Changing fashion - wood

Gents, the attached shows a lovely Laurent Giles cabin from 1960 but today it looks something between a tiger and a coffin.

How could you brighten the wood, ideally as light as possible. Can you sand and stain a lighter colour or would it need a reveneer?

Obviously it's not only the bulkhead but the cabin top sides, lockers etc... maybe it's too great a job but it's more the question of whether there are solutions?

Yes she's a classic but classic's need to be loved and the relationship between survival and investment is making the owner happy....

 

You could use vinyl wall paper on the flat surfaces.

 

Maybe paint the big surfaces near white, and leave all the trim as it is.

Did you buy her yet, or is she on your wish list ?

Good luck !

 

How could you brighten the wood, ideally as light as possible. Can you sand and stain a lighter colour or would it need a reveneer?

There is no chance that the finish could be sanded off of the curved pieces without significant damage to the veneers. The chemicals which could strip finish then bleach or lighten the wood's color would also attack the resins holding veneers and fiberglass. The wood appears to be mahogany and won't lighten much.

Low budget solution; selective painting.
Reveneering with a light colored wood would be obviously much more expensive.

 

Hi Angelique, still on the wish list but the list is getting shorter.

Gonzo... vinyl wall paper... it'll look like a 1970's kitchen!

There must be a way to do it...

 

That looks to be tiger stripe Sapele plywood and very common back then. If left natural, with just varnish, it's really pretty, though can be pretty dramatic. It's always going to be a medium brown, unless you add some pigment to tone it down, but you'll lose many of the qualities of this stuff (the grain flip flops, with different light angles, for example). It could be whitewashed, though you might just as well paint it white, in my opinion. There's just way too much wood showing for my taste. There looks to be more than enough interestingly shaped trim that can stay bright to keep the feel, just lighten up the space with some white. Additionally, painting the locker doors above the settee and going with a different cushion color all would be things you can do to lighten her up.

 

Bellow an example of painting a number of the big surfaces white, and leaving all the trim bright.

It's the decrepit interior of a 1982 Southerly 95 for sale in the UK, with one sales page from before the interior paint job and adding some cheap new carpets, and the other sales pages from after the paint job...

| Before (B) the interior paint job. | After the interior paint job: 1 = below ‘‘A’’ pics | 2 a | 2 b | 3 |

B ​

B ​

B ​

B ​

B ​

A ​

A ​

A ​

A

Note after a bit of varnish the ‘‘A’’ picture only show the doors above the lower hinges . . ​

A ​

Note: the pics are hotlinked and will disappear as soon as the ads expire, the boat itself could already have been sold, since the broker's sales page looks like that, and some of the above linked ads say: ‘‘Under offer / Sale Pending’’