Inside Van Neistat's New Handmade LA Studio
Published September 08, 2025 · 8:10 · 138,481 views
About This Video
Van Neistat walks through his Topanga Canyon workshop in 8 minutes and 10 seconds. The space measures 50½ by 45 by 98 inches, and every surface has been purpose-built for what Van calls one-handed operation. The tour is a compressed manual on how to organize a creative workspace when you cannot afford to buy your way out of the constraints.
The design principles repeat. Shallow shelves discourage stacking and allow one-handed retrieval. Plywood tops on plastic milk crates prevent sagging, with holes drilled for one-handed carrying. Extension cords are made from the leftover cords of power strips that have been custom shortened and mounted throughout the studio. "You can never have too many extension cords or rubber bands." The lighting comes from what Van calls destroyer lamps, repurposed industrial fixtures. Charlie, now a designer at Apple, built the tabletop for the procrastination space. Chris Schwar was commissioned to paint the backdrops. There are 22 coat hooks, and Van timed the cuts: 39 minutes and 29 seconds.
What is expensive gets faked. Snap-on stickers go on the rolling tool chests "to feel rich." Van says he cannot afford Snap-ons. The vintage toolbox that serves as the mail center "cost a fortune" but holds two reams of 8½ by 11 paper. The cooling fan at the battle station was made by Van and his son from salvaged junk the boy found magnet fishing. The word Van uses for himself is bricoleur: someone who fixes or makes with whatever is at hand. If he were rich and had no need for money, he says, he would be a full-time bricoleur with no cameras.
The video closes on two moments. The recording studio doubles as a nap room. "Believe it or not, this job gets stressful." And the treasure wall leads to a memory: an overnight train to El Paso for his son's birthday, a day at Wet N Wild. His son said being a lifeguard would be the best job because you get to go to Wet N Wild every day. Van told him, "Buddy, I have the best job. We're being paid to do this." Then, directly to camera: "Thank you for this studio and thank you for this job."
What Van Uses: C-Mount GoPro on the center console, overhead shooting rig, destroyer lamps (repurposed industrial fixtures), plastic milk crates with plywood tops, custom-shortened extension cords, vintage toolbox as mail center, Snap-on stickers (the stickers, not the tools), commissioned backdrops by Chris Schwar, and music scored through Epidemic Sound.
Related: 5 Principles of Organization, Van Neistat's Tool Kits, Why Do Details Matter?, and the tools and craft topic.
FAQ
How big is Van Neistat's workshop?
50½ by 45 by 98 inches. Van says you do not need a big workshop if it is thorough and organized. Every surface is purpose-built: shallow shelves for one-handed retrieval, plywood-topped milk crates, 22 coat hooks, and custom-shortened extension cords from power strip leftovers.
What are destroyer lamps?
Repurposed industrial light fixtures Van uses to light "just about everything" in his studio. They sit on top of milk crates with plywood lids, part of a modular system designed for one-handed operation.
What does bricoleur mean in Van Neistat's videos?
A bricoleur fixes or makes things from whatever is at hand. Van says if he were rich and had no need for money, he would be a full-time bricoleur with no cameras. The studio embodies it: Snap-on stickers instead of Snap-on tools, extension cords from power strip scraps, a cooling fan from salvaged junk his son found magnet fishing.
Transcript
If I was a rich man, no need for money, I would be a full-time brickalure,
no cameras, and my current workshop and 458 reflects fix this dream. You don't need a big workshop if it's thorough and organized.
Got to vacuum out these drawers for this shoot. Just about every tool I need in this 50 1/2x 45x
98 in space. This is my favorite part of the studio. It's my procrastination space. I love it.
Charlie did the tabletop. Charlie is a designer at Apple now.
[Music] Shallow shelves discourage stacking and allow onehanded operation. [Music] I'm finally solving the grip mat problem for my center console. A brickalure
fixes or makes stuff with whatever he finds lying around. The key to solving
the grip mat problem is this wooden shim that holds it in place. Glue don't work.
