Journal

Narrowboat interior design on the Grand Union Canal

How we’re creating a tiny bathroom on a luxury canal boat

The definition of a challenge is when you know the bathroom is going to be mini, right from the very beginning. A small space never screams “luxury” but this is what we are aiming for, nonetheless. Rejecting certain ideas (jacuzzi anyone?) is the easy part and we quickly discovered that the “yes” list was only a fraction of the “nos.” So we started focusing on the only three basics we couldn’t live without: shower, basin Read more

By Sharon Peach, ago
Luxury canal boat hire and narrowboat holidays in the uk leicestershire

Canal boating in winter – the story of how Boutique Narrowboats began

Why can’t I hire a narrowboat in winter? My telephone enquiries were answered in a variety of no-nonsense ways by experienced boat-rental companies. My dad was travelling from Cyprus to join us for Christmas and in my head, a lovely cruise through the winter wonderland of the Grand Union Canal was just what he needed. The experts had other ideas: too cold, no staff, boats in dry dock for maintenance, canal closures and concerns over Read more

By Sharon Peach, ago
Designing our hire narrowboat interior design on the Grand Union Canal

Our Narrowboat interior design process – fitting our vision into the boat’s dimensions

A pad of A4 paper. Some Sellotape. A ruler. These are our only tools of narrowboat interior design. A beer garden is optional, but definitely helps. We keep changing our minds. Consult the internet, boat building websites, Facebook, Pinterest. We have a vision but it doesn’t always fit the narrowboat dimensions. We measure again, scale down, snip paper, slice to fit. Every item must inspire joy. It has become our mantra.    

By Simon Youthed, ago

A bit about Boutique Narrowboats – our inspiration and our vision

The first thing you should know about us is that we are completely and utterly in love with narrow boating. We took our first watery steps into this world in 2016 and tumbled headlong into a love affair with the stunning scenery of rural Leicestershire. (And if you want to know more about that first trip, read this blog post here.) Very quickly, we realised that an annual holiday on the canals wouldn’t be enough Read more

By Sharon Peach, ago