Anyone painted their boats interior woodwork?

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steve yates

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My Jo wants to brighten up and totally refresh the longbows rather dark all wood interior.

She is thinking of coloured paints, anyone done this? Any pics or links? What paints have you found work best on the inside?

Any other ideas or tips to change the character of an interior and to make it more efficient and functional at the same time?

Thanks.
 
It can look very good in a jolly beach hut sort of way. It seems to work best if you keep the contrasting trim. Here is an example:

http://www.jryachts.com/boat-details?boatid=1290271

Which may be too much white for some people.
To look good, painting takes a lot of work and it is even worse if you change your mind.

Worth also looking at the Mystery 35 for a production example:

http://www.red-ensign.com/boats/mystery-35-2/

PS

If you could put a few snaps up it would help people with ideas.
 
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Off white bulkheads with varnished wooden trim as in that Rival is quite common. Will not look as stark in your boat as there is less panel wood. Use acrylic house paint suitable for kitchens and bathrooms. Huge choice of tints from the Dulux range if you don't fancy stark white. Remember though it is a one way street if you paint, so a good alternative is the laminated 4mm ply panels available from Robbins Timber which can be used as an overlay and although they look expensive, need no more finishing (or subsequent refinishing). Available in a wide range of colours and tints.
 
White panelling with wood trim is the traditional finish in New England, although the Rival in that link has gone a little too far for my taste. I think it needs a little more 'wood' to break up the blocks of solid colour.

'Off White' is a good tip as white is too white. I like to use Multicoat from Hempel.

The other thing is to use varnish for any primer / undercoat layers if you think that you may ever want to 'un-do' your paint scheme. You can do this while you coat the wood that is going to be left 'bright'. Then mask up and give a couple of coats of multicoat to the areas you want painted.
 
Tranona said:
Off white bulkheads with varnished wooden trim as in that Rival is quite common. Will not look as stark in your boat as there is less panel wood. Use acrylic house paint suitable for kitchens and bathrooms. Huge choice of tints from the Dulux range if you don't fancy stark white. Remember though it is a one way street if you paint, so a good alternative is the laminated 4mm ply panels available from Robbins Timber which can be used as an overlay and although they look expensive, need no more finishing (or subsequent refinishing). Available in a wide range of colours and tints.
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Acrylic on the wood? Or is that for bare grp?
 
petehb said:
look at sail life on you tube
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+1 for this. Over 200 short videos of a chap refitting his boat(s).

And he painted his interior white! He stripped all the varnish and sanded sanded sanded for what seemed like forever. He is an utter perfectionist based in Denmark I believe. Well worth a watch.

I plan to do something similar and have found a paint primer that says it can be used directly over varnish though I am not yet convinced. We shall see.

He also installed a swivelling table that I wish to look more into.
 
TonyBuckley said:
+1 for this. Over 200 short videos of a chap refitting his boat(s).

And he painted his interior white! He stripped all the varnish and sanded sanded sanded for what seemed like forever. He is an utter perfectionist based in Denmark I believe. Well worth a watch.

I plan to do something similar and have found a paint primer that says it can be used directly over varnish though I am not yet convinced. We shall see.

He also installed a swivelling table that I wish to look more into.
Click to expand...

I bought that table mount 14 years ago so I could have a cockpit table in my Vancouver 27, it was bloody expensive then so god alone knows what it would be now, very good though.:encouragement:
 
steve yates said:
Acrylic on the wood? Or is that for bare grp?
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On wood after a primer. Long article in PBO a couple of years ago by Richard Hares (wood expert) on using such paints. Used extensively inside his Golden Hind.

Just about to use it for refinishing solid wood kitchen cabinet doors on recommendation from Brewers paint specialists.
 
Farrow & Ball Exterior Eggshell goes on very nicely. Elephant's breath or whatever takes your fancy.
 
Steve, when we got our Longbow a couple of years back it had what I think was the original saloon table, quite big, intended to be lowered and made into part of a double bed in the usual manner. We didn't need the extra beds and wanted more living space so I took off the table, cut it down quite a bit and replaced the original two pedestals/legs with a single one. This has given us a much roomier saloon.
Also, small lockers in the forrard cabin with sliding doors on runners. The runners narrowed the opening into the lockers and they were very hard to access. We took of the locker fronts, painted the interiors and fitted a fiddle rail. My missus bought tubs to fit and we no have a lot more, brighter, easier to access storage space.
Last improvement to the storage side of things was to remove the mattress from the quarter berth and put in some large, shallow storage trays which we slide in and out as needed. A bit of rope on the sternmost one lets me pull them out easily.
 
Some years ago i saw a 1980's Van de Stadt yacht that had good quality teak joinery, someone had "shabby chic'd" the entire interior with electric pink vinyl silk emulsion paint with faux woodgraining in white.
I have never seen such a dreadful mess in my life. It must have reduced its value by thousands.
 
I once met an owner of a Hallberg-Rassy stripping white paint off the interior bulkheads. As it was over the original very good varnish finish it came off cleanly and the boat reverted to a really nice varnish finish with no trace of the white. Paint on bare wood though is pretty much once and for always.
 
Just wondered if your Longbow bulkheads were actually Formica type finish rather than mahogany veneer as this may influence your choice of paint. Incidentally, I was looking at your boat P&K last year but chickened out.

I painted the inside of my present boat a pale cream silk finish (not emulsion) and it give a warm interior with sections of varnished areas such as doors, mast supports etc.

To answer your other question about Headlining, I coated the sides of my coachroof with Artex which gave a rounded stippled effect which I then painted, looked OK with not too much condensation. Used vinyl covered thin ply screwed to batons glassed to the moulding as the headlong.
 
My old man repainted his Hustler with B&Q bathroom paint. He had it for a number of years afterwards and I don't remember any problems.
 
We keep a simple steel yacht in Wellington NZ. The fit out is simple, very spacious for a 32 footer and has light coloured varnished trim-a local NZ hardwood, probably Rimu-and ply panels finished in a magnolia gloss. Gives a light and airy feel to a basic boat and suits very well. The headliner is white ply strips covered in headliner material and fastened with screws with plastic caps. Other interior parts are covered in a light grey carpet.

Our UK boat also has a similar internal colour scheme, but with plenty of natural finish wood contrasted by light cream panels and headliner.

Nothing wrong with traditional dark varnished finishes, but they are not compulsory...................................
 
I was down this morning decanting more diesel and had a look at the idea, I would suggest perhaps retaining the varnish on the bulkheads and posts but the long run of lockers each side might look well painted in a shade that would lighten the interior. About ten years ago we added a bathroom and I decided to line the interior with timber matchboarding, I painted it in an exterior eggshell finish which has proved very durable. The paint came from a 'Cape Cod'range of soft marine colours that went off the market shortly after but similar shades are available on most colour cards. Sort of colours you would see used externally in Nantucket. I has resisted steam and moisture very well indeed and unlike plaster seems resistant to condensation.
( I tried tilting the boat using the main halyard to a cleat on the opposite side of the pontoon to slant the bottom of the tank to concentate the crud under the filler pipe, not too easy, very stiff boat, I agitated the fuel with the dipstick then left it to settle, pumped out about 3 litres of mucky stuff, then repeated in to a second white bucket, a lot less bits, let it settle and poured the clean diesel off the top back through funnel, repeated 3 or 4 times, last sample looked clean. Took around 5 litres out but tank is still around half full and what I am now getting looked clean. Get some biocide as while there is no visible water the fuel has a slightly cloudy look which could be water in suspension. if you have only that one winch handle worth buying a bigger 10" one?)
 
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