A Canadian Couple Revitalize a 1970s Airstream Using Salvaged Materials

ByMyProperty Life 06/04/2020

Hanson Land & Sea use local, reclaimed materials to transform a 1970s Airstream into a family escape.

The couple outfitted the kitchen with stainless steel counters and cabinetry and shelving made from Douglas fir sawmill offcuts.

When brothers Ryan and Marlin Hanson, of Hanson Land & Sea—a design-build company in the Sunshine Coast region of British Columbia, Canada—discovered a 1970s Airstream that was in disrepair on one of their job sites, Ryan immediately called his wife Catherine Macleod. “We’ve both always appreciated the timeless look of Airstreams,” Ryan says. “We found this one, in all its 1970s glory, on the property of a renovation project.

Designer and builder Ryan Hanson and his wife Catherine Macleod turned a 1970s Airstream into a tiny getaway for their family.

When Ryan and Catherine first took ownership of the Airstream, they hoped to do a light renovation. “We wanted to keep it vintage, but once we started working it was clear everything needed to come out,” Ryan says.

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It took little discussion before the couple, who live in the town of Roberts Creek, decided to procure the Airstream and renovate it for their own use. “It has been a really fun project my wife,” Ryan says. “Originally, we were going to use it as a guest space—a potential bed and breakfast on our land—but we’ve fallen in love with it ourselves.”

The couple now uses the Airstream, which is a stone’s throw from their home, for camping out with their children. Soon, they plan to move it to a recreation property they own and use it as a getaway. “It will be a sweet spot to escape to,” Ryan says. “We have an extra mattress that pulls out from under the daybed, so our family of four can sleep there.”