boat interior design

It depends how much has to be redesigned, how much work has to be done. A friend of mine, an interior decorator, is in Malta at the moment for a short vacation, may be you can get together and discuss the matter. I will be happy to put you into contact.

Ronald de Jong, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

You bring up an important issue

All up, I see the position you find yourself in, but I have a hard time dealing with the universiality of your issue. Malta ain't Memphis. Sydney ain't Stockholm. 'Style' is what we live for in the completness of a 'design.' Why should anyone race into this, wherever they live?

I was about to start my own thread on this topic, but I had better deal with yours first. In short, you, and only your family knows for sure what turns you on. Everything begins with a materials selection process, especially as the spaces contract. What some designers call cozy, others would detest as clostrophobic.

At the end of the period where you can firmly declare: "This is what I/we want." It is written up as the project 'program.' From there, I can realize your vision through a process of deterministic; 'what-ifs.'

What if the ceiling is pale blue? What if the sidewells are ice buckets? What if the lights point upward?

But, in boats, I suppose the biggest issue would be: what absolutely needs to be custom fitted and what can be refurbished as good as new? (ie: time is money.)

That is huge!

I spent this past year working for a residential desigher that could have enormous flair for all this, with some direction. We did a place called the Monkey house, as the theme is rather like a gambling room in old Havana, with a bit of foolishness and monkey business everywhere you looked. No doubt, she would be in high demand in Ft. Lauderdale, but this was a 5,000 sq ft home on Moon Lake for the price of a condo on the coast. ($1.2M)

That her type of skills are so eroneously applied on boats amazes me too.

What we are dealing in is not a home at sea. And yet, there is an obvious need for some of these elements to establish exactly that 'home-like' feel.

There seem to be no less than two other skill sets required for any boat design to be completly successful, as I see it. Obviously experience helps, but it too is no guarantee. Not if you want both high style and taste with full-tuck functionality. At the helm, you can certainly establish a strikingly unique array of tasteful features, and like a show-house, the crew's quarters don't have to be that complete.

I only do systems integration, and with as much fancy face-value as the clients will let me do. I suppose someone in your position needs simply contact a friend who has been down a similar avenue. I am only into clean, non traditional, International styles and I detest the English Tea room crowd. That is, until I see someone offer something like this in the mix, and then the entire gameplan resounds accordingly. In fact, it's the woodworkers I would consult with first, then the fabric coordinating, lighting and color persons. Mind you, your exact floor and deck color is the most critical stage of space defining emphasis.