The refurbishment of narrowboats and widebeams is an increasingly important part of our business at Boutique Narrowboats. We offer an interior design service for private clients which pulls together the skills of the whole team – engineering, joinery, electrics, plumbing and of course the design itself. The images below help Read more
Layouts for canal boats can be controversial. Narrowboat purists like to see room layouts which mirror most closely the old working narrowboats of the industrial revolution. And other traditionalists prefer canal boat layouts which hark back to the early holiday boats of the mid-twentieth century. But what arrangement makes most Read more
Narrowboat interior trends are no different from any other design hot lists. Our shopping choices are heavily influenced by what’s in fashion on the catwalk as well as in interiors. Fashions may come and go, but as a boat interior designer, I also have to take the marine environment into Read more
Narrowboat saloon seating can be tricky. Folk see the kinds of sofas we use on our holiday boats and wonder if they can replicate the look on their own boat. But the solution to a common narrowboat problem (space vs comfort vs appearance) is not straightforward. As an interior designer Read more
The latest narrowboat build is now in the painting sheds of John Barnard, a leading expert in narrowboat exterior paint. We have been planning with our clients the colour scheme of the boat exterior and they have chosen complementary Epifane colours, made up especially in a hard wearing formula. The Read more
Luxury canalboat for hire Many of you have been following the creation of our newest luxury canalboat for hire, Woodland Grayling, and we are delighted to show you the final result. We had hoped that the maiden voyage would take place last month, but alas the second lockdown meant that Read more
Is there no end to the wonders of the scaffolding board? From the moment we decided we wanted reclaimed wood cladding to feature as design elements on the narrowboat, Aaran has been driving around with planks of scaffolding on the roof of his van. And with good reason. He has Read more
Gathering samples for our interior designs of our narrowboat and the office is scattered with swatches and snippets. Time to sort them – these are our favourites so far :-).
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 Read more
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 Read more