Living in a small apartment in central London, Christina and Rohan were looking for their dream home. One afternoon walking along the banks of the River Thames, Christina jokingly asked Rohan if he'd live in one of the rundown old boats you see on all busy waterways. He said yes and so they decided to take on the huge project of turning a cargo ship into a cozy home.
The idea of living on a boat was a natural step for the duo. "Rohan is a boat man, he grew up around boats and was sailing a lot with his parents," says Christina. "I have no boating experience whatsoever but Rohan has always wanted to live on a boat." So, after their brief chat about living on a big boat rather than a canal boat, they got the project underway in earnest.
First things first, the couple needed to locate a mooring in London that was big enough for the sort of vessel they were looking at. "You need a place to park the boat before you build the boat," explains Rohan. "We were very lucky to find a mooring which was brand new. It was the right time, right place, I guess."
Mooring sorted, Rohan then went on to research boats to see what he could find. After speaking to brokers, he found a 130-foot 1965 cargo ship across the North Sea in Belgium. After going to collect the boat with his dad and some friends, the vessel was moved to the Netherlands where steelwork could begin.
While it offered a lot of potential, there was still a big problem with their fixer-upper. "It was taken out of the water, and we cut 32 feet out of the middle of the boat as it's a lot easier to find a mooring for a 100-foot vessel," says Christina.
Work started on the boat in the Netherlands before the crossing, where the hull was repaired and altered to accommodate some major interior design elements.
Christina and Rohan had to make rough plans for the interior layout to get the skylight and stairs cut out of the steel chassis while she was still in the boatyard. "She was an old girl but a brilliant specimen from the era, so was perfect for laying down the foundations for our home," says Rohan. The boat was then brought back to the UK for further work in Kent before it could settle in its new home.
To function as a house, the boat needed a foundation of cement to give it stability and to make it sit lower in the water. "Increasing the weight of the boat means that it doesn't move so much, and it sits lower in the water so it's less obtrusive to the apartments around us," explains Christina.
There was only a short window of time to pour in the cement and have it dry while the boat sat level at high tide, and with the cement mixer arriving late they were left with just 90 minutes to complete this vital task.
Before the duo could tackle the interior, they had the big job of insulating what was, essentially, a metal shell. Christina and Rohan wanted the boat to retain as much heat as possible, so they installed spray foam in the walls and topped it with multilayer foil.
"People always think it must be cold on a boat and actually it's not. We built it like a house and we do have underfloor heating. We don't sit here freezing in the water," says Christine.
The couple decided to project manage the conversion themselves, as Rohan had an understanding of how it would be built from start to finish. During the build, Christina found out she was pregnant and fortunately was on maternity leave during the fit-out, so could visit regularly from London to make key decisions. Using a specialist for plumbing and electrics, a lot of the other work was finished by Christina and Rohan themselves, plus a few extra helping hands.
After months of hard work and moving house seven times with their newborn daughter during the build process, the couple finally made it onboard their converted home just before the first UK lockdown.
"I think it was a trying time for both of us over those months, spending two days a week down at the boat, but we are through that now," says Rohan. "Lockdown happened at the right time for us because, obviously, we had nothing else to do but get the boat finished," he says.
After 15 months of hard work, and living without a permanent home with a newborn baby, the boat was finally complete. From a rusting old vessel, it's been transformed into a stylish two-story, three-bedroom home complete with all the luxury touches a family could need.
With a mooring fee that's comparable to renting a one-bedroom apartment in central London, the 560-square-foot boat is much more spacious.
The design process was a huge learning curve, especially for Christina who had little experience with boats. "There were a lot of things I wanted and Rohan would have to go away and see if he could make them possible. I wanted a central fireplace in the living room, but that meant a chimney coming out of the deck," explains Christina. However, once they had worked out the technicalities, it was just a matter of designing mood boards for each room.
Working to a budget, the couple sought out cheaper alternatives when designing the inside of their floating home. The beautiful kitchen uses basic IKEA units dressed with bespoke doors that Christina and Rohan sourced from the Swedish company Superfront.
The quartz countertop also ties in with a statement kitchen island that's decorated with a cool geometric pattern.
In fact, the first-floor kitchen has become the family's unexpected favorite spot. "It's just the room where you see most of the river," says Rohan. "It's so light and the views are amazing up here. We didn't expect this room to be such a feature and it really is," adds Christina.
The couple stuck to a budget throughout the process. "I would always look for a cheaper way of doing things," says Christina. "I bought a lot of stuff in Black Friday sales and if there was a particular piece of furniture I fell in love with, I'd search the internet to find a cheaper seller."
The couple also made a few pieces themselves, such as the striking dining room table. The piece came from Rohan's old apartment, but they shortened the table and added new legs from Etsy, to give it a new look.
The whole home is flooded with light from the oversized portholes and skylight in the living room. But even these proved a challenge when looking for blinds or curtains.
After spending hours trying to figure out how to dress the portholes, Christina and Rohan came up with the idea of putting pelmets along the length of the boat to hide discreet roller blinds and LED lights for a streamlined finish.
The couple's daughter, Elara, now aged two, lives an idyllic childhood on the houseboat. "A lot of people ask how you are going to do it with a baby but once you're inside, it's no different." Christina compares their unconventional home to living in a flat with a toddler. "We have child locks on the windows and we've babyproofed our deck like you would if you had a balcony in an apartment."
The ideal place to grow up, Elara has her own incredible kid's bedroom and playroom. One wall is painted in a deep earthy red, that matches the bookshelves, her mini IKEA table and chairs and her own toy toolbox, while the ceiling is wallpapered in polka dots.
Christina put her own finishing touches all over the décor and furnishings of this stunning family home. This incredible light was an idea that she brought to life.
Writing on her Instagram account, she says: "The neon sign I had replicated from the film... It was the running joke during the build that for our clever electrics, this would be the one thing that would burn the boat down. But who can resist a good bargain?"
One of the many quirks of living on the water is dealing with the tides, and as the boat is sat on a new mooring, it'll take time for it to settle into the mud at low tide.
This meant that Christina and Rohan had to change their bedroom layout at the last minute so that they weren't sleeping at a downward angle. Complete with a window seat, gallery wall and geometric bedspread, it's the perfect retreat.
The master suite is also a space that shows off the couple's thrifty design ideas. "Our units in the bathrooms were made from vintage sideboards and we got a cut of quartz stone to put on the top," explains Christina.
With the contracting and expanding steel walls and a spirit level rendered useless on a boat, a lot of the fitting and design had to be done by eye.
The final part of the boat to be finished was the decking, which the couple liken to a garden. Framed around the skylight, which is made from toughened glass that you can walk on, it boasts panoramic views of the boating community that surrounds them in West London.
Even though Christina and Rohan say they feel extremely lucky to own their floating home, there are still a few things they miss from living in a conventional building.
"One thing I keep saying is I wish I had a shed. We've been really considerate with storage and we've created storage in the deck, but it would be great to have an outside shed!" says Christina.
The couple’s latest side hustle has been listing their floating home on Airbnb, so if you’ve fallen in love with this beautiful boat, you can book yourself in for a short nautical stay for around £450 ($565) a night!
“Reconnect with nature at this unforgettable escape. Design-led smart home described by [renowned British architect and TV presenter] George Clarke as ‘one of the best homes he'd ever seen,'" the listing says.
Since finishing the boat the couple have set up their own boat renovation business, Isla Yachts. Meeting so many amazing experts and craftspeople along their journey, they wanted to help other people realize their houseboat dreams by helping them with every aspect of a project. With a home like this as a showcase, we expect they'll be extremely busy!