I’ve covered Insulated Window Panels here on the blog as well as Simple Privacy Window Panels, on YouTube. I thought I’d said everything I wanted to say, but then I saw a clever Facebook post.

A gentleman named Chris Frink used the same type of pad that I use on my floors, to make his window panels. This the type of pad I’m talking about:

They come in different colors and although I think black would work best in the windows, Chris went with a wood-look, which could look classier, especially if you have wood inside and face the printed side inward.

If wood doesn’t fit your decor, there are a lot of options for colors and prints if you poke around Amazon, Big Lots, or Sam’s Club.

With Chris’ permission, I’ve put his Facebook pictures in this post. If you want to see the original DIY post, this link should bring you there. If for some reason that link stops working, search for “foam interlocking padding” in the Vanlifers Group.

According to Chris, he used some foam pads that were already available, saving some money along the way. Quoting Chris’ post, “… take some discarded floor foam interlocking padding, cut it to fit snug inside your window. it pops out, it insulates, blocks light, uses no poles, strings, and no drilling required”.

What’s clever about this is that you can easily trim them to fit your windows and if you make them SLIGHTLY larger than the window, the tension of the foam will hold them in place. Chris has a Honda Odyssey Camper, but I see no reason why you couldn’t do this on other minivan RVs.

Here you can face the print in or out, or use different colors. I’d use black if stealth is your primary vandwelling concern.

I think it would be interesting to cover one side of a black panel with Reflectix for heat reflection. But even without it, these panels will provide some decent insulation.

Minivan Privacy Panels — The one thing I really like about this idea is how easy this project would be. That fits into our theme at Odyssey Camper, which is to find inexpensive solutions that WORK.

Special thanks to Chris Frink for this awesome idea! If you need to make some privacy window panels for your van, these are simple to make and also provide some insulation. Cool stuff!

You can find all of my technical and minivan camper conversion DIYs, linked here.