Even with all these strange winter storms we’ve had lately, Randy and I actually managed to get a boat project done. When we bought Blue Turtle over 3 years ago, we always planned to address the interior walls. Our old boat has some very dated, mildewy, stained and ugly wallpaper that is peeling up in several places. One of the worst areas in the boat was the v-berth so we resolved to address it first. Given our time and budgeting constraints we decided to paint the interior v-berth walls in lieu of re-papering or veneering. We decided that if painting worked out well in the v-berth and we liked it, we would do our cabin next and then finish off the main salon.

So last Saturday we tackled the initial prep of the v-berth. We had no idea what we were getting into. As always, with a boat a small project inevitably turns into a big project. It took us the entire day to peel the old wallpaper (using a steamer), remove all fixtures and prep the area to apply a layer of Kilz. We opted to use Kilz since there was a layer of glue left after removing the wallpaper. The Kilz would help the flat interior latex paint adhere to the surface.

We also used this opportunity to remove some old (some non-working) brass lighting fixtures and replace them with new ones. Along with the prep work came with a whole lot of cleanup. Our boat is 41 years old and no matter how much I dust and clean, it generates an endless supply. With the wallpaper removed and the disassembly of everything this gave us a great opportunity to thoroughly clean every part of the v-berth.

On Sunday, with the v-berth walls prepped with the Kilz, we were ready to paint. We applied 2 layers of the white latex paint and decided to paint the wood surface under the mattresses. The end result was a super clean look for our v-berth. We were very happy with how it looks and I can’t wait to tackle the peeling paper in our cabin. I love cheap projects that make a world of difference.