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.”

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.

“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.

That space sparked ideas for a material palette. Rustic hickory (finished with a hard wax) covers almost every surface, and the wood practically glows with warmth. Cork flooring through the living area gives way to an intricate tile design on the bathroom floor.

“I didn’t want anything to look new,” says Duwayne. Whether it’s an Art Deco Bakelite knob or the 1947 porcelain stove, every last detail brings an eclectic, vintage warmth to the space.

The countertops in the bathroom and kitchen, for instance, are hand-patinated copper. “We took gigantic rolls of raw copper and went for an intentionally wrinkled approach, folding it in on itself and hammering it again to get the texture we were after,” explains Bolden.

It took 40 days of trial and error to perfect the finish. “Every day on the job, we’d patina a couple of pieces and see how it turned out,” he says. (Of course, the day they found the right look, they forgot to write the chemical recipe down… so it was back to the drawing board.)

Another clever design solution lies overhead. Bolden and Ostercamp created a channel in the ceiling to run electrical cables, and then hid everything with a natural rattan screen.

The designers and homeowners thoughtfully considered every last detail for the project—although funnily enough, one major essential fell by the wayside. As Duwayne points out, laughing and shaking his head, “We don’t even have a car to pull it with.”

Related Reading:

How Airstream Became an American Icon

Two Farmsteading Oregon Activists Give a Vintage Airstream a Glowing Update

This Overhauled Airstream Feels Less Like a Trailer and More Like a House

In an Airstream Far, Far Away…Lives a Star Wars–Obsessed Design Fiend

Project Credits:

Builder/General Contractor: Perpetually Devastated / @perpetuallydevastated

Spatial layout / Design: Mike Beganyi Design and Consulting

Lead Carpenter: Ostercamp Designs

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