Monday, May 27, 2013

Aft Stateroom Closet

I know it's technically a "hanging locker" as we are talking about a boat here, but this cabinet is spacious enough that I'm going to call it a closet. There are two closet rods (high and low) and the closet runs about six feet long. The lower closet rod is only about four feet long because of some plumbing and electrical stuff coming back through the bulkhead from the Engine Room, but the upper rod is full length. The space holds a surprising amount of clothes... Two things that we tackled recently are access and ventilation. For closet access, we installed a nice pair of Lyptus wood sliding doors that match the rest of the cabinets. These slide in a frame that we made from 3/4" mahogany stock. The mahogany grain is different than the Lyptus doors, but the color match with just a clear coat of varnish is pretty good I think, and the mahogany is easier to source than the Lyptus for little projects like these. I still have to work on the slide track and install some UHMW plastic glides on the bottom of the doors so that they slide smoothly. From past experience, we know that ventilation is critical for a locker stuffed with clothes on a boat. Once you get any kind of mustiness going, it's very hard to get rid of. In this closet, I ran the hydronic heating line through a length of 3/4 copper pipe that is secured on brackets at the back of the closet near the floor. Whenever the furnace is running, this radiates nicely and sets up an up-draft inside the closet. Fresh air is drawn in through two vents at the bottom of the closet under the doors, and exits through vents at the top of the closet. We also installed cedar planking along the back wall of the closet. Kind of smells like a hamster cage right now, but once the cedar "ages" a bit it will keep everything smelling fresh. I've also heard that the cedar is a natural deterrent for moths and other bugs. We'll see...