Another way to do the same thing.

Those pictures really look great and if you in a narrow boat already you may have thought, I wish mine was like that. This is the wrong way to think because when you look at a boat built forty years ago it is more or less the same sort of lay out. I really think a change in mindset is needed when designing the interior of a narrow boat . It all depends on what you have as a priority. Lets be realistic in saying you do not expect to have a two hours luxury shower in a narrow boat because you going to be spending the same amount of time filling the water or making the the hot water needed. A big bathroom would be great but is very impractical and would mean you have to have a small bedroom as a example. I have over time found some modern things that are made today using new technology that allows people to do things that were not possible to do. If I used it in a narrow boat  it would create so much more space inside as well as allow for extra comforts. So why not look at the way they design even smaller things to get creative idea's from. People all around the world live in things smaller than a fifty seven foot narrow boats and they make it work. I am thinking of things like camper vans, tree houses, container houses and even mini busses when looking for idea's. If I said to most people think of an over populated nation making the most of a small area's then china comes to mind. They have come up with some of the most impressive ways to live in a small space. Why not implement some of the idea's they use on a narrow boat. Look at these as examples

Above is a very simple fold away double bunk bed small modifications would mean it would be able to fit against the wall of a narrow boat and account for the new angles of the wall in a boat. Please remember that these are idea's. If you wanted the top bunk could come down separate from the bottom and instead of being a bed it could be a desk to work on. Both of them fold away into less that a foot width of space with ease so you will have more space to entertain as well as be versatile with sleep overs. You could even add a desk to this model so when the beds are folded up you can lift the desk that is attached to the lower bed and it folds out using a piano hinge.  Similar to the example below of a fold up bed with a desk that folds out when you put the bed up. 

I still thought the design above is still very chunky it can very easily be made more "small space friendly" , You would now still have five feet of play room and sleep a extra guests if you need. Just because you need a desk does not mean you loose an extra bed. The picture above has a way of letting your things on the desk stay on the desk when you fold your bed down using some very simple mechanics.

In this picture above you can see how part of the deck becomes part of a chair. This is great and shows that its not what can and can not be done but approaching things from a different angle to the"normal way". I came across one boat where you could lift a part of the floor like this chair to reveal a small selection of wine perfect in the cut out. This was great as they would be cooled slightly touching the hull of the boat that is touching the water.

Yip above is a full table and chairs for four people that can be used as a prep table for cooking and when folded up it takes up less space. Being a narrow boat this could be adapted slightly be a prep table in the kitchen and be a table for two with one bench and have two smaller seats that could be pulled out and sat on at random. The idea's that people have come up with so live in small spaces now days has not been incorporated into narrow boats very much. Maybe its because people want to keep true to narrow boat life and the ways it has been done for years. 

The above picture shows you how they build toilets in a caravan today. It is all in one sealed unit (wet room) so water can not just leak out. It is three foot by four foot and so could fit on a narrow boat with ease again with some small modifications to the unit so make up for not having straight walls. Not really a place to relax and soak for hours unless you sit on the toilet lid but hey its a narrow boat how can you relax while relaxing. 

Look at these pictures below this area that can sleep four and it is all built into a overall length of seven meters or 21 feet. It is a bit wider but this is just a way of showing you what can be done. 

	air conditioning? transmission sleeps over-the-cab bed size   dinette bed size   bunk bed sizes   length width height avg. fuel consumption   engine   total permissible weight interior cleaning (if necessary)	in driving cabin manual up to 5* 210 x 160 cm | 82 x 63 in 184 x 100 cm | 72 x 39 in 2 x (210 x 95 cm) | 2 x (82 x 37 in) 6.98 m | 22.90 ft 2.33 m | 7.64 ft 3.10 m | 10.17 ft 14–11 lt (100 km) | 17–22 mpg 2.3 turbo diesel 130 hp (96 kW) 3495 kg | 7689 lbs   109.00 "or more" euros

I hope I am getting you to understand now that it is just a mind set that says you need to see your bed or sit at a desk that has wheels on the chair. These are ways we have done things for so long that we can not change the way we think about them. So lets try this. If I say to you, I sat down in my chair turned towards my desk to carry on working on my lap top, while the fire flickered pale orange taunts of warmth on the walls. I would be willing to bet you pictured something like this with a fire place in the room it might even be red leather chair. One of those that has a man laying back in it while smoking a pipe stuffed with cherry tobacco and a dog in the corner in his bed.

Okay hold that idea in your head.

You see, we pictured it that way because that's is what we expect. Over time we came to know it like this.

That in mind here is probably one of the very best idea's so far that can be done with out being a professional. If we use wood boards cut at angles to give you what we will call a smart floor that will be a desk chair or table. Huh? You might think this is a crazy idea for a narrow boat but remember you could be sitting in front of you fire place and decide it would be nice to work on you lap top or maybe you want  to lean against something because you decided it was to nice to move away from the flickers of the fire.   

 Now remember we in a narrow boat , space is limited and in fact the desk and chair I meant is in the floor means your programming has kicked in and you confused. If you not I am sure you  would have pictured something you climb into and sit down right, well what if I said everything is less than two inches thick and you walk on it. Bet you really confused now. 

Okay now remember that picture you created in your mind, the one with the desk chair and fire. It could have looked like the picture below this but we are programmed to see what we saw because that's how we have always seen it done .

Not at all what you were thinking of was it? Now you see what I mean and I am not saying run out and buy wood to make a floor desk but simply showing other ways to do the same thing and save space.

As you have seen in the photo's above these were achieved in a small area that now still allows you to move around. You can now pull up unseen furniture at any time to make small living easier.

Here is another similar way 

I am going to design the interior of this narrow boat making the best of a small space while looking at new idea's to create big things. Narrow boats are built in tradition so if you don't like the tradition it does not mean you can not live on a narrow boat. The idea of having a moving house that is easy to clean can be moved at a moments notice and still allows you to live an easy slow paced life sounds to good to be true.

In fact when looking at layouts for current narrow boat design you get many designs. They are all the same in some sort of way.

They all look the same in a way and none of these use fold away methods to create more living space o that when needed you fold the bed down. In fact they are built in such a tradition that the captain and guests that steer while putting along the canal sitting on or lean against a pole mounted on the deck. Not a great way to be comfortable while traveling a five or six hour stretch.