Tag Archives: boat interiors

Cheap and Easy Boat Tricks: Fun with Finishes

Posted on by

Mike and I have been taking a small break from the issue of the exhaust system. We will post an update when we get the show back on the road on that issue, but for now, we have lots of other projects to keep us busy. In the ‘cheap and easy’ category, a category I wish included more things, I’ve finished the aft head walls.

Boats need to be easy to clean but in my book that doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun with the kinds of finishes we use. So when I recently ripped the wall paper off the wall in the aft head (because there was nasty gross disgusting mildew behind it) I decided I would paint those walls in colors that glowed. The walls would be beautiful, and the warm tones would make my skin look better in the mirror. That’s right. It’s all about vanity, people.

The finished product.

Preparation is the better part of valor when it comes to paint finishes. So after ripping the wallpaper off (really it practically FELL off the wall) I scrubbed them with bleach water, then sanded them and primed them with a stain and mildew killing primer. That complete, I was ready for the fun.

Inside the boat there is no need to use expensive ‘marine’ paint. We can get away with using many products that are the same as what we would use in our land based homes. Thus I discovered that at Lowe’s I could buy samples of latex paints, 7 ounces each, that they would custom tint in any color I wanted. The cost? 3$ each. This is a dangerous temptation for a woman who loves color like I do. On the other hand it brought the cost of this cheap boat trick to only about 25$, including paint and supplies. Deal!

This finish involves layering color in a subtle way. The result is a wall that has what I call ‘color texture’. There is an overall impression of color, but when you look closer you see that it’s actually many colors. And instead of a flat look, there is depth to the color that gives the impression of texture on the wall. I love it. This is the kind of project you can do while you have other things going on because there is a lot of time to spend watching paint dry.

Here’s what you will need: latex paints, a clean polishing pad (the kind you use with paste wax or car wax that is basically a round sponge with a fine terrycloth covering), a stiff square tipped artists paintbrush, water, a paper towel, a clear finish like clear polyurethane and your imagination and sense of playfulness.

To do this kind of finish well I suggest you use big, bold colors. Choose colors that are rich and deep. Frankly, I’ve tried this technique with pale colors at home and was less impressed with the results because the pale colors tend to disappear into each other. There is not enough color tint as they are mostly white when you spread them out. Just saying, be bold. Think ‘sumptuous’.

Choose colors that play well together.  I chose my base color, the one that I wanted to dominate the effect. Then I chose 4 other colors that would look good with it. As a rule, stick with either cool or warm tones.  You can do this effect with only 2 or 3 colors but there is a balance here. Too many and your wall will look like mud. Too few and it’s hardly worth the effort. I also like to have enough choices to play with, and at 3$ a pop, it’s not going to break the bank to be generous. paints

Begin by painting your walls with the color you’ve chosen as your base. This will be a strong color and needs to be one of the darker tones in your selection. You will be layering other color on top of it and if you start with a light color you’ll just cover it up. Save your lighter tones for the layering. If you pick a color that is sort of ‘in the middle’ of your chosen field of hues, you can’t go wrong.  I chose to begin with Sweet Mimosa, a color that looked pretty much like ‘tangerine’ on the walls. Even by itself it was lovely. Once your base coat is complete, walk away. Go do another project. Let it dry overnight. You want the walls to be completely dry before layering. 

Go ahead. Just pick up a little color and wipe it on the wall like you’re in kindergarten.

Now the fun begins. Your goal for this part is to pick up very small amounts of another color of paint, using a barely damp (not sopping wet) polishing pad. You might want to practice this part because there is a ‘feel’ to it that you will need to discover. If you use too much water, it will drip down the wall and ruin the finish. If that happens, just wipe it with a sponge and add more color. No worries. You will be spreading the color so thinly that it leaves just a hint of its former self. It’s okay if parts are darker than others. That’s part of the charm. I encourage you to play with it until you get an effect that you like.

Pick up a little bit of color (notice that the applicator pad is almost dry) and then wipe it on the wall with quick, deft motions. Act like you know what you are doing. Pretend you are putting makeup on the wall. You want coverage but it can’t look like it’s caked on or it will be obvious.

This will be blended further.

Do this one color over the entire room until you are satisfied with its transparency, adding a little more here, taking more off there. Step back frequently and view the entire area you are working on to get the overall effect and check for drips.  Use arcing motions with your hand, or crosshatches, or circles. Just play with it until you like it and then stop.

Let this coat dry for several hours. It needs to be completely dry before you add the next layer. In fact, if there are any hard and fast rules for this effect they are to use less water rather than more, and let each layer dry completely before adding another one. Otherwise you will have a muddy mess. You might have to experience that to believe me, so go ahead. You can always paint over it. Here is what the wall looks like after the first layer. 

