Take a quick tour...
Making the move from their fifth-story London flat to a customised floating home was an easy choice for Christina Miles and her partner, Rohan. ‘Rohan grew up around boats and has always had a love for the water’, explains Christina. ‘He used to live on a narrowboat in central London and this cemented the idea in his mind.’
The search for the perfect vessel took the couple to Belgium to view this boat. ‘The process was much like buying a house; we were checking that there were no hidden surprises, as well as assessing the scope for it to become a fully functioning modern family home.’ The boat went to Holland for the steelwork to be completed, before arriving in the UK for the rest of the work.
The project itself took around 15 months from start to finish and the couple faced the added challenge of having their newborn daughter, Elara, in tow. ‘Rohan was doing a lot of the work himself and I wasn’t really able to go onto the boat much, as it was essentially a dangerous building site and I couldn’t leave Elara with anyone.’ The renovation threw up technical hurdles, leading to delays. ‘A lot of things had to be done at high tide so the boat would be floating and therefore level. This meant we only had a four-hour window each day to do certain tasks, which was stressful.’
When it came to designing the layout of the boat, the couple chose to use the upstairs space as the kitchen/ living room, leading out to a decked area, with a further living/dining area, the bedrooms and bathrooms on the lower deck. ‘I wanted the interior to reflect my love for Scandi design, but also incorporate more exotic elements of nomadic style with geometric patterns and bold colours,’ says Christina. ‘We have documented the whole experience on Instagram (@thisonefloats).’
Now they’re able to sit back and enjoy Thames living, Christina and Rohan haven’t looked back. ‘Being able to design our home from scratch means we’ve built something truly unique that works for us.’