This Revamped 1968 Airstream Is a Love Letter to the American Arts and Crafts Movement

Stacey McLachlan
·2 min read
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When movie director Duwayne Dunham gets ahold of a vintage trailer, the results are downright cinematic.

Originally the floor plan had the door to the bathroom tucked over to one side to make way for a stationery bed. Perpetually Devastated reconfigured the layout for more comfortable access by changing the bed into a slide-out design, with a clever nesting headboard that expands and contracts along with the mattress.
Originally the floor plan had the door to the bathroom tucked over to one side to make way for a stationery bed. Perpetually Devastated reconfigured the layout for more comfortable access by changing the bed into a slide-out design, with a clever nesting headboard that expands and contracts along with the mattress.

Every detail on a movie set is thoughtfully considered to create a vibe, a mood, an experience. Director Duwayne Dunham and his wife, Jan, took the same approach for the design of their vacation home, a 1968 Airstream.

The scene inside the revamped silver-bullet trailer is cinematic, to say the least—warm, woodsy, and welcoming. With the help of Airstream design studio Perpetually Devastated, Duwayne has essentially created a (mobile) ode to the Arts and Crafts movement.

"I make movies. I’m used to having an entire art department, and I walk in with swaths of color and light and texture and start talking and one thing leads to another," says Duwayne, whose credits include Twin Peaks, Return of the Jedi, and The Empire Strikes Back.  "It takes a certain kind of person to go with that."

A friend offered up a slab of cured walnut from his farm, which Bolden and Williams transformed into a dining table.
A friend offered up a slab of cured walnut from his farm, which Bolden and Williams transformed into a dining table.

Parker Bolden and Bethany Williams, principals of Perpetually Devastated, were just the right folks for the job, as it turns out. "We talked on the phone for maybe a year before we actually got started, looking for just the right trailer and throwing around ideas," says Bolden. 

The air distribution box (normally a two-inch-deep white plastic eyesore on the ceiling) got the custom rattan treatment.
The air distribution box (normally a two-inch-deep white plastic eyesore on the ceiling) got the custom rattan treatment.

"We didn’t just come up with a design, order all the parts, and have Parker wave his wand and put it all together," adds Duwayne. "All of it was piecemeal. One at a time, elements were sorted."

They dubbed the 216-square-foot trailer Monty, after a friend of the Dunhams who had spared no expense refurbishing his home in the Hollywood Hills in the style of an Adirondack cabin. "It’s just this sensational property. I love the colors and the light," says Duwayne.

Perpetually Devastated spent a long time looking specifically for a 1968 Airstream for the Dunhams. This model features rectangular windows. (In the later ‘60s and early ‘70s, they become oval.)
Perpetually Devastated spent a long time looking specifically for a 1968 Airstream for the Dunhams. This model features rectangular windows. (In the later ‘60s and early ‘70s, they become oval.)

See the full story on Dwell.com: This Revamped 1968 Airstream Is a Love Letter to the American Arts and Crafts Movement
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