Post #102100 by freddiefreelance on Fri, Jul 16, 2004 10:49 AM

You could paint the posts to look like tikis. Or follow pariartspaul's directions on Making Fake Bamboo out of the posts.

You could buy some cloth in whatever pattern screams "Tiki!" to you (Tapa cloth, Hawaiian Shirt patterns, Batik, etc.), drape it over the top of the canopy & attach loops to tie it to the canopt & hold it in place. Or you could cut the material into bed curtains, attach loops to the top & tie them to the canopy top. You could let them hang down or tie'em up like drapes.

Does Mosquito netting feel tropical to you? You can get a Mosquito netting bed cover cheap at Ikea. You can then attach it to the ceiling over your bed & either drape it over the canopy, or under the canopy ant tie it to the posts of the bed. You can then tie up the bottom of the mosquito netting to the side rails of the top of the canopy, if you do this in 2 ir three places it should drape nicely.

You could make a dust ruffle in the same pattern you liked for the topper or bed curtains.

You said you were alergic to the material the thatching was made of, are you alergic to Raffia? I've used a raffia dust ruffle, & I'm certain you could overlap raffia dust ruffles or table skirts to make a thatch roof by overlapping from the outside in on whatever supports you wanted to make the roof out of.

I'll probably think of more later.