Let's Talk RV Design with Interior Designer Andrea Graves

Let’s Talk RV Design with Interior Designer Andrea Graves

Andrea started designing at DRV Luxury Suites in 2014 and took over design for
Cruiser RV the following year. The fact that design trends are forever changing and
no two of her days look the same is what she loves most about RV interior design. As
a designer, Andrea’s biggest achievements aren’t related to the RV industry at all,
and include designing award winning schools; specifically, Indiana’s first LEED
certified K-12 school and LEED certified emergency department. Within the RV
industry, as a designer, her biggest achievement has been watching each brand
continue to grow.

Complete interior changes typically occur every two years, but that sometimes
take place sooner or later depending on the market and feedback received from

dealers and customers. Small, eye-catching details, wood colors, wall colors and
flooring are different elements Andrea pulls together; along with design inspiration
from other industries such as automotive, hospitality and residential, to create
concept boards of potential interior changes for the upcoming year. Once a design
direction is established, Andrea pulls the main components together – wood,
wallboards and flooring and moves onto secondary elements followed by the final
detail items. An RV owner herself, and frequent camper, Andrea uses weekend
camping trips as a way to enjoy time with her family and gain extremely valuable
insight into things that can continue to be improved on.

Andrea values her role within the Cruiser RV and DRV Luxury Suites families and
credits a lot of her success to the team that surrounds her. “We would not be able to
come up with the awesome looks and concepts that we do without a forward-
thinking team that enjoys trying new things.”

Where do you get your inspiration?

Andrea:
I take a look at trends in all industries - automotive, contract, hospitality, and
residential, and attend trade shows that focus on upcoming design trends. I also
follow many influencers on social media. I, along with the sales team, then
collectively decide what’s the best direction for each brand.

What inspired the 2021 interior choices?

Andrea: Functionality was the focal point for Cruiser RV. We have some exciting new
patents coming out for our customers that will simplify a couple day-to-day tasks in
their units and improve the overall functionality. We also focused on making the
interiors clean, bright, and neutral. We recognize a lot of consumers want to take
these units and make them their own and give them their own unique touch. So, we
focused on giving them a clean, neutral pallet that they can build their own personal
style from.

For DRV Luxury Suites, the focus was to create a new modern look. We started
working on this very early - bringing in new wood colors that provided a higher color
contrast for a more dramatic space. DRVs’ focus has primarily been towards the
generation of early retirement buyers and stayed with a more traditional look, but

with more consumers turning to full-time living at all ages, we wanted to give the
Mobile Suites a fresh, modern look to appeal to a broader spectrum of customers.

What is one of your favorite elements or material to use?

Andrea: I love designing backsplashes, floor plans and overall cabinet layouts.

Why do you think RVers will be attracted to the new 2021 interiors?

Andrea: Initially, I think consumers will be attracted with the overall bright and airy
feeling all our new models have - but the small attention to details, like our pending
patents, and overall design themes, are what will set our interiors apart.

With so many brands how, how do you differentiate and make each one
of them their own?

Andrea: When I first started designing for Cruiser RV in 2015, I had a difficult time
telling the difference between the different brands. I had been designing at DRV
Luxury Suites for a year and adding travel trailers to the mix was a big learning curve
for me. My main goal was to give the travel trailers their own identity, and the first
way I thought to accomplish that was to start with the wood colors. At the time,

Cruise RV was limited on plant space, so we had a lot of constraints to work in.
Fortunately, over the past couple years, we have grown to now have three beautiful
plants that allow us more versatility in the colors and features each brand can have
in order to allow each one to have its own identity. We also have separate teams for
each brand which means separate opinions and design directions. Cruiser RV builds
six brands and I don’t feel that a single one of them looks like the other and that is in
big part to our teams and the forward thinking. I feel we offer a very wide range of
looks and features to attract any travel trailer buyer. We offer light, medium, and
dark wood options across the brands, and different floorplans and features. When
we can line all our brands up after every new model change and love each interior
for the unique look and features, we devoted to that brand, that’s what gives us a
sense of accomplishment.

DRV Luxury Suites has always been a fun brand to design. We focus on giving the DRV
customer options that they can build from to suit their design preference. I always
love seeing the combination of finishes selected by each customer and am even
sometimes surprised by how different they make each unit look just by the items
selected.

Knowing RVs are home to many, how do you translate home décor,
materials etc. to RVs? (meaning a lot of people when renovating an RV,
may not take into consideration weight of materials etc.)

Andrea: When trying to design a look that will give our customers a more residential
feel, we are always hit with the obstacles presented by being in an RV and not a
home. We have to consider weight, durability, the products ability to withstand
extreme temperature swings, including moisture and condensation, “earthquakes”
(going down the road), etc. I would say we have our tried and true products that we
know work, so we start there. Luckily, this industry is full of awesome suppliers that
can pretty much create any look we want and apply it to those tested products. This
allows us to also get the scale, color, and design intent correct. Most residential
components will be scaled too large for application in a RV. While we would love to
follow every residential trend, as the OEM, we have to make sure we are designing
for everyone and not just the people wanting that modern farmhouse look, or a
sleek European unit. We acknowledge that there are many that still want a traditional
feel, so we have to be careful not get too “on trend.” If there is a concept that we
design and only half the team is on board, we will likely change direction. This
segment is very competitive, so we need to have an interior that appeals to most,
not some.

For DRV, we really treat these brands more like a true residential home. While weight
is a concern, it is not as sensitive in this segment. We use residential appliances,
backsplashes, fixtures, flooring, hardware and wood elements. There are again
some products we have tried, and they just don’t handle the elements as well, so we
stay within what residential products we know work. For example, we use hand laid
luxury vinyl tile. There are a ton of options in this segment; however, not all of them
can handle the hot and cold temperature swings and will cause the flooring to shrink
or swell. This is an example of something we have researched and found a product
that works and allows us to keep a nice residential feel that will perform for the
customer. DRV offers our customers many customizable options such as
backsplashes, countertops, fabrics, flooring, paints and wood colors which helps
the brands take on the residential design the customer is looking for in their new
home!

How do you feel about the big trend of RV renovations, tiny homes, etc.?

Andrea: I am excited to see this trend continue in our industry! I am equally excited
to collaborate with some of these renovators and continue to build the excitement
for our industry as well. Everyone has their own style and personal needs, and I love
seeing people put their own touch on each RV whether they are new or old! I follow
tons of RV renovators and love what they come up with and seeing how they
overcome the obstacles we deal with daily in the production of these units.