01 / STORIES & VANLIFE
● LIVE & EVOLVING
One van.
Two opinions.
Quite a few stories.
A site for the places worth remembering, the things that go wrong, the van I built and the less glamorous parts of living in it.
THE HOMEPAGE · DESKTOP
Solo travel. Real life included.
01 / THE IDEA
I built a van. Then I gave her a website.
Thomas v Petal is where the road trips, the build decisions, the experiments and the small everyday dramas finally live together.
I wanted something more useful than a highlight reel and more personal than a vanlife checklist. Real photos, practical details, stories that sound like me — and a second opinion from a rather demanding Peugeot Boxer.
PETAL HAS AN OPINION
“Two opinions is a conservative estimate.”
There is room for one cartoon van. But not an entire editorial board.
01
The stories
Small observations, longer essays and the mildly absurd reality of solo travel.
02
The places
Favourite beaches, detours and sunset spots, with notes worth keeping.
03
The practical
What I built, what I packed, what I use and what I’ve had to fix.
02 / THE WEBSITE
A little tour.
Everything here comes from the real site. No imaginary product screens, just the actual pages.
STORIES · LISTING
Solo travel. Two opinions. With plenty of room for both.
THE EDITORIAL BIT
Stories that sound like me.
The writing is the point. The design gives it space, the photographs do most of the talking and Petal occasionally interrupts.
I wanted the site to feel like a place you could wander through, rather than a chronological feed you have to catch up on.
AN ACTUAL ARTICLE
My mood has a parking space.
MEET PETAL · THE BUILD
From an empty van to a small home, one weekend at a time.
PLACES WE LOVED
Sunsets, beaches, and the occasional excellent parking space.
WHAT’S ACTUALLY IN PETAL
An equipment list that includes what I use, not just what looks nice.
NOT A SHOWROOM
Lived in, not staged.
The bed gets slept in. The kitchen gets used. Things are usually charging. The photographs have to leave room for normal life too.
That is the whole point of this project: the good bits, the annoying bits and the reality between the photographs.
INSIDE PETAL
Actual life in the van. Not a furniture catalogue.
ALSO, ON A PHONE
The road is mostly mobile.
Most of the reading, planning and checking happens away from a desk. So a proper mobile experience matters — especially when the connection isn’t feeling very cooperative.
HOMEPAGE · MOBILE
The same site, considerably less screen space.
03 / WHAT I’M LEARNING
Personality is a design decision.
The colours, the labels, the story categories and the humour make very different kinds of content feel like one project. The difficult part isn’t adding another page. It’s keeping the whole thing easy to navigate as it grows.
The work behind it: WordPress, writing, photography, design, CSS and a fair amount of trial and error.
WORDPRESS & CSS
WRITING & PHOTOGRAPHY
EDITORIAL DESIGN
CURRENTLY
Live & evolving.
More stories, places and practical lessons will follow. Petal has already started suggesting revisions.