When this layer is dry, choose another color. Repeat the process. You will notice that when the colors are thinned out like this, they bear little resemblance sometimes to what was in the jar. This is part of the fun. I chose the raspberry colored paint next to add a bit of red to the mix. I wanted the walls to look like a sunset.

These colors are just delicious.

Here’s the wall after adding some of the raspberry and some of the darker mango hue. I was happy with how this looked so I decided that was all the colors I would be using. In all I used 4, including the base color. 

Yes, the differences in the two photos are very subtle. That is deliberate. It is the overall impression of color I wanted, not 4 distinct colors on the wall.  If you are not very sensitive to color variations, this technique will cure you of that.

The final touches are done on the small areas like between cabinets, in corners, and close to the wood trim pieces where the sponge would just make a mess. I use a stiff square artist’s brush. The squared end allows you to get close to the wood trim and make a sharp edge. Don’t use the soft bristled kind. You’ll just frustrate yourself and the cheap ones always lose hairs. You’ll spend all your time picking them off the wet paint. Learn from my experience and just don’t bother.

To do the small areas you’ll use this brush almost dry but there’s a technique to this. The secret is to use the paint lids. Put 2 or 3 drops of water in the lid to thin the paint just a bit. Don’t overdo it. Touch your brush to the thinned paint, then lightly press the edge on the paper towel. You want to let the towel soak up some of the moisture and leave some color behind on the brush. Use a scrubbing motion to rub the color onto the small areas. Again, the brush will be almost dry. You can add one or two drops of water to the brush if you need to. The word ‘drops’ here means exactly that. If you are tempted to use more you will find it runs and ruins your previous work. Again, my experience at work for you. Do not yield to temptation. 

Jiggling and scrubbing the paint onto the detailed areas. A sharp fingernail inside a damp paper towel cleans up those edges.

Here is the wall when all the color has been applied. 

The final touch for this wall is to clear coat it with something that will make cleaning easy and create a hard finish. Always looking for ways to use up what I already have, I checked the big paint cabinet at home and found a can of Spar Urethane, previously used to refinish bedroom floors. Perfect.

This product dries to a hard, satin finish, is water based, and has a slight yellowish cast which works perfectly with these walls. If you need to purchase something for this step, I suggest going to the craft store and buying a small can of the finish of your choice because you will use so little of it. In fact, you use very little of all of the products except the base color. You will have plenty left over to use somewhere else, making this trick even cheaper.

Cheap, easy, and flattering to my skin. This one is a win!

 

 

 

Click on the monkey’s fist to read others bloggers on this topic.

The Monkey's Fist

Cheap and Easy Boat Tricks: Covering Salon Cushions

Posted on by

During our trip I was able to finish my project of covering the salon cushions and we couldn’t be more pleased. When we bought Galapagos the cushions were 1980’s hideous. Really, what must we have been thinking in that decade? They were some kind of mauve and blue misty nebulous looking fabric that made me cringe. In addition they were worn and torn and the foam had seen better days. Brief calculations for replacement ran into the 1000’s of dollars and we were spending that on baby Beta ‘Hiram’ and his personal nursery room, so there wasn’t much left over for what amounted to prettifying the interior.

Skippy is displeased with this upholstery.

Having little money has never stopped me before, so I took it as a challenge and carried on. When one is faced with a task like this, it is important to keep the specific goal in mind; the current goal, not necessarily the long term goal. In this case the goal was to update the interior to make it a pleasure to look at and use until such time as we could afford to replace the settee cushions altogether. In a word, the goal was HAPPINESS. I wanted to look down into the salon and feel happy.  Eventually we will do some minor remodeling in the salon anyhow. So for now, the happiness upgrade had to be enough.

Since the foam was fairly worn, I added a layer of 1″ cheap foam I got at Hobby Lobby. Cheap is the operative word here and it’s good that I didn’t spend much money. I’m not sure I would go that route again. But I cut the foam to add a layer to each bottom cushion and got started. It did add some comfort and that’s what I was going for.

First draft. A revision was definitely in order. This looked sloppy and the fit was too ‘casual’ for me.

Like many projects of this type, I never know how I’m going to do something until I get into it a bit. I started by trying to make easy slipcovers, thinking I would then be able to remove them for washing. After making a couple of these I decided I didn’t like the way they looked and wanted something more fitted. I didn’t care if I could remove it or not, because, again, the focused goal was an upgrade in looks and comfort for the short term. It needs to last a couple of years. I would use Scotchguard to protect the fabric. As usual, I was making it way too hard.

