Not Your Grandpa’s Airstream: Old Trailer Gets a New Look
The decades-old mantra of 1940s Airstream travelers--”Live More, See More, Do More”--sounds tailor-made for today’s practitioners of Xtreme sports. If only the trailer’s decor were up to the modern challenge.
As America’s most famous caravan, the gleaming aluminum Airstream remains a certifiable design icon. But inside its timeless hull, old-fashioned vinyl and wood-grain veneers still reign.
It’s not hard to imagine what an inspired furniture maker could do if given half a chance.
In fact, that’s the story behind “Crossroads,” a spiffy remodeling project involving a vintage trailer, a highly regarded California furniture designer, a New York product development firm and a famous maker of laminate kitchen counter tops.
Together, the all-star cast turned a 1948 Airstream, purchased over the Internet, into a sleek cocoon suitable for today’s design-savvy consumers.
For a note of industrial chic, the old vinyl-clad walls were gutted and the silvery shell exposed. Layers of cool ice-blue and gray laminate curve around such necessities as a four-burner stove, sink, fridge and storage cabinets.
“I’ve been obsessed with aluminum travel trailers for several years,” says Jim Huff of Inside Design, the New York instigator of the project. “But the interior never really looked as cool as the exterior. . . . It didn’t keep up with any sort of aesthetic.”
Huff sensed that rock climbers, surfers and weekending dot-com wizards might be potential trailer travelers--if a trailer could reflect their generation’s sensibilities rather than their grandparents’ tastes. With partner Grace Jeffers, he decided to develop a more stylish prototype. Jeffers brought in Wilsonart International, which has been experimenting with artist-designed, digitally printed laminates. Then they approached Christopher C. Deam, a noted furniture designer and architect, whose work with plywood reflects the styling of mid-20th century masters Charles and Ray Eames.
Deam quickly sized up the problem: “You could hit the open road, but you were taking your grandmother’s kitchen with you,” he says.
*
Legend has it that Airstream founder Wally Byam created the classic travel trailer because his wife refused to go camping without her kitchen. Into his rounded, factory-made shells, Byam tucked many of the comforts of a 1940s home. Authors Bryan Burkhart and David Hunt tell the story in “Airstream, the History of the Land Yacht” (Chronicle Books, 142 pages, $19.95). The book also shows a 1964 interior in all its avocado-green glory.
Such models still are cherished at “The Happy Camper Place,” otherwise known as Ace Fogdall RV in Cedar Falls, La. Sales manager Don King reports that business in old trailers (not all of them Airstreams) is brisk.
What’s more from a decorative perspective, little has changed inside. Dark walnut has given way to lighter oak as the wood-grain veneer of choice. But campers still are pulling 50-year-old Airstreams, some with interiors in their third decade of use.
*
Airstream Inc. declined to participate in Huff’s adventure, so its name was covered up on the designer prototype. But there’s no disguise for that familiar retro shell. Unveiled to the design world last month at New York’s International Contemporary Furniture Fair, it looked several generations younger.
It’s not clear what will happen next. Huff has had offers to buy this one, but that wasn’t his goal. He’s still “investigating ways to get this turned into something in a showroom near you.”
Deam’s desire was to create a space that was “familiar, futuristic and, coincidentally, mobile.”
To fit trade-show booths, the prototype had to be a 20-footer. No one seemed to mind that it had no room for a bath. With a few more feet, Deam would have added a little desk for a wireless office or wet suit storage. He did not tamper with the floor plan. “The layout was really efficient,” Deam said. “Perfect.”
