We started every Airstream project with a quote (or quotes): powerful words that act as a North Star as we navigate the choices and challenges. For Green Day’s front man, Billie Joe Armstrong, we let Rumi speak to us: “Let yourself be silently drawn / by the stronger pull of what you really love.”
These words — which Billie Joe has tattooed on his chest —could certainly apply to every Airstream and everything else we’ve ever done, but Billie Joe’s trailer was a tad different for us, for a lot of reasons. It was a surprise, for one thing: a twentieth-wedding-anniversary present from Billie Joe’s wife, Adrienne, affectionately called “80” by him and Green Day fans across the country.
This trailer, like the others, had a specific mission: It was to be a Zen surf shack where Billie Joe could go to write and escape. So with four Green Day documentaries and a pile of CDs in hand, we launched into total Green Day immersion. We came out on the other side, in love with this bighearted rebel.
We asked Adrienne to give us any quotes, poems, lyrics, symbols– anything important to Billie Joe– and she told us about a quote that has become part of their life: “Be silently drawn.” This thought became the centerpiece for the entire Airstream, the first thing you see when you walk in the door.
We combined elements that worked for him: a little Zen, a little rockstar, a little surf shack, and a little retro. We wanted this to be the most streamlined trailer we’d ever done, with vintage reclaimed wood flooring and a 150-year-old Indian temple piece for the bed nook.
We MacGyvered our own country-girl surfboard holders out of leather straps on the wall and made them a travel-worthy table out of a vintage surfboard.
The transformation began with vintage reclaimed wood flooring.
A flea market cabinet houses the wheel well and serves as storage. Snakeskin vinyl covers the cabinet doors above the couch.
We spray-painted a defunct surfboard with a Guadalupe stencil and gave it a removeable wooden base to function as a portable coffee table.
So here’s a sneak peek into the vault. Oh also, did we mention the concert after the trailer completion?! and talk about THE nicest people ever!! Seriously, so humble. So sweet. And treated us like old friends. It was a pretty epic night.
Thanks again, BJ & Adrienne!
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