I keep the CMount GoPro on the center console so I can get shots like this.
[Music] For shots like this, I use the overhead shooting rig and this camera, which lives here with the lenses. The CMount GoPro lives on the treasure wall.
[Music] Magnet. Magnet. [Music] Slide the map. Slide the map. flat things that I make for the episodes. I keep in boxes like this. I also keep some supplies in these boxes.
All sorts of treasures in these boxes. This is my live stream setup. I light just about everything with these destroyer lamps.
The plywood on top keeps the plastic milk crate from sagging and the holes in it so I can carry them around
one-handed. Really big on one-handedness. I keep an extension cord in each milk crate. Make the extension cords from the leftovers of power strip cords that have been custom shortened and mounted all
over the place. You can never have too many extension cords or rubber bands.
mail center and office supplies. Vintage tool boxes cost a fortune, but this one holds two reams of 8 1/2 in x 11 in paper.
Dividing up this drawer took forever. I haven't gotten to the other one yet. I keep hard drives in this one. Smaller, but still cost a fortune.
This is my writing and editing station. My battle station, pens and papers and computer stuff. Not very interesting. My favorite detail is this cooling fan my
son and I made out of piece of salvaged junk he found magnet fishing.
I'm paranoid about SSD failure. This is the soundtrack to the video you're watching now. And thanks to our sponsor, Epidemic Sound, I get to tell
you about how I score these videos. To me, music is like the sauce of a video.
And with Epidemic Sound, I get about 50,000 sauces, tracks to choose from.
And these are professional tracks by real artists. And there's also 200,000 sound effects. I pick out the track
based on emotion. And I used a lot of happy in this video. Now, I don't know anything about how to make music, but
Epidemic Sound breaks tracks into stems, which are the tracks component parts, so
I can sculpt my scores to sound exactly right. So, I found a track with an ingredient that I wanted.
So, I took the instrument stem. There it was. And it worked perfectly.
[Music] Epidemic Sound is restrictionfree music. Straightforward licensing. Very fair. Click the link in the description for a free trial. Free trial don't get you the licensing, cheap skates. And thank you Epidemic Sound for sponsoring this episode.
Charging station. Charging station. Charging station. Charging station.
Charging station. Charging station. I commissioned Chris Schwar to make these backdrops. And I love them.
Library. Mini storage. I put the Snap-on stickers on these rolling chests to feel rich. I can't afford no Snap-ons.
Paint brushes. Road atlases. Tape. Paint. Snacks. Film making gear.
My son's arts and crafts and snacks gear. Oh no, battery died.
3929. I timed how long it took to cut these coat racks. And there's 22 coat hooks total in the studio. You can never have
too many. Bathroom, coffee station, mop, broom, dustpan, coat hook.
This is the recording studio where I do voiceovers and talking to the camera sometimes.
I take a nap in here just about every day. Believe it or not, this job gets stressful. If I was a wealthy man, I'd be a brickalure.
There's a guy outside the studio right now with a chainsaw and it's driving me bonkers.
The treasure wall [Music] I would want to keep it like this for my son's birthday last year. We took an overnight train to El Paso and went to Wet N Wild.
And he said to me, "Being a lifeguard would be the best job because you get to go to Wet N Wild every day." And I said
to him, "Buddy, I have the best job. We're being paid to do this.
And I got to say thank you sometimes. Thank you for this studio and thank you for this job. [Music] Join our Patreon team at $5 a month for exclusive access to archival videos with director's commentary and peer
discussions and live streams answering your questions and comments, plus Patreon exclusive limited edition zenes.
Products & Tools Mentioned
- GoPro (C-Mount) uses — camera mounted on C-mount adapter
- Snap-on mentions — stickers visible in studio
- Epidemic Sound mentions — sponsor
People Referenced
Charlie, Chris Schwar