The old upholstery was built like a tank with three separate sections on the settee backs, each containing its own foam and each with its own zipper. It made me tired just to think of how I was going to keep the same tailored look without all the trouble. In addition, I had bought all of this fabric that the store had because I loved it that much, but it still amounted to less than what I believed I would need. I would have to cut corners to extend the fabric somehow.

The solution was so much easier than I suspected. I simply pinned the fabric tightly to the cushions and, by hand, stitched the fabric in place on the cushion, tucking the corners in neatly and stitching them down. I had the fabric positioned, pulled snug, and pinned before stitching so there were a lot of pins.  I used a large running stitch to sew the fabric to the seams in the settee backs, giving them a ‘folk art’ look that goes well with the fabric pattern. These seams were the hardest part. I ended up ordering some cheap upholstery needles from Amazon. The 12 inch needle did the trick and will serve nicely as a spear should we ever find we need one.cushionback

One of the money saving strategies I employed here was that I did not buy zippers or any other kind of sewing accouterments. Only thread and the deadly needle. In addition, since I added a layer of foam to each seat cushion, none of them are reversible,  removing the need to have fabric cover the back. This saved me fabric, time, and labor as I didn’t have to piece fabric to get the entire thing covered.

Here’s the cost breakdown:

Fabric: 20 yards 160$
Foam 40$
Thread 10$
Deadly needle 5$ for a package that included even larger needles.
Total cost: about 215$

Once I got the method down, the work went quickly and easily and I actually enjoyed sitting in the cockpit and stitching away. We’ll call this a win in the cheap boat tricks category. .

 

Click on the monkey’s fist to read others bloggers on this topic.

The Monkey's Fist

Adventures in Cheap Boat Tricks

Posted on by

This weekend was filled with doing all kinds of little things that make the boat  more livable and more like a boat that sails rather than a boat that sits at the dock; preparing to leave Astoria this week. Mike got the battens back in the main sail. We tried out the new sturdy stool I bought to keep by the mast for when we need a boost up. Mike checked the batteries and secured them stoutly. We got out the jack lines. We created our ‘safety kit’ area. We earned our Coast Guard Safety Inspection sticker and mounted it proudly on the mast. We bled the steering system one last time to be sure the fluid was correct.

All these things are good and necessary. But on our outing last week it occurred to us that we have been at the dock so long we’ve forgotten that if you want to go sailing you really want to do a little thing called DECLUTTERING the boat. Otherwise all kinds of interesting noises may come from the cabin as the wind fills the sails and the boat begins to dig her shoulder into the sea.  And all kinds of interesting opportunities for cleaning may be yours when you get back to the dock. In our excitement that we might actually get to sail this boat, we kind of forgot that everything needs to be stowed securely, not sitting out on the countertops. Enough said.

So this was the weekend for stowing and for completing a few of the little cheap boat tricks I’ve been up to.

Mike’s workshop was the worst offender in terms of being completely unprepared for sailing.

Ugh. What a mess.

Due to all the myriads of projects going on all the time, it is usually completely cluttered with bits and pieces of things, tools, cans of viscous liquids, and all the other assortments of items that, in general, make up the man cave.  Since buying the boat we have been too busy doing things like revamping the engine room to give much attention to going through and organizing all the stuff previous owners had left behind in the workshop. I had spent hours sorting and organizing screws and bolts and their ilk, but then got distracted when faced with that cabinet and whatever was lurking in the toolbox. We got to work clearing it all out, sorted things and Mike took a ton of stuff up to the car to toss later.

With the bench cleared off, I could finally remove the ugly and worn out work surface. This stuff was pretty old, and I have no idea what it was made of. But it came off in one piece.

The first cheap trick was replacing this with a softer vinyl surface that will dampen sound, be easy to clean, and also cheap to replace. At Hancock Fabric I bought some soft backed heavy vinyl for 5$ a yard in a shade of pale blue that matches the rest of the interior. Why should Mike’s man cave be the only ugly place on the boat? I bought enough to make a covering for the teak table in the salon so that we could use it as an extra work surface without damaging the wood. I cut a piece to fit Mike’s bench, using double sided carpet tape to seal the deal. I love that stuff because it keeps things in place but it isn’t permanent. The kind we have has the consistency of flat rubber cement. You can re-position and remove it without trouble. I used the scraps from this piece of vinyl to line the shelf in the cabinet. More sound deadening.

My second cheap decorating trick is happening in the aft head. Readers with good memories will recall that I recently had to strip off the old wallpaper in this cabin because I couldn’t stand it anymore, knowing there were old mold stains hiding back there.

