Getting interior design ideas

[bcooke]

Can anyone recommend some good books or other sources of ideas for interior designs?

I have a an assortment of the "turn your weekend sailor into an ocean going yacht type of books" but I was looking specifically for interior ideas i.e. wood paneling options, creative lighting solutions, aesthetics and functionality solutions, a book that was specifically about these topics and not part of a general boat restoration book.

Any thoughts?

-Britton

[Tim]

Be sure to use lots of festive baskets filled with flowers and fruit, and countless throw pillows, afghans, and gala swags over the ports throughout the cabin for that rich, homey look. White woolen rugs, buttery-soft leather divans, and mission end tables really complement the overall scheme.

A dedicated niche somewhere for that classic alabaster Venus statue will really add that special touch--well worth the effort required to install it.


Candlesticks, cut-glass vases, inviting glasses of wine (with nearby cheese platters), and other similar touches really bring out the best in your new cruising home. Soft area lighting combined with halogen task lights are your best bet for the perfect lighing scheme. Be sure to incorporate those whimsical knick-knacks with a jaunty nautical theme to really finish off the space, and to show your visitors just how "yachty" you have become. If you can display your china and crystal collection, you're already ahead of the game.


Oh wait. Perhaps that's not what you meant after all. ;<)

[bcooke]

Well, there is my first good laugh of the week :-)

[Rachel]

First of all I just have to say that I'm still experiencing bouts of mirth from reading Tim's post (above), which had me laughing out loud - something I rarely do before 9 a.m. Thanks, Tim!

When I read the suggestion about crystal, it reminded me of a cruising boat I had the good fortune to spend an afternoon on, and, well, since it's January, I decided to reminisce aloud (not helping Britton much, I know).

In early May, 2002, I was on a cruising boat - a Baba 30 - in the San Blas Islands, anchored in the Eastern Holandais Cays. It was my first time in the tropics, (I'd just flown into Panama City a couple of weeks before) and I was wilting in the heat at the same time as I was marveling at the place: Clear, azure blue waters, tall palms swaying in the tradewinds - other cruising boats! The latter something I hadn't really seen in northern British Columbia.

Up there in B.C., where we'd started out, I initially hoped that every anchorage would be our own private sanctuary, and I rejoiced each time we came around that last bend and saw that there were no other boats in that night's anchorage - just steep, pine-filled hillsides reflected in the dark, calm waters. Well, a few weeks went by, and I found myself looking out from our anchorages and thinking "I wonder if another boat will show up? Sure would be nice to meet someone!" l

So it was with pleasure that I noted a dinghy coming our way in our tropical anchorage. It was a couple of guys - Gary and Bill - who had a Baba 40, a bigger version of our Baba 30, so they'd rowed over to say "Hi" and see if we'd like to come over the next day for coffee. There's nothing I like better than checking out someone else's boat (oh, and meeting people too ;-), so I was happy about it.

The next morning we rowed around the corner into "The Swimming Pool," a section of the anchorage named for it's overall shallow depth (6-8') and pool-blue waters. It's a neat spot: Trade winds blow straight in, and, were it not for a mere ribbon of reef that you can barely see, the waves would be huge and horrendous. As it is, the wind blows (keeping it nice and cool below) but the water is quiet-anchorage-calm. As we were soon to find out, the anchorage is a favorite gathering spot, and every Monday night there's a cruiser potluck supper and trash-burning on a small, uninhabited island. (I was kind of alarmed the first time I saw folks lobbing bags of trash onto the fire, but soon realized that that's the responsible way to deal with your trash in those parts.)

As we nosed our dinhgy up to "Amadon Light," I noted the familiar canoe stern, and the hailing port of Honolulu. Bill and Gary welcomed us aboard and, as we relaxed in the comfortable cockpit - in the shade and with practical Sunbrella throw cushions and cups of tea - I realized what was missing from our little boat... a comfortable cockpit!

The boat was tastefully appointed down below - mostly entirely practical, but with a number of small, well-chosen mementos from past ports of call. (No baskets or swags :-). But, there was one crazy-but-cool touch: Bill's mother had been born in Ireland - in Waterford - and when she died she'd left her Waterford Crystal collection to Bill. Now, it was displayed on the boat in a small cabinet above the nav. desk - each piece held down by a cunning little nearly-invisible bracket. The cabinet was clear-sided, and had been built in right in front of a porthole, so the light from outside streamed right through the cabinet and the crystal. Pretty cool.

