Owner's Cabin Remodel - 2 bedrooms into 1

Having started with a charter version on our Lagoon 43, which meant 2 aft bedrooms separated by a wall, we wanted to remove the central wall to make one larger room. Here are the steps we took:

Starting layout

1. First we removed the bedding, carpet, cushions, and ceiling from both the bedrooms. We took anything else out of the cupboards that we didn't want to get dusty, as cutting out marine plywood makes a mess! Our ceiling panels came down by unscrewing, but some can be attached via velcro.

2. Cutting out the central wall: We used a combination of a cordless jigsaw and a flat saw called a Japanese saw to cut out the central wall. We cut as close to the edges as we could leaving around an inch or two of wood remaining. Then we used a pair of clamps to grip the wood and literally wrench it away from the wall. It had been glued in very well, and the only way was to pull it out by hand.

Makita Cordless Jigsaw $75 from Amazon

Japanese Hand Saw $37 from Amazon

With the dividing wall removed

3. Already it looks so much more open! We then removed the two platforms that the bed mattresses were on. Each original bed was comprised of 2 pieces of foam, on 2 pieces of hardwood as a base (4 of each in total). We re-used 2 of the cushions and 2 of the base pieces to make the new queen-size bed frame (60" wide internally) in the center of the room. We also re-used the wooden trim from the foot of each bed to make the new sides of the new bed.

We were really happy with this so far! You can see that we've now taken off the lights that were on the back wall. We want to replace a couple of these with fans that were previously attached near the center, and use some of the other 12v wires for new lighting.

4. But first, we added some vinyl planking to the back wall. This was an inexpensive way to really lift the look of the bedroom. Vinyl planks can be bought from lots of hardware stores, and you cut them with a sharp knife and a metal rule as a guide. On our first attempt, we found that the glue on the back of the planks absolutely did NOT hold on the smooth varnished surface of the existing wall. For that, we used 3M 5200 marine adhesive. I had never heard of this stuff before, but it is incredibly strong. It is not water-based (so it's hard to get off your hands, or anything else) - it's polyurethane and wow it is so good! It takes a while to cure so do read all the instructions beforehand.

Light Grey Oak Vinyl Peel N Stick Planks $20/box on Amazon

3M Marine Adhesive $30 on Amazon (yes that's a lot for an adhesive but it works and it costs more in time when it falls down and you have to redo it, like we did!)

7-inch Metal Speed Square $9 on Amazon

8x12-inch L-Frame Metal Square $7 on Amazon

We used blue tape to hold the pieces in place whilst the adhesive dried

5. Adding the headboard: Kaci searched for a while and found a great headboard from Amazon which was shipped in just a couple of days. We discarded the wooden mount it came with (used to bold to a normal bed frame) and used interlocking z-brackets to hold it in place. That makes it easy to remove if we need to feed any wires behind it (see later).

Grey tufted headboard $110 from Amazon

Z-brackets (interlocking) $11 from Amazon

6. We also need to cut down the cushions a little - they were just a couple of inches too wide for our new base. After taking off the covers we used the jigsaw with a knife blade especially for cutting foam. It worked really well! The cushion covers still fit just fine - a tiny bit baggy - but nothing we would even notice.

You can see one of the fans added in this picture. This was very simple to do using the existing 12v wires that previously powered a light. Just remember to use good connectors with heat-shrinking ends to protect the wires from corrosion.

Bosch 6-inch knife blade $15 from Amazon

Waterproof Marine Terminals $20 from Amazon

7. Now on to the lighting and power. Since we had some remaining 12v wires from the lights, we decided to add a USB charging port on the shelf behind the headboard, which will be perfect for charging our phones, and even adding any other USB powered devices (like extra lighting) going forward.

In addition, we wanted to light up the trim of the bedframe, which has a 1inch overhang, so we chose this multi-colored LED lighting strip. Removing the existing 2-pin plug we wired it directly to the existing 12V power. It has a dimmer, remote and millions of color choices.

4 USB Charging port outlet (12v input) $27 from Amazon 16ft x2 LED color light strips w/remote $37 from Amazon

4-pin LED connector kit (for going around corners) $10 from Amazon

more pictures to come!

Final layout