Project: Stbd saloon refit

Project from 2002

---

Before

Although we lived with it for a few years, we didn't like the original arrangement of the cabinetry on the stbd side of the saloon. The only enclosed cabinet was the liquor locker - everything else was open, and although equipped with brass rod sea rails, prone to dumping the contents in a seaway. Aside from that, the clutter was exposed, and made the interior feel smaller.

Let the project begin! Notice the opening below the liquor locker (the far right hand cabinet). It's another opening cut by the near-sighted drunk, although a sharp blade was apparently used in the sawzall for this cut. I do give credit to that previous carpenter tho - the factory left that space under the liquor cabinet covered, inaccessible, and useless. He exposed it.

I squared up the opening and cleaned it up. Next, I removed the doors from the liquor locker and dedicated them to one of the spaces forward (to the left of) of the TV cubby. This left a dilemma: Now I needed two more doors to cover the other space ahead of the TV cubby, and doors for the liquor locker. I had much earlier interrupted two doors on their way from some other boat here at the marina to the dumpster. They would work with some modification. I disassembled them, cut them down to size and reassembled them. Here's a test fit, and a chance for us to see how things were going to look when done.

Next, I made two doors from scratch, using more salvaged teak. I made up two stained glass panels, intended to evoke Calla lillies, and inset them into the doors. I'm still not convinced that I shouldn't replace them with something made from beveled glass pieces, but that's an evaluation and project for another time. Then sand, and varnish, varnish, varnish.


Final product. Much improved... at least we think so. And the clutter, tho still there (trust me...) is hidden, expanding the interior. (The obsolete tube TV is now an LCD.)

Project: Stbd saloon refit