I'll have to admit that if I'd seen this boat at a dock back in the U.S., I would have thought "Yeah, sure, another Dock-O-Minium party boat - of course they can have crystal aboard." But these guys had been out actively cruising since 1976 - 26 years! And I don't mean just hopping from marina to marina, either - they'd not only circumnavigated but had done things like traverse the east coast of Africa from south to north, and go up the Amazon River. They were able to make good weather decisions since Gary spent his early mornings getting weather info. over Ham radio and then running a mobile maritime weather net for the benefit of other cruisers. They'd never once been caught in a major storm.

So, their boat was a proven cruiser, and good-looking to-boot! They said they'd started out - way back in the mid-70s - in a not-so-suitable racer-cruiser. Ten years later, they decided they were going to do this for a while, so they commissioned a new Baba 40 (built in Taiwan at the Ta-Shing yard). Ten years after *that* they sailed "Amadon Light" back to the Ta-Shing yard and had a number of modifications made, including the crystal cabinet.

So, there's the story of a long-distance cruising boat with crystal aboard. (Not necessarily recommended for Tritons and the like, though ;-)

--- Rachel

PS Their supplementary cockpit cushions were really great. They were circular, kind of the shape of a large Lifesavers candy, without the hole in the middle. So it was two circles of Sunbrella, approximately two feet in diameter, with a ~4" insert in the sides. The cushions were filled with the polystyrene (?) beads that you find in "bean bag" chairs. In fact, that's how they'd gotten the idea: they had a couple of bean bag chairs aboard, and when they wore out, re-used the filling.

Their cushions had piping around the edges, but that was just for looks. They were extremely comfortable and very versatile and rugged too. So there's a practical, Triton-able idea to counter the crystal cabinet.

--- Rachel

[Figment]

The Not-So-Big House by sarah susanka (sp?)
There is also a sequel to this book, but I can't remember the name. Amazon probably sells them as a package deal.

I'm not suggesting that you run out and buy these books. Obviously, they don't directly apply to boat interiors. I mention them because they deal with the realities (benefits, even) of small, intimate, multifunction spaces, and you might get a few ideas about the impacts of different surface treatments.

See if your local library has them. Or, maybe just hit your favorite bookmonger so you can thumb through them for a few minutes before deciding to lay out the dough.

[bcooke]

The Not-So-Big House by sarah susanka

that title sounds familiar. I think I have seen it on a coffee table of a friend's.

I have seen a couple of books on boat interiors but they have all looked pretty useless to me. I have also seen a couple unknown titles on Amazon but I have become a little gun-shy after impulse buying based on Amazon's write-up. Anyone looked at Spurr's book on interiors?

I don't plan on doing too much until next fall anyway but I like to keep thinking...

-Britton

[Tim]

What's most important is first deciding what you want out of the interior--what sort of look and function, and so forth. To my way of thinking, there is very little limitation on what materials you can choose, or how you go about things--as long as the end result is what you want.

I personally favor relatively traditional looks, with lots of warm, satin-varnished wood offset by relatively bright white overheads. I love natural cherry (even though it's so darn trendy these days), and find the look hard to beat. Others may disagree, and that's absolutely fine.

I dislike fluorescent lighting, so despite the many energy benefits I did not fit any of these. Something I am looking at for future projects is adding hidden rope lighting and other low-voltage accent lighting to provide a warm glow to certain areas. This is something you see in the big yachts, but would translate quite nicely to any boat. The electrical draw from this sort of lighting is minimal.

I was on a boat that installed nice halogen task lights above the galley countertop--very nice indeed for a bright work space, with the light where you need it.

Of course, the Triton interior is small enough that you only have so much opportunity to try different things. I suggest that you go for the route that pleases you, and make the boat very personal; you must have ideas of what sorts of woods or finishes you like. There are too many cold, sterile, cookie-cutter interiors out there; it takes very little to make a boat truly a home for yourself. If traditional is not the route you want, then go a totally different direction. It's your boat, and you should be able to do what feels "right".

As for dedicated books, I suggest bookseller browsing rather than purchasing. The problem is that most bookstores don't really stock much for boating books, so it's hard to audition one title or another to see if it's worth buying. That said, I think most boat "style" or interior books are slanted towards larger, more luxurious yachts. While the pictures may be pretty, and some useful information gained, I doubt most of these books would truly be worth buying, at least as valuable reference materials go.

