Navajo Maiden Is a 1965 Airstream Overlander Land Yacht Redone as a Mid-Century Art Piece

It beautifully delivers. Navajo Maiden, done on commission for an owner out of Arkansas, is one of the most gorgeous and welcoming Airstream trailers created, both old and new. If you ever wanted to see what a piece of livable art looks like, this is probably it.

The Navajo Maiden started out as a 1965 Airstream Overlander Land Yacht that had been abandoned for years. Such was the decrepit state it was brought in that it had more than 60 animals calling it home, from rats and mice to a possum. Its owner had been badgering custom fabricator Eoin Murphy and designer Robin Grundy-Murphy of Borien Design for almost five years about restoring it, the duo told Image in 2020.

Eoin and Robin are Irish-Canadian and, in 2017, they had already decided about moving permanently to Ireland in the summer of 2018. For their last project in Canada, they agreed to restore and customize the Airstream, which was shipped from the U.S. to Toronto at the owner’s expense. The brief called for a mid-century vibe that would nonetheless have all the trappings of modern life. But it was clear: the duo had free reign on the project, as long as they made sure they kept the essence of a vintage Airstream.

Navajo Maiden was the result, with Eoin and Robin choosing this name for the trailer after a postcard they found inside. They wanted to build a modern space for entertaining, not necessary for traveling, but one that would pay homage to its glorious retro past. It was a nut-and-bolt restoration that took over 13 months and saw the two clean and salvages whatever original part they could, including the original badges that were cleaned up and replated in brass for contrast. After all, you can’t tell beautiful stories like this one if they’re not properly anchored in the past.

Navajo Maiden offers sleeping for seven people and adopts an open-plan layout precisely because it’s not meant for living on the road. With a total living surface of 151 square feet (14 square meters), it has a master bed slash leather dinner couch at the front, a hippy-like bed in the “chill out” area at the rear, a foldable double bed in the living, and a suspended canvas bed on top. You’re able to see the impressive sleeping capacity during the daytime, and that’s on purpose.

The original shiny interior has been stripped and replaced with Canadian Ash, which is also used for the furniture, including in the kitchen. Subtle touches like a wooden fold-away custom bar or a magazine rack over the master bed add to the retro theme of the place. But this is no old-fashioned Airstream because the duo, at the owner’s request, made sure to make it off-grid-capable.

The Navajo Maiden comes with hidden solar panels, an inverter, and a battery pack. The water tank is new and of “generous” (and unspecified) size. There’s a full shower in the bathroom, a second shower outside, and a compost toilet, alongside storage capable of holding supplies for an extended stay wherever.

Modern comforts were not overlooked, either. The living area hides a Bose soundbar, a digital projector, and Apple TV, and there’s heating and A/C to get the optimal room temperature.

Perhaps the most impressive part about the striking, elegant interior design of the Navajo Maiden is the fact that Robin based it all off on orange wall sconces she bought off eBay Denmark. She says she thought they perfectly embodied the spirit of the Airstream at the time, so she worked from there in adding the other elements.

Having complete creative freedom can have the most outstanding results in the right hands.