How to Make a Boat Tablecloth & Placemats

If you spend a lot of time on your boat, either during the season or year round, you want your boat’s cabin to feel like home. A small way to soften the look of your cabin’s salon is to add a tablecloth to the main table. We designed a tablecloth that looks sleek and is functional even when underway. We’re going to show you how to make your own tablecloth for your boat, with a bonus quick tutorial for making placemats that are perfect for use on your boat or even your patio.

This boat tablecloth is a little different from a traditional tablecloth that would be used inside a home. We wanted our tablecloth to not slide around as the boat moves, so we made it to fit snug to the table and wrapped its edges over the table’s sides. We chose to use a Naugahyde^® Universal fabric so the tacky texture of the vinyl will help keep items on the tabletop in place better when underway.

Our table on the Islander37 is mounted to the bulkhead with hinges, so we accommodated for that in our design. If your table is free on all four sides, create the fourth side in the same manner as the 3 shown in the video.

For the placemats, we used a Sunbrella^® Sling fabric, but Phifertex^® Plus Mesh would work just as well. These simple no-sew placemats can be made just by cutting out a shape from the mesh and running a hotknife along the edges to seal them.