Black Prince Owners Article

Nb Mabel Stark (formerly “Lacewing”)

August 2011

Well, after four years of use as a well-used reading room, the mid cabin has undergone another complete redesign. Two liveaboards have become one, which not only reduced the number of books on board and the amount they had to be insured for, but gave me the opportunity to take on more painting commissions. Since learning how to paint in the Roses & Castles style, and then having developed my own style of traditional (if blousy and colourful!) decoration combined with little surprises of contemporary artwork under lids or on Buckby can bases, commissions have been coming in and it was clear I needed a proper studio to paint in.

The old "Cupboard That Must Not Be Opened" (so-called because it was piled to the cieling with junk that fell on you along with a cascade of spiders when the door was opened) which used to be the small WC room, still housed a sink even though the loo and tank had been removed. I decided that would be the perfect place to wash my paint brushes out. So to give me plenty of space I chose to knock through the bulkhead that separated the study from the old WC room.

It was a challenge - to take the whole bulkhead out would have left no support for where the two ceiling panels join. So I decided to cut an arch out of the bulkhead to open up the two cabins - and I halved the width of the bulkhead too to give more space to get round it. My knackered old Black and Decker Quattro once again rose to the challenge (only just and with several broken blades and many recharges of the battery, a couple of blisters and a smattering of expletives). it cut through the very thick and heavy OSB bulkhead. However the ajoining door to the old WC room couldn't be removed because the screwheads through the piano hinge were completely shot. So with even more swearing I cut the bulkhead and right-angled door-surround and the door out in one giant hinged single piece! The resulting offcut was enormous and nigh on impossible to move on my own. I got it as far as the galley before pulling a muscle - and lived with it in the middle of the galley for two days till I had healed enough to try again! Eventually I dragged it out of the boat - good riddence.

Next job was to look at fitting out the new worksurfaces I would need. I wanted something curved and ergonomic to work from so I cut two curved worktops from MDF which slotted in around the remaining bulkhead so it appears that the worksurface bissects it (red worktops in the photos). They sit on four of the original six bookcases as I still have plenty of books... just not floor-to-ceiling books anymore! I used the offcuts of MDF which had become rather conveniently and entirely accidentally an equally ergonomic ogee shape, to make a hinged folding table top that sits above the radiator on the opposite side (pink worktop). When raised, two quarter-circle pine shelves that have been piano-hinged to the underside automatically drop down to a vertical position and support the table top. Two bolts underneath slide into place to make it really secure. It was very much an after-thought using these offcuts but in practise it's been really handy as I can swivel my chair between the different worksurfaces, depending on what I'm working on. When I'm not painting the pink table drops down under the gunnels, opening out the studio floor space.

So why the COLOUR choice, I hear you cry? (Yes, I did mean "colour" in capital letters - it's not subtle). Most of my boat is very subdued in colour, with natural wood shades or cream walls throughout, plus the odd bit of colour from upholstery or accessories. However I wanted my painting studio to feel completely different, as it's a space to work in. And I wanted it to be energising! So I went for a mad mix of bright hot colours including red, orange, bright yellow and hot pink. The bulk of the colour is below gunnel height so it doesn't reflect onto what I'm painting. I love it although I admit it wouldn't be to everyone's taste!

A couple of other practicalities were needed before the room studio would be finished: Two of the windows leak badly in the rain and the OSB fitout underneath had rotted badly. . (These are the ones surround by white paint in the photos from May 2007 in my previous article) Much of this woodrot problem elsewhere in the boat had been dealt with by a carpenter when I first bought the boat. However at the time he didn't see these two as being bad enough to need the OSB surround replacing. Four years on it had the texture of porridge. I decided to have a go at replacing it myself. With some great advice from the guys on canalworld.net I peeled back the old Black prince vinyl wallpaper, cut down the jigsaw blade on my trusty Quattro to be the same depth as the OSB, and cut out the rotten and mouldy OSB from under the windows. One window in particular was very bad and I could have scooped it out with a spoon! Even the under-gunnels wood was rotten so had to be replaced. I left a good margin of healthy OSB before treating everything with antiwoodrot "splosh", then I pieced in some exterior ply to fill the gaps. This was then panelled over with the same T&G that the rest of the boat is fitted with.

Another necessary practicality was to create storage space for my many many tins of paint! Again offcuts of MDF came to the rescue, when I converted a couple of shelves above the sink into a cupboard that now hides all the messy tins from view. It got a lick of "in-yer-face orange" gloss - job done.

Last, but by no means least, was improving the lighting in the new open space. Above the sink where there used to be an oval Black Prince mirror (mine had gone to a charity shop in Warwick some years ago!), was a bathroom light that hadn't been switched on for four years! So I ran the electrics from there under the T&G to a wall above the red worktop, giving me ample extra light if I'm painting of an evening.

This week I was on leave so decided to try out my new painting studio for the first time. It all worked really well, I'm pleased, if slightly surprised, to say - the lighting was ideal, the fold-out pink table, despite simply being the same shape as the offcuts it was made from, worked really well. Also the orange table in the corner of the room (housing the laptop) folds away flat to the wall which was handy when I needed the space. It is the orgininal folding Black Prince dining table from the front cabin, that came with the boat. It was always too ricketty and not overly attractive to use as a dining table for several people, but is fine for a computer desk.

Hopefully the room will stay looking like this for at least another four years before it evolves into something else. I've come to the conclusion that narrowboats are like Doctor Who, they regenerate when the old incarnation has passed on.