Life on the cut — guides, and prints made for one boat
Narrowboat Gifts Canal guides · Personalised boat prints

The practical side of life afloat

Where will
everything go?

Start with the space you will use every day. Storage, access and a place to sit matter as much as the view through the window.

Explore the interior design guide →
Illustrated cabin storage: an open seat box, shelves holding blankets and mugs, and a small cupboard
Illustrated storage example. The numbered notes describe what is visible, rather than a fit-out specification.

Look inside the cabin

Make the space
work for your routine.

Read the full layout and storage advice →
  1. A seat that stores things. The open box shows how seating and storage can share the same footprint. Think about what you would need to lift to reach it.
  2. Everyday things within reach. Mugs and folded blankets sit on open shelves. Decide what needs quick access and what belongs out of the way.
  3. A cupboard for the rest. Check how doors open and whether you can still move comfortably through the cabin.

Before the next decision

Keep these
within reach.

Buying
What to check before buying →Work through the running costs →
Handling
Understand gates, paddles and locks →Read the steering guide →
Making it yours
Explore canal painting traditions →Try the boat-name generator →
Example decorative narrowboat name-print layout reading Willow, Narrowboat, A Life on the Cut
Our print layout with example details.

For a boat that means something to you

A name for
the cabin wall.

If you would like a decorative print, try the boat's name in our layout. Check the wording and available space, then compare sizes and prices.

A keepsake for display, not a licence plate, registration marking or safety sign.

The Narrowboat Name Print · from £14.99

Try a name print →Compare all formats and prices →
Have a favourite boat photograph?

Use an image you own or have permission to reproduce. Print it unchanged, or try an optional AI style and select the result before ordering.

Print your original photograph →Try an AI portrait style →
A moment on the cutAn optional illustrated canal journey, past a narrowboat and towards a brick bridge. A mood piece, not a navigation or boat-handling demonstration.

What this is

Narrowboat gifts, and the guides that come with them.

Narrowboat Gifts is a UK studio making personalised canal boat art to order, and a twenty-guide reference to life on the cut that costs nothing to read. A narrowboat, if you are new to the word, is a canal boat narrow enough for the narrow locks: Canal & River Trust give them as generally 6ft 10in (2.1m) wide and can be up to 72ft long. Anything much wider is a wide beam, and cannot use the narrow canals at all.

We make three things. A name print, setting a boat name, her waterway and a date in the traditional canal palette, from £14.99. Your own photograph printed as it is, from £14.99. And that photograph repainted in a house style, previewed free before anybody pays, from £19.99. Everything is printed to order in the UK, nothing is warehoused, and most orders arrive within 4 to 9 working days with delivery included in the price.

Because a name print is made to your specification, the usual 14-day cancellation right does not apply once production starts (Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 28(1)(b)); anything damaged, misprinted or wrong is reprinted or refunded, your choice. The full position is on delivery and returns.

The guides are the other half, and they are free because the prints pay for them. Licence and mooring costs are revised every year and quoted almost everywhere without a date, so the rule here is that a cost figure names the body that published it and the day it was checked, or it does not go on the page. Start with what a licence costs, what living aboard costs, or how boats get their names.

Written by Craig Fearn, Narrowboat Gifts. Facts on this page last checked .

Browse every canal guide and answer →