Airbnb was inspired by 1980s culture
Texas couple made statement without spending a fortune
DALLAS — They set out to build an Airbnb — and ended up striking a chord.
Jeremy and Kelsey Turner’s Lower Greenville property, dubbed the McFly, is styled in what they advertise as a “Back to the ’80s” theme.
With a few carefully selected pieces and a whole lot of pastel paint, they turned part of their 1934 Tudor duplex into a space where the characters of “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” would feel right at home.
The Turners didn’t have to spend a ton of money to make a design statement. OK, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game was not cheap. But the wall-mounted pay phone enclosure was free.
And whatever assembling the pieces cost, they add up to viral success. Images from the McFly, which opened in early July, have been catnip for sites such as Travel + Leisure, msn.com, l i ke t o t a l l y 80s.com and, well, you’re reading this now, aren’t you?
Their work offers lessons not only in how to have fun with a home project but a peek into how design works in the social media age.
The Turners already were operating a successful, traditional Airbnb space. Jeremy says the idea for the McFly (the name is a nod to “Back to the Future”) came the day he visited a vintage toy store and watched “Ready Player One.” It got him thinking about creating a space that evoked his own childhood.
“I wanted it to be light and playful,” he says as he leads a reporter through the living room.
“So that’s why I really wanted there to be video games and the sweet cereal buffet. I ate so much of that stuff when I was a kid, you know?”
He’s talking about the vintage cereal in the kitchen — fresh cereal, in vintage boxes. Now marked Do Not Throw Away, because someone, tragically, did that to their Cap’n Crunch. The kitchen also stocks PopTarts.
If the Turners’ memories of the 1980s seem some- what youthful, it’s because they are youthful too.
He was born in 1986. She was born in 1984. Which explains why their space is not exactly a literal representation of life during that decade.
You’ll find no mention of the era’s horrors, such as news clippings about Chernobyl or cassette tapes from Night Ranger.
You will find a working Nintendo — “Duck Hunt,” anyone? You’ll also see Michael Jackson. On a poster, at least.
It took about three months to assemble it all, Jeremy says. He wouldn’t give the exact budget but indicates it wasn’t extravagant. (The space currently rents for $79 to $150 a night.)
“We would find things in thrift stores. We would find things on eBay. Craigslist.” Lula B’s of Dallas was a good source, as was First Monday Trade Days of Canton.
“I just kind of trusted my gut,” Jeremy says. “I’m definitely not like an interior designer. But I knew what I was going for.”
One particular item he singled out: that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game. “That was definitely in my original vision for the place,” he says. “And I really focused and fixated on that.”
Tracking one down was a challenge. The game is “considered a unicorn because they’re so rare and a lot of arcade people want them,” he says. But after putting “wanted” ads on Craigslist nationwide, he found one in San Antonio.
The wall-mounted pay phone box was serendipity: While helping a friend move, they spotted it in the trash at a gas station.
“Kids today have never used a phone booth,” he says, admiring the installation.
The space’s signature visual comes from the wall in the dining room, behind the old McDonald’s booth that Jeremy found on Facebook Marketplace. The mural there was painted by Kelsey, who does freelance design work.
Jeremy says the room was inspired by the Max — the diner in “Saved by the Bell” — and by the work of the Memphis Design Group, the Italians who conceived that look. Kelsey says the color palette came from a vintage Trapper Keeper, a device familiar to anyone of the era who ever had loose-leaf paper to bind. (It now holds the Airbnb’s guest information.)
Kelsey, who spoke by phone, says the hunt for items was fun, but it took discretion. “There’s a lot of stuff that you wouldn’t dare put in an Airbnb,” she says. “People would try to offer us really ugly things. And we were like, ‘No! Not that! Thank you!’ ”
Kelsey also had to serve as a check on certain plans, such as Jeremy’s unrealized (so far) dream of putting an Officer Big Mac jail from a McDonald’s playground on the property. Somehow.
“I feel like he just sees the final product — the vision in his head,” she says. “He doesn’t think of all the steps of getting it there. I think I’m a little more practical.”