Fabrics

Friday 22 April - After a four hour drive last night we arrived at Pinxton, with a very pleasant overnight stop in a local pub - we even took part in the pub quiz, not officially but it was good to get some questions correct.  We also 'helped' a lone participant who was not using his phone to get the answers, unlike others!

We arrived at Whalin Upholstery around half eight, were greeted with coffee and an explanation of the types of seating foams and mattress choices - hmmm time to try them out then. Where do you start, we had coverings for dinette seating, portholes and outside cushions as well as the cross-bed mattress to make decisions on.  

Just some of the material books to look through, with coffee of course

We started with the dinette, fabric or leather? we'd brought the back of one of our freestanding chairs to help us decide, these are red leather, and we know that it is difficult to 'match' strong colours, we went through all the sample books, having first taken them outside to compare with the seat, in daylight.  There was a red that was almost a 'match' but knowing this may fade/weather at a different rate and shade to our chairs we stayed clear, surprisingly Martin picked out cream! now which cream would look best? there were three to decide between, time to leave this and come back after pondering.

Next the seating areas at bow and stern, something weatherproof and that would complement the wood in the bow and the boat's paint colours when done, again out into the daylight, along with a cushion cover in a likely choice, and a decision on the contrast piping, main colour 'beige' but has a golden tinge with blue piping.

Now back to the portholes, bungs, curtains or blinds of some kind.  From the outset we've not wanted curtains so they were easy to rule out, I had thought that roman blinds might have looked ok, but as the build has progressed we like the character of the wood and the round shape of the portholes, so bungs were decided on.  Comparing suitable materials with our bedding was quite quickly done, so the bungs will be covered in a gold material on the inside with a vinyl backing coloured in the same blue as the outside cushions piping.

Porthole bung material

Hoping this will all come together when in place

We Left Whalin, after a good few hours, happy with our choices.  We were now in a position to stop off at Bluewater Boats on our journey home.