[Rachel]

Have you checked out the National Triton Association's project index? It took me a while to find it, as it's kind of hidden (well, it was for me anyway) in the list of stuff in the left-hand frame. There are a number of photos of various re-done Triton interiors. I particularly like Rob Squire's "Head Over Heels," and a couple of others of which I can't think of the names offhand.
Here's the direct link:

http://tritonclass.org/mir/projindex.htm

--- Rachel

[bcooke]

I guess I am just being lazy. I want someone else to do the research so I can just read the results. I have a dozen catalogs with thousands of options but I can't decide, for example, between 10 and 20 watt lightbulbs, (and I want to learn more about rope lighting), and would halogen still be too harsh for general lighting? (I agree that flourescent is tough but can I get used to it for the extra battery life?...) I am looking for a professional's opinion on what works in the long term rather than experiment myself and most likely change things two or three times. That definitely sounds lazy to me but in my defense I don't want to reinvent the wheel.

When I climb on a boat I often think "That looks nice" but later I wonder, "does boat 'X' interior look nicer than boat 'Y'?" I too like the cherry but it is the curent trend and I am a little paranoid about turning my boat into a carbon copy of Tim's! So much of Glissando I like and I know a lot of research went into it but I don't want to copy every little detail - just the best ones :-) I suppose, when you think about it, there is only so much one can do with a small boat so that is why so many boats tend to look the same in the first place.

And then my projected use for the boat will probably change over the years and I will be changing things anyway so why worry about these little details. I think I should work on the boat more and think about it less.

I have checked out the Triton project page. There are some interesting ideas there but I think most of those boats are used differently from what I envision - except Atom which goes totally in the opposite extreme. I like Atom though with maybe with more wood inside. If I spent as much time in the tropics I would probably like the white formica better but I prefer the warm wood interiors on those foggy Maine mornings.

So I guess I will just keep browsing the booksellers and complete my boat in the meantime.

-Britton

[Tony]

I can't speak to the general interior, but here's an example of what rope lighting can do...my church sanctuary is 50' x 50'. We have a soffit that runs along two walls, with the stage in the corner. We've run a 20' strand of rope lights from the corner out on both side walls of the stage, inside the soffitt. I can plug these lights in, turn every light off in the room (which has no windows) and the rope lights give me enough lights to see (barely) what I'm doing in the soundbooth in the opposit corner of the room-I can't read much, but I can see the controls. I'd say one or two strands of rope lighting would be great in the interior of a boat.

Again, that's my .03 cents.....

[Figment]

Wow man, I like totally just had a flashback to a "conversion van" my parents owned in the 80's....... "mood lighting" was the label on the switch, as I recall.

;)

[Rachel]

We had a couple of strands of the tiny, clear ("white") Christmas lights running around the drip channels on the cruising boat (not sure what you call these channels, but they're wooden lips where the coach-roof walls turn under to become the under-deck overhead - you can grab onto them and they catch portlight drips).

We only used them when we were at a dock (mostly in San Diego while working on the boat), but they were very pleasant. I wonder how much they would draw if converted to DC?

I imagine the "ropes" would give similar light and be more streamlined.

--- Rachel

[Tim]

Wow man, I like totally just had a flashback to a "conversion van" my parents owned in the 80's....... "mood lighting" was the label on the switch, as I recall.

That's a little scary...

[Noah]

Didn't they used to call those (excuse the french) F$ck trucks?

Nothing too fancy with my boat, but I always thought she had a nice interior. Probably the nicest part are the varnished oak deck beams with paint T&G boards.

I always liked a couple of oil lamps in the boat as well. If you get good oil they don't smoke much, and you don't eat up the batteries when using them. Plus I like the light.




Yep she's wood...a 1953 Hinckley 36.

Noah

[Noah]

A couple of other things...

Seat cushion material: I don't love the covering of my settee cushion's but it does hide the dirt very well. The V-birth cushions are velvet, but that isn't an option for a high wear area.

Probably the nicest looking cushion material that I have seen was a tight gray and black herringbone pattern. They looked very elegant and you couldn't see dirt.

Noah

[Tim]

That's a classic, attractive interior in the Herreshoff tradition. Nice!

[JonnyBoats]

I used to have a Cheoy Lee Bermuda 30 ketch. It was 25 years old when I got it, and the wood was still in excellent shape.

To my way of thinking one of the best things about this boat was that it used no liner, yet still looked quite nice. When a hull is holed at sea, and the breach is behind fancy woodwork, the woodwork suddenly doesn't seem so nice as you franticly attempt to tear it away to get access to plug the hole before your boat sinks.

