimes my eldest daughter will decide that she wants to sleep with her brothers and my husband at the same time," Mika told Insider. "So then he'll take the bottom bunk and then I'll be like, 'okay, well, I'll go up to the top with my youngest daughter.'"

Away from the van, too, the group has a "family bedroom situation" where the kids are welcome to sleep in their parents' bedroom as long as they're comfortable.

"They will sleep through anything, at least crying-related with the baby," Mika told Insider. "It's kind of just like another everyday occurrence for us that's just so natural."

The kitchen also has a mini-fridge for their perishables.

They use a compostable toilet and a shower head that hooks up to the sink in the kitchen. They have teak wood, which is naturally water-resistant, that they stand on while in the pop-up shower with curtains that go around it. The water collected during the shower is then drained out the side of the van.

The bench is located about three feet from the very back of the van. This trunk space serves as storage. The van's water tank and batteries are also located in this area.

Mika said that they installed the projection screen so they could have some "fun movie nights" with the kids while on the road.

Mika said that she wanted the design of the van to have an "old-world feel."

"I don't like farmhouse-style, but when I look at French cottages where everything was stone, they had a lot of raw wood that was old, and crazy pots everywhere — that was my goal," she told Insider.

Mika's kitchen has details like a wooden countertop, an ornate faucet, and bee-shaped knobs that illustrate this decor choice.

Mika said that she wanted to do a live-edge wood countertop. With live-edge wood, the texture of the tree's surface is still visible.

Luckily, the couple found a person selling some slabs of wood on Facebook Marketplace, and they did "an enormous amount of sanding" and research into how to seal it properly so it wouldn't start chipping.

Having bunk beds and a pop-up bathroom that is only accessible when they're using it helped Mika and Ryen make the most of the space they have.

As first-time van lifers, Mika says they're still adjusting and learning to accommodate to life in the 60-square-foot space.

"I feel like the same struggles that you would have inside a house, you can find in a van as well," Mika told Insider. "The only difference is, when we feel claustrophobic in our van, we can all just go outside and explore walking around."