Casita Interior Design Thought

[Byron Kinnaman]

Boy, am I stodgy or what? I'm perfectly happy with the doors that came on my Casita. I also wouldn't be interested in putting the contents of my cabinets on display.

I agree with that statement. The cabinets are small and stuff is stuffed in. Retrieval is often by the braille method. Not pretty and neat.

[Loren G. Hedahl]

I never cease to wonder why RV users want (and RV manufacturers produce) their RV interiors to look like something out of "Good Housekeeping" and "Better Homes and Gardens".

I guess the purpose is to have a Get-Away-from-It-All experience that is as close to the condition one is used to as possible on wheels.

So I am glad for your ideas Zeb, because I am constantly doing upgrades to my home as well as to my Scamp and tend to use the same styles and construction techniques. So I am also guilty in this.

I always have thought a perfect trailer would be one in which when you get home and unpacked, you could sluice it out with a garden hose and be done with it. Translucent cabinet doors would be a step in that direction!

[Mary F]

Translucent or transluicent? (Good one, Loren!)

[Greg A]

Wouldn't be interested in see-through doors on my cabinets, but I know some might like that.
The problem in approaching it to potentially make money at it from a business perspective, one has to know their audience or market and in this case I would doubt a high percentage of this market would jump on that. One way to find out though.

Get a shop put together, buy a 17 escape from Reace and modify it to have a roof AC, 54" bed mirrored ceiling, and see-through cabinets. Next, see if you can sell it for more then you've got in it. If you can, you get credit and now have a business. If you can't, you have a kinda funky but nice TT with a large bed and glowing cabinets.

[Roger H]

The Airstream CCD models came out with that several years ago. It looks cool when there's nothing in the cabinets, but it just looks sort of junky in a trailer with stuff in the cabinets. The "artsy" designer effect is diluted when the cabinets are actually used for what they were designed. Sliding cabinet doors are problematic in a trailer anyway; unless they have a locking system, they open on the road, and they tend to jam when the cabinet contents slide against them.

Roger

[Frederick L. Simson]

Nice but I'm leanin' more in the mod pod direction. Pleeeez someone say my idea is a good one.

It's been done! Look closely at the cabinet doors in the

Oliver Legacy Interior Video

They are darkly tinted! I bet all they need is the backlight!
I like 'em!
You cannot take credit, Zeb.

[Anders Laurits]

It's been done! Look closely at the cabinet doors in the

They are darkly tinted! I bet all they need is the backlight!
I like 'em!
You cannot take credit, Zeb.

When I shot that grainy and shaky cell phone video, I had no idea it would become so often viewed ! I should have taken more time with steadiness, (is that really a word ?), and focus. It was taken more as a memory refresher because it was my first opportunity to view the Oliver.
I did have a chance to operate the sliding doors and think about how they would operate in a real world traveling enviroment.
The sliding doors were well fitted into the runners and moved readily, but firmly, and I don't think that they will be moving while going down the highway.
So far as jamming when the cabinets are full of stuff, it just did not happen. The Oliver that I was videoing was being camped in and the cabinets were being used at the time. You may notice in the video that I joked with the occupants about the picante sauce in the refrigerator. They were preparing for the River Valley Egg Rally dutch oven cook out that afternoon.
About the back lighting effect, I actually think that it would look good and be useful at the same time. Note the effect of the entertainment center with the smoked glass look with the blue led display. It might compliment that look quite well, as well as be very useful.
That look, I think would compliment the interior of quite a few fiberglass travel trailers.
Thanks to Jared from Oliver in Hohenwald Tennessee for letting us look at the new Oliver travel trailer.

[Brian B-P]

You can also see the cabinet door in the Oliver Legacy photo gallery - interior.

While the Airstream external appearance is consistent, the interior styles vary widely, even between trim lines in the same model year. They recognize that different people have different tastes, and so present the buyer with some choice. Go for it and make your trailer your own, but be aware that when you go to sell it later, you're looking for a buyer of like tastes.

By the way, I've only seen a few stock Airstream interiors, and I don't remember one which I really liked... including one with the frosted sliding cabinet doors. For an RV company, they seem to make some strangely non-functional interior choices, such as overweight cabinet doors with inappropriate hinges that will not stay aligned in a moving environment... but that's just my opinion of a small sampling.

[HaroldB]

It's been done! Look closely at the cabinet doors in the

They are darkly tinted! I bet all they need is the backlight!
I like 'em!
You cannot take credit, Zeb.

Since I had already painted the cabinet doors, looking at those photos of the Oliver's windows inspired me to do something about the flopping blinds in our Casita.





Harold

[Jeanne and Steve]

WOW!!!! Harold, you've done an incredible job with your Casita! It was a real pleasure to see all your beautiful woodworking creations in your slideshow, including the side rails for your blinds. You've created quite a masterpiece on wheels!

Jeanne

[Mary F]

Since I had already painted the cabinet doors, looking at those photos of the Oliver's windows inspired me to do something about the flopping blinds in our Casita.


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Harold

Wow, Harold. I just looked at the pics of your Casita on your Flickr site. Beautiful wood work! Do you have any idea how much that adds to the overall weight? Or is it a fairly even trade for the MDF that was replaced? It is gorgeous!!