Then again I was out on a Coast Guard 47 ft boat (here in Maine) breaking up ice a couple of weeks ago. It is amazing how good that bare aluminum can look as you think about how it is protecting you from the seawater mere inches away.

[Tony G]

Noah,

...you want a shop...I want a 1953 Hinckley 36...

Unless one wants to be a purest and stick with a traditional interior style dictated by a particular era or maufacturer anything goes. Sticking to the keep it simple principal does not preclude you from having a tasteful or practical interior. Many times it's the little things, the 'trick' things, that make me go 'way cooool.' One thing I've found time and time again is you can't have it all on one small boat. What you leave out is what you'll want at some point. That being said, if you accumulate boats, like Tim is doing, eventually you'll have enough of them to have everything. Just on different boats.

'I say, Heidi, shall we use the Lyman, Pearson or Allied this weekend?";)

[Figment]

Didn't they used to call those (excuse the french) F$ck trucks?

Indeed, though in our application the term "Yuck Truck" would've been more appropriate. It was purchased when both my brother and I were playing hockey pretty much year-round, pretty much all over new england.
One day my mom finally put her foot down and said "dammit, it's bad enough that we do 20Kmiles a year running for hockey. Must I be forced to live with that SMELL for all 20k miles??!!!!"
The van was chosen as the way to put the most distance between the driver's nose and the reeking hockey bags.

NOAH!!! Always fun to bump into WBF people in other venues! Welcome aboard.

[heartofgold]

It's a little over the top, but this is a boat which I had the misfortune of working on recently. She was in the yard during the storm (Ivan) and was blown over; one jackstand punched a hole in the hull and damaged some of the cabinetry. Here is what she looks like now.







Much of the trim is figured cherry, wonderful craftsmanship.

Here are a couple couple of pics of the galley (we should all have it so good!)





That's a Shannon 50, by the way. Here's what she looked like just after the big blow (ouch!!!)



I have always admired the Shannons for what they are, and after working on this one for several days, I took the pictures to inspire me for what I will try to put into my little Heart. Not that grandiose, of course, but the look of the look of the cherry is stunning. My trick will be to tone it down so that it does not overwhelm my little interior.

[Tim]

Beautiful! That's a serious boat. How badly was the hull damaged?

[heartofgold]

I don't have any detailed pictures of the damage, but it I can tell you it was completely through the hull. The inside damage was "minor": one drawer in the galley was damaged and had to be rebuilt, and more significantly, the entire galley cabinet (against the hull) was knocked askew, and did not settle until the boat was relaunched.

Interestingly, the hull was repainted, but the owner did not like the color (off by a couple of shades). As a result, the paint was sanded off and repainted with the new color. This picture shows the boat as it was being prepped for relaunching. The hole (about 18" across) was just forward of the aft sling, and cannot be seen even when inspecting the hull from a distance of 12".



The boat is a truly beautiful piece; the interior was a custom layout, and exquisitely appointed, though IMO, not too much. I only did a few odd jobs on the boat (a little varnish touch up here, some detail painting there, and such), but it was a joy to work on.

[Figment]

"Satori"..... How do I know that name?

Was this boat recently published somewhere?

ps: Gotta love any boat that features the West Marine catalog so prominently on the shelves! ;p

[dasein668]

Different Satori, but you are probably thinking of the boat highlighted in Sebastian Junger's Perfect Storm.

[Tim]

Satori seems to be quite a common boat name. I can think of three or four references, including the Perfect Storm version.

Perhaps there was a Satori in some of the recent Tsunami stories also? I'm not sure.

[Chuck Bussey]

Doug:
Speaking of interiors, the last restoration log on your web site you were starting on the interior of "Heart of Gold." I have read your site inside and out and reallt enjoy it. I have started a Venture 21 that I aquired where all of the demo (and then some) was already completed.
I want to see some of your ideas on a small boat to mooch from especially since you see alot of interiors at your new job.
Thanks,
Chuck[/img]

[heartofgold]

Thanks for the kind words, Chuck. Actually I have not made as much progress on the interior as I would have liked. I have started on the anchor locker, but it will likely be a few weeks until I actually get it all tabbed in.

Quite a few people have been inquiring about my interior plans lately. I have a decent cad program, and I will try to get something drawn up soon and posted to the site, though it will likely be a few weeks before I get to it.