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Vincent is a converted horsebox lorry turned into a cozy, handmade home on wheels by HouseBox, a small house truck builder in Southwest England. The name is a play on “horsebox,” the British term for a truck built to carry horses.
HouseBox founder Dean Crago started converting trucks around 2010, beginning with House-Box One, the truck he built for himself and his partner Hannah. Vincent was the company’s fourth build, made to order for a customer named Imogen. Every HouseBox is a one-off commission, and this one is full of personal touches, from a tank built in for her pet corn snake to a fox-shaped door knocker.
From the outside, Vincent looks like a black box truck with a few porthole windows. Inside, it’s a warm, wood-lined cabin with a kitchen, a raised bed, a wood stove and a wet room.
A Storybook Dutch Door
The entry is the first sign this isn’t an ordinary truck. A round-topped Dutch door in natural wood stands out against the black-painted cladding, with a porthole window in the upper half, chunky strap hinges and a brass lantern beside it. The two halves open separately, so Imogen can let in fresh air while keeping the bottom closed.
Round hatches on the side of the box echo the porthole theme. They let in light and air without the cost or weight of large windows, which matters on a vehicle where every kilogram counts.
A Snug, Handmade Kitchen
The kitchen packs a full cooking setup into a few feet of wall. Custom wooden cabinets, an oven with a hob on top, and a sink Imogen chose herself in brass all sit under a wood countertop. Brass portholes are set into the cabinet doors as decorative trim, and an angled corner cabinet makes use of space that would otherwise be wasted.
Next to the cooker, tiny shelves and cupboards hold spices and jars. Each shelf has a raised front lip so nothing slides off when the truck is moving, a detail every house truck needs.
A Raised Bed Behind a Screen of Branches
At the front of the box, over the cab, sits the bed. Instead of a solid wall, it’s screened by a row of bark-stripped branches, which give privacy without blocking the light from the round window behind it. The space below the bed holds storage and, judging by the photos, the glass-fronted corn snake tank Imogen mentions.
There’s no ladder to climb. The bed sits at a comfortable height above the floor, so getting in and out is a short step rather than a scramble into a loft. A close-up shows the porthole above the mattress and the natural branch posts on either side.
A Wood Stove for Winter
A small black wood-burning stove keeps Vincent warm through the English winter. It’s set on a checker-plate aluminium plinth with matching heat shields on the walls behind it, a sensible precaution in a wood-lined space. Wood stoves are popular in UK house trucks because fuel is easy to find and they work without any power.
The Wet Room
The bathroom is a compact wet room with a shower and toilet, finished in bold black-and-white checkered tiles. A wet room, where the whole space is waterproofed and you shower in the same area as the toilet, is one of the best ways to fit a real shower into a small vehicle. Exposed copper pipes and red and blue valve handles add to the industrial, handmade look.
What the Owner Says
Imogen shared this testimonial with HouseBox after moving in:
I love my truck conversion – there’s so much attention to detail & it’s really tailor made, from the snake tank for my corn snake to the fox door-knocker. I was consulted throughout the whole process & really enjoyed being able to pick out the exact look I wanted, from the hinges to the brass kitchen sink. I’ve never loved living anywhere as much as my House-Box & have had so many compliments on it – a security man at Glastonbury Festival called it the prettiest truck he’d ever seen!
Vincent Design Details
- Builder: HouseBox (Southwest England), build #4
- Base vehicle: converted horsebox lorry
- Exterior: black-painted timber cladding, porthole windows and a round-topped Dutch door
- Interior: wood-lined walls and ceiling with custom wooden cabinetry
- Kitchen: oven and hob, brass sink and spice shelving with raised lips
- Sleeping: raised bed over the cab, screened with bark-stripped branches
- Heat: wood-burning stove
- Bathroom: tiled wet room with shower and toilet
- Custom touches: built-in corn snake tank and a fox door knocker
What Makes This Build Special
- Truly bespoke: the owner chose everything down to the hinges, so the truck reflects her personality and her pet’s needs.
- Weight-conscious design: portholes and small hatches bring in light without heavy glass.
- Practical details: lipped shelves, heat shielding around the stove and a waterproof wet room solve real problems of living in a vehicle.
- No loft ladder: a raised bed over the cab keeps sleeping easy to reach.
Is HouseBox Still Building?
Yes. HouseBox’s old website has gone offline, but the company is still active under the name House-Box at house-box.co.uk, where a new site is coming soon. In late 2024 it released a full tour of “Amélie,” a high-spec 4×4 expedition truck on a Renault chassis that took several years to build. The original Vincent video is no longer public, but you can watch the Amélie tour below.
To ask about a commission, contact HouseBox through its website or Instagram.
Highlights
- Handmade horsebox conversion by HouseBox in Southwest England
- Round-topped Dutch door and porthole windows
- Wood-lined kitchen with oven, hob and brass sink
- Raised bed over the cab, screened with natural branches
- Wood stove and a checkered-tile wet room with shower
- Built-in corn snake tank and fox door knocker
More HouseBox Builds and House Trucks
- House-Box One: The First HouseBox Conversion
- The Manor: Gemma and Darryl’s HouseBox
- The Kaya Box House Truck Conversion
- Off-Grid Housetruck by Horsebox Renovation
- Lovestruck House Truck: Converted Horsebox Rental in Sussex
- Horse Truck Rehabbed into an Amazing Tiny House Truck
- Nico & Jona’s Tiny House Truck
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Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase through one of our links, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
Natalie C. McKee
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What a beautiful peace of tasteful art, it’s a very beautiful horsebox with a quality fit-out, but I don’t think that it would be an ideal vehicle to explore the country (UK) because of low bridges, and most of all because it’s quite high and will suffer badly for hard side winds, and I don’t think that if you have to Wind against you that you can drive in fifth gear.
This truck is perfect to be parked somewhere on a piece of land somewhere beautiful.
I do admire the work that went into this conversion, and if I would have the money to get my old (2002) Renault Master L3H2 converted, I wouldn’t hesitate 1 second to ask Vincent for his help.
I’m so glad you like it 🙂 It might be best for staying put, as you mentioned! Rather than travelling.
I must have been a bit too quick with writing the name of the Creator, as the Housetrucks name is Vincent, and the artist I heard later is Dean.
Sorry for the confusion! Yes, Builder=Dean and Truck=Vincent 🙂
The Brits also appear to have better appliances especially the stoves that are used for heating than any of those made in the USA. Maybe that’s why we’ve lost our manufacturing base for such products because the Europeans have beat us at our own game, which has gone sour over the last 1/2 century.