Have you bought a boat that’s been at sea for too long? Have you inherited a yacht, or somehow come to possess an old boat that you thought was past its best? If so, this article could help you with the refurbishment process.

There are old vessels out there that have life in them yet. As long as she still floats, no boat, dinghy, tug, or passenger ferry is truly ready for scrap. Floating is the number one check for buying a used boat. Floating without leaks is even better. As to the innards – well – sometimes a full renovation is the only way. A slight problem that comes with refurbishing a vessel is what is inside it. Is it rust or revival-ready? Would it survive a renovation? If so, here are the best 7 interior design improvements you can make on your new (old) boat to bring it up to modernity. 

The 7 Tricks to Revive an Old Boat

Try these interior boat design tricks to update any vessel. From a 90’s tour vessel to a private yacht – these tips can save you time, money, and effort.

1 – Develop a Plan

Before you do anything, set yourself a budget and develop a boat restoration plan to spend it. Plan to buy the materials you need immediately. This is a hard lesson for house flippers. When you begin with a vision for your new space, you look at finishings which are in trend at that moment. If you don’t buy immediately, you may miss those trends and be short of stock when the time comes to finish the boat refurbishment. Plan everything from the outset and make your purchases before you begin. 

The following tips contain things to think about spending good money on.

2 – Spend on the Deep Clean

An important step in the refurbishment process is to deep clean the whole interior before you start to decorate. If you can’t do it yourself, then employing a deep cleaning company to do it for you is a safe alternative. Make sure they detail the inside from top to bottom. Once this task is complete and the tech and engine get an update, you can finally start to get down to designing business.

3 – Update the Seating

In some cases, replacement boat seat cushions can make a huge difference to the boat’s interior. Every boat, be it high end or trawler, has a seating area in it. These seating areas gather dust, bacteria, and spills. Ripping the cushioning out and starting again is an efficient way to solve the problem. Complete the look with new cushion covers and you have a whole new room. Check out the African Mud Cloth trend for inspiration.

4 – Budget for Home Comforts

The whole point in all this is to make your new, inherited, or refurbished boat, feel like your own. Prepare to spend a large chunk of your budget buying the digital devices, electronics, and luxury touches that you need to make it feel like your floating home. Think of functionality and of little luxuries. If you’re going to perform a refurbishment, you might as well make it high end.

5 – Match Your Fabrics

You can soften up the hard edges found in vessels by choosing fabric with a distinguished pattern, picking out colors from feature furniture to add to individual pieces around the space, or mixing up soft fabrics which complement one another. Mix your textures but match your palette – just as if you were designing your home.

6 – Use Lighting for Atmosphere

Not all boats have walls. This can make the decorating a little difficult. If you have exposed industrial metal and wooden finishings to work with, add a little brass around and light it with LED strips, your choice in colors, or even specially made spot lighting, if you can afford it. Lighting adds atmosphere on board, and if you surround yourself with soft fabrics, you could feel right at home.

7 – Use Tapestries

Instead of spending a small fortune designing the interior of a boat which may or may not have walls to hang paper on, try tapestries, instead. Decorating the living spaces with soft fabrics takes the edge off all that industrial steel. Not only that, it adds to the insulation, which you really need on open water. 

If it Floats, it Bloats!

If your new investment doesn’t have balance issues, engine issues, or leaks, you can get some life out of it yet. Especially if you followed our advice.