Going Mobile : No one ever said a trailer has to look unsettled. The fact is, once in place, most never move again. Some people give a final-destination look to homes that are only technically still on wheels. : THE MOBILE-HOME LOOK

Royal Radtke and Mark Nacker wanted their home to have a distinctive look, but they didn’t want it to lose its mobileness.

“We deliberately left the paneled walls and the ceiling the way they were originally,” said Radtke, manager of the Corona del Mar branch of Bank of America. “We picked the walls to go with our furniture, and we like to be reminded that we live in a mobile home because we enjoy living here.”

Seven years ago, Radtke bought the home new and had it installed on a lot in a Newport Beach mobile home park. He found the double-wide unit a more affordable way to get the living space he wanted: At 1,100 square feet, the home is 200 square feet larger than the townhouse he’d been living in.

Through furnishings, art objects and cosmetic changes, Radtke and Nacker have created a sophisticated, urban look. The decor plays on geometric contrasts in black, brown, silver and beige.

Sticking to a color scheme and using all available space (often for two purposes) have helped create a home that flows practically and aesthetically.

Radtke and Nacker installed Berber carpeting and used black linoleum in the entry and areas that are heavily walked on. The two flooring styles meet in a curving line that visually ties together the rooms.

In the kitchen they added a stainless steel sink and silver lighting fixtures and painted the cabinets white. A collection of stainless steel Italian Alessi ware gleams on the stove and on the built-in desk in the kitchen. To add color, individually framed pages of Andy Warhol prints from a book act as accents along the top of the kitchen cabinets.

The small den area off the kitchen was turned into a media/guest room through the addition of a futon. A small bedroom in the back of the home was enlarged by taking out windows and adding sliding glass doors and a wood deck.

Because plumbing and electrical wiring are under the house and easily accessible through a crawl space, repairs are often simpler--and cheaper--than in a conventional home. The access also made it easy to hook up an extensive stereo system, Radtke said. Instead of stringing speaker wire all over the house, they drilled holes in the floor and ran the wires underneath.

The entire mobile home is as self-contained and compact as a large yacht, and just as shipshape.

“This mobile home is perfect for our lifestyles because it is easy to clean, it’s open and airy,” Radtke said.

On top of all that, he points out, there is one more bonus to mobile home living: “In case of an earthquake it may fall off its foundation, but I’m not going to be hit by any heavy beams.”