Quote:
Originally Posted by b-rad
My boat is 30 years old at this point and is really showing her age inside. All the wood surfaces are covered in chipped and flakingvarnish. The formica counter and tables are stained. And the walls are covered in a no longer white waffe pattern vinyl wall paper. At least the headiner is just about perfect. I have decided I need to do some updating in there. Im looking for ideas for walls and galley counter tops. Painted cabinets?
Head countertops, Will take any advice or pictures of what you have done or seen.
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The first thing I will say is if you
refurb one thing it will make everything else look 10 times worse...........
For the vinyl walls, what about painting? Given the aggro of replacement with same or different might be worth a go just to see if you can live with the results. FWIW I have not done this onboard, but I used a can of vinyl freindly spray (I forget the brand

) that I found in the corner of the garage to spray
paint the name of my boat onto her
winter cover........and used the 40 year old vinyl removed from the boat as a stencil. I was very impressed with how well the
paint stuck to the vinyl, especially as being rubbish I could risk testing to destruction by scrunching up and trying to scratch off........didn't come out looking like factory finish, but a 500% improvement!
On the
varnish work, I would strip back to bare wood maybe coat with some wood stain and then add 1/2 a dozen coats of
varnish - probably won't look like the dashboard of a Bentley, but if you can live with less than perfection the results will be clean, tidy and low maintanence. IMO better than splashing on white paint, which due to it's colour does tend to show more imperfections than a dark varnish. On varnished wood it's called character, on painted wood it's called poor work

Having said that, if you also have some panels that would take a laminate panel then why not.
On the stained worktops I think the options are either replace or cover up. Some of the folks here have got v.nice results using tiles............this is something I am thinking of tackling myself, partly for a colour change but also for a redesign of the cooler - but haven't worked out the details yet

For me unbolting the work top is not an option, and I am hesitant to try and chisel off (1960's "solid" Formica)........but not sure whether anything could be made to stick on top of the existing formica.......