LIV Chats To …Colour Lover Christina About Her Beautiful House Boat Renovation

This week, we are super excited to introduce our ‘LIV Chats To’ @thisonefloats blog. her beautiful house is definitely going to make you want to think about renovating a boat!

Hi Emma, first things first, please can you introduce yourself?

Hi, I’m Christina.

My partner and I purchased an industrial cargo ship from Belgium in 2018 and over 15 months we converted it into a 3 bed floating home.

We live on a permanent mooring in West London with our 2 year old daughter Elara and our dog an Alaskan Klee Kai, Aluki.

Please tell us how you came to convert a 1965 boat into a stunning family home?

We can totally thank/blame my partner Rohan for this! He grew up around boats and is boat/water obsessed. He did all the research and convinced me by dragging me around viewings of high end converted barges (I found out much later they were worth £millions!) Once I saw how spacious and “house-like” they were; I was sold. The fantastic thing on boat building is you’re not restricted by planning permission in the way you are on a traditional house. We had free reign to design it how we wanted.

Please could you describe your interior style, has it always been the same or has it evolved over time?

I wasn’t aware I had a strong style until I’ve found all my friends describing the boat as “so me”.

I love nomadic textiles and geometric shapes. I would always choose colour. In fact half of the walls in every room are painted in white as my partner wasn’t convinced on using colour, so this was my compromise

What brands or trends inspire you or your house purchases?

I love a bit of Graham & Green.

It’s my aspirational style of sumptuous pieces you picked up along your travels..

What interior Instagram accounts inspire you, could you name your top 3?

Ooh this is tough!! I co-host a hashtag called @Colourfiedhomes and I’m lucky to have discovered some amazing accounts through there. I particularly love these ones:

- @moveovermagnolia fantastic use of colour, cool prints and mid century furniture - love her style

- @paintthetownpastel her style is so playful and glamorous but most importantly, young and fresh. Every room is like a high-end café you’d find in Tokyo or Paris – so dreamy

- @my.interior.tales we perhaps have a similar style with colour schemes but she’s a master of styling. It’s a really ‘cool’ home. I find it really inspiring!

We love your outside seating area, what is your favourite space in your amazing home?

We really love our kitchen.

We designed it with 360° windows for a practical reason – you’d need that vision from the wheel when driving it (it’s still a fully functioning boat). Obviously the result is a super bright space with amazing views on the river. We love sitting here and watching all the action on the water.

What inspired you to start sharing your beautiful home?

After some really disappointing delays on the build we moved in around February 2020.

We had dreamed of all these parties we would throw with friends and family once we moved into our new home. And then of course we entered lockdown and we couldn’t have anyone over! I was desperate to show people what we’d built!

We just adore how you have done up the boat!

Please can you talk about this process and if you would have done anything differently.

I used Dropbox Paper for a lot of my mood boards – it’s handy as you can throw in photos next to links. I started with ridiculously extravagant ideas (like a riad-style courtyard for a living room). I think start big and wild, it’s part of the fun!

Also I ignored lots of pieces of advice “my colour choices are too saturated”/ “black doors will be too dark” etc and I went with my gut. I’m pleased I did.

What's your favourite home purchase you have made in 2020 and is there anything on your Wishlist?

We treated ourselves to a gorgeous corner sofa for our deck and it’s pure heaven sitting out there in the sunshine. We love that it’s a lightweight frame so doesn’t look offensive without the cushions.

Really boring but I am always eyeing up sofa beds. I can’t wait to have visitors over and I want a good setup!

And finally what does the future hold for @thisonefloats?is there anything up your sleeve or is the boat complete?

We have some seriously grand plans for our third bedroom that involve a sunken seating area and a skylight shower. Though sadly it will take a few pennies in the bank before we can even consider that stage..

If you have enjoyed reading all about Christina and her beautiful floating home, head over to her Instagram page @thisonefloats to keep up to date.

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