Inside An Open-Plan Canal Boat in Central London | Design Notes

Rachel Allen welcomes us into her open-plan barge, situated in Central London. Designed, conceptualised and decorated entirely by Rachel, the barge is a marvel and quite unlike any preconceived notions we might hold of canal boats.

Rachel’s interior education shines through in the decoration of her boat, from the Robert Kime-esque textiles and box bed to an effortless sense of layering learnt from her time with Rita Konig. It is filled with antiques collected from around the world as well as textiles with a rich and fascinating history. Watch the full episode of ‘Design Notes’ as we tour Rachel Allen’s barge on a Central London canal.

#Barge #Canal #London #InteriorDesign #HouseGarden

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It wasn’t a purely romantic decision to live on a barge it was an affordable but beautiful way to live in central London There’s A really lovely Community Spirit on the canal I’m from the coast in Wales I think it’s in our DNA to be close to water people are usually delighted and

Surprised when they first step onto the barge I think they find things sweet and they probably also didn’t realize that you know they can look so homely it’s a widebeam barge and it’s all pretty open plan there’s just a sitting room kitchen and dining room and then we’ve got the bedroom and

Bathroom I feel like you have most of your home Comforts living on the barge you just have to be a little bit more organized filling up with water in the morning making sure you catch the diesel man when he’s going past living on a budge makes you very

Resourceful I started my design business a couple of years ago and I really have Rita kig to thank for this more successful start to it I worked for Robert Kim in London he massively informed everything I do in my career I’d say my look is pretty granny Chic I

Really wish I was a bit cooler my idea was to have a solid Hull but for all the Interiors to be old so hopefully it has a bit of charm of an older boat the interior color is almost throughout FOH and balls arsenic green this green

Just makes me really happy and I think almost anything on top of it just sings this is an old gillow sofa which is reupholstered by Ian Oliver who makes everything super comfortable I been collecting antique fabrics for years now and I love it because you can just get a small

Fragment of something and make it into something lovely this is a 19th century Venetian silk this is an African ble fabric from the Ivory Coast the colors are perfect for me because I particularly love blue and green together I love this rug I bought it in the Atlas Mountains it’s a fluffy Berber

Rug but I lay it on the reverse because um I just think the colors are softer when the weave is flat this is a peacock chair which obviously is completely impractical size for a boat but they’re so iconic I just think they’re so cool this is a Welsh turnis chair I love

It and because of the lovely carving it’s a 19th century one but I think it cost me about 30 Quid I like the dining table in the center of the room because it’s close to the kitchen to feel part of the action when somebody’s cooking and it’s next to the fire the wood burner usually comes on in the Autumn time and it’s also nice for heating the kettle as

Well the tiles are a copy of pugin tiles which which Robert Kim had in his fireplace but I’ve got the poor man’s version because I couldn’t find Enough original pentile so I copied them and then my little masks are just comedy and tragedy I suppose it’s a little bit

Unusual to find an Argo on a boat but it’s incredibly Nifty because as well as the cooking it runs off the diesel engine and does the heating and the hot water probably the only bit of new kit on the boat Because obviously boats are small I didn’t want a lot of Cabinetry I want it to feel as light as possible that does mean that storage is a struggle so everything is visible which means that I like everything then to be pretty so I like old copper pans and pretty

Porcelain and antique knives and forks there’s a very good Reclamation yard in Devon where I got my old brass Port holes and these cool passenger lights that came from a Mexican passenger ship in the 1950s my favorite little treasure on the boat is this little collection of shipwreck porcelain from The hoyan Horde

It’s probably lived for about 500 years under the sea and this one I just love because it’s so sweet and got little birds on I like that the little gley kitchen is a part of the whole room um especially for parties and having friends over because it feels like like

Everybody’s in the kitchen together Then so just walking through from the kitchen is probably a little bit of a surprise to find a Tim bath I think they’re designed for dogs but they’re used by humans here it would be nice to have a bigger bath but you’d never be able to fill an nice dig one because the

Hot water tank is so small when I built the boat there was no shower this was the only way of washing after a while when I saved up a bit more do then put the shower in afterwards I’ve got some lovely modern British pictures that are sold by my

Friend Jeff everon and actually these are really the colors of the landscape of Wales and I’m glad to have a nice bit of campaign furniture on the boat it’s at home here it was my grandfather’s I remember seeing it in his bedroom and it was his grandfather’s so yeah it’s got a

Lot of Memories box beds are are very typical in Canal boats this one is barded with mash Arabia which is something not original to me something that robbert Kim used a lot that I really like it just makes it so pretty and enchanting and the good thing about is that it

Provides a lot of storage Underneath I think my design aesthetic is pretty much my CV it’s everybody I’ve worked for and every time you work for somebody else you pick up a little bit of their style too it’s will and Charlotte from jam and definitely rob it with colors and textures I think as you get older your identity becomes increasingly important maybe I’d like a a little crumbly Cottage and whale someday but I you know I just love London so much I can’t see me going back anytime Soon