Decorating a Houseboat

 

by Teresa Firelight

I recently landed a houseboat in an dream location. I wanted to decorate it to be something amazing, but I am not at all experienced in decorating houseboats.

(I had a Wallover houseboat in the past, and I got one of those addons that makes a large room out of the flat upper deck. It was nice from the inside, but the shape was like a big square block, and it looked like an eyesore from the outside. I discovered that the hard way, when I later got a trad overlooking a couple of houseboats. One of the boats used that same addon, and it looked awful from my yard. That experience made me decide not to use addons that alter the natural lines of the boat.)

My new houseboat location has a lovely sunset view, which meant that I wanted the livingroom windows to face the sunset. Sadly, that eliminated my two favorites: the Wallover and the Evening Star, because they faced the wrong way.

I choose the Barnacle, which was basically a large empty rectangle with a staircase. Then I asked myself, “How do I go about turning a big empty rectangle into something amazing?”

I decided to look around and get inspiration from how others decorated their houseboats. I saw some amazing houseboats – ones I must photograph and write up for this blog (which you will see in my next article). But none of them were Barnacles.

Houseboat Kitchen

Two views of the L-Shaped Kitchen

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I did find a couple of Barnacles that used a nice addon – Blushed Living - Party Boat - Barnacle.

That addon had a wall partially separating the back third from the front. It had a cute little curvy area with a bathroom built in – very nice, but I really wanted to put an L-shaped kitchen there, so I couldn’t use that addon. I did however notice a couple of things that inspired me. It had a little bar counter about ½ way, partially separating the front from the back. And they added rails to the top of the staircase.

I decided to build my own addon out of prims, inspired partially by Blushed Living’s build. I put an L-shaped kitchen wall where they had separated off the bathroom area. I added the rail to the top of the stairs, similar to what Blush did. I also borrowed the counter idea to separate the livingroom from the entry, only I decided to do it on both sides and to make it narrower and put plants on top of it.

Wood Panneling

The back wall and livingroom wood pannels

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This was a good start, but it still wasn't quite right. The walls – ug! The colors they offered for this model felt dark and unappealing. It seemed cheap instead of classy. So I decided to add a bunch of dark wood paneling to give it a classier look.

Once I had the dark wood paneling, I needed to add a lot of white shelves (covered with plants) and wall mounted candles to lighten the place up. Then, for consistency, I put a lot of potted plants in the livingroom and bedroom. And of course, I added nice furniture. This was starting to look good to me, but it needed a bit more. So I loaded the kitchen and dining room with realistic looking coffee and food dispensers.

About the outside – I did not want to add anything bulky or unnatural. I love to sit on my deck and watch my dolphins play. Since this was a square lot, it needed an L-shape to wrap the deck around the of the houseboat. I wanted to keep the deck light and narrow, so it did not need much furniture. I put down a couple of nice Trompe outdoor chairs and a little Dekute Dekore bench at the end. I was careful to use textures that matched the deck on the houseboat, so it all looked like it belonged together. I also added a small plank to connect my L-shaped deck to the pier.

For the upper deck, I keep it very simple. I put out 1 Dekute Dekore sofa-table-chair set and some plants.

I have to say that my houseboat turned out better than I expected and I am quite happy with it. I am sharing it with you in hopes that some of what I figured out and did might inspire you on decorating your houseboat.

Comments

[Dave]

Welcome to the neighbourhood, Teresa. You're just three boats away from my own houseboat. I used a nice add-on for my own Barnacle to give me a separate living area and kitchen/diner as well as a separate bathroom. Colour me weird, but while avis don't really need one, I just can't call anywhere a home that doesn't have a bathroom!