Here’s a reminder of what we had to work with.

Like every boat owner I know, I get weary of having to pay ‘marine’ prices for stuff like paint. I see no reason why I should have to use marine paint for this surface. After scrubbing with bleach water and sanding the walls lightly,  I used a Zinsser product I had at home to prime the walls and seal them to prevent stains from showing. Then I went to Lowes and for 3$ was able to buy a 7.5 ounce sample of paint in the color of my choice. On boats, the surfaces are small so having to buy an entire quart or gallon of paint just doesn’t make sense. I love that Lowe’s offers this sample service.  I chose a color called ‘Sweet Mimosa’ and got started on that room today. Here’s what we have so far.

Yum! The color of sunshine, blue skies, and warm breezes.

I’m feeling so much better about this room that I’m going to add some additional colors to this wall to make the color richer, less flat. At 3$ for about a cup of paint, I can go crazy layering colors until I get the effect I want. This cabin is totally coming together with the colors in the aft cabin. I get excited about things like that. Really, I’m so easy to please.

So our third cheap trick is one I’m really happy with. Eventually we hope to find a way to remodel our aft cabin giving us a queen berth where we can both sleep as one. Until then, however, we’re enjoying it the way it is. Except that the mattress I was sleeping on had to go. It was old, worn out, and had mildew stains on the edge. I wanted a new mattress but good quality foam is very expensive, and then you have to cover it, adding time and labor to the process. There had to be a better way.

I measured the footprint of the berth and compared it to standard mattress sizes. I found that the ‘double’ I was sleeping on was actually only slightly wider than a standard twin XL mattress. (Why this berth would ever be considered a ‘double’ is beyond me.)  In terms of length, because the space isn’t square, it was shorter in only one area. Armed with this knowledge I turned to the source for all things that you want delivered in two days: Amazon. They may be the evil empire, but I was about to turn their evil to good.

I found a twin XL mattress that would come in a vacuum packed roll for $139.00.  It got excellent reviews, and a lot of them. Many people were using these in their RV’s. Add to cart. Then I knew I would want a memory foam topper because I am spoiled by our comfortable memory foam bed at home. I found one for $61.99. Add to cart. One click ordering. They make it so easy. Two days later…

Excitement in a tall box!

At the boat, Mike removed the mattress that had seen better days. I unrolled the vacuum packed mattress and it expanded quickly. The workmanship and materials are high quality, and it is made in the USA! Who knew? It fit like this:

You can see that one corner needs to be trimmed.  OOH, and there’s that fabric. See how it matches the aft head now? Scroll back up to that photo of the aft head… I’ll wait. Shiver!

With my trusty sewing scissors, I opened up the cover to reveal the foam inside. There were two layers of thick egg-crate-type foam, and a covering of batting and fabric.

Opening up the corner, preserving the covering and the welting.

Opening up the corner, preserving the covering and the welting. The trimming has begun.

Using a razor blade, I trimmed the foam back a bit at a time, fitting the mattress into place several times to be sure I didn’t trim off too much and got the right angle. I wanted a snug fit. When the foam was trimmed, I pulled the cover around the edge tightly and pinned it in place, flipped the mattress over, and sewed the cover in place along the bottom, using strong thread and a heavy needle.

Bottom of mattress with cover pulled tight around the edge and pinned.

A metal thimble is a must for this kind of sewing.

I then flipped it over again, trimmed the batting on the top to fit, and whip stitched the top to the side to prepare for the welting.

Whipping the top batting into place.

Finally I covered the seam with the welting and sewed that into place.

Start to finish took about 2 hours.

And now, it fits:

A perfect fit.

I am very pleased with the results. If you have priced custom marine mattresses, you’ll know that about 200$ doesn’t buy you much. This bed is quite firm, and I am happy to have bought the memory foam topper. In addition, because this is basically a twin mattress with the corned cut off, I will be able to use regular bedding. Because this mattress is mostly rectangular in a trapezoidal space, there is a gap between the mattress and the side of the boat at the head and on the side. My plan is to have colorful pillows that match the fabric I’m using in this space. It will make a lovely, comfortable area for lounging and sleeping. The best part is that this was dead easy. I won’t hesitate to do this kind of thing in the other cabins as needed.

My other project, the cushions in the salon, is coming right along. This is making a huge impact in that cabin and as a whole, we are feeling more and more like this is ‘our’ boat. Mike made the comment that when he came down into the salon, it felt like a different boat. I liken it to something finally coming alive.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that the gods are all pleased with us and that we will actually complete part one of this Little Cunning Plan by bringing Galapagos home next week.