Post #129007 by Mai Tai on Sat, Dec 4, 2004 4:06 AM

On 2004-12-03 22:02, Aaron's Akua wrote:
Reminds me of some of those Disney props that you see at the jungle ride.

Yep, that's exactly the look I'm going for. I thought of using one or two large crates for a tiki bar after looking through that "Show me your mugs & I'll show you mine..." thread in the Collecting Tiki forum. I saw a picture of Swanky's back bar, and he is using three small wooden crates to store all of his alcohol and mixers, and I immedietly thought "How about something like that except larger for the front bar section, with heavy aqua glass for a bar top?" The image that immedietly popped into my mind was the crates that they have around the Jungle Cruise and in the outside line section of the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland.

I'm thinking of using old fruit crates as a back bar as well for now, until I can come up with some more dough to put in a proper back bar with a countertop sink, electrical outlets, and all. My long term goal is to put in a "Space Tiki" themed bar, with a curved front covered with metal with those swirl marks buffed into the finish, and cut-outs for backlit colored jewel type glass, contrasting nice hardwood, and a boomerang top made out of that thick aqua glass (I picked up about a dozen of those glass shelves from that Bally's shoe store, basically all I could carry and fit into my car's back seat at the time). The extra glass will be re-used as shelves in the back bar area, but this time to hold my booze, and I'll backlight all of the shelves and bottles from underneath as well.

So long term plans for the bar will be with nice with quality materials, but I won't be able to start on it for a while. For now I need to get my tiki bar set up quickly, to form the tiki bar stronghold area in the house before my fiance changes her mind! :)

Yeah, the wood used in those pallets is pretty lousy, and it's treated and pressed, so it looks pretty bad. I will use my fiance's old pine futon frame that's laying around in the garage before I use pallet wood. Hmmmmmm.....

I will indeed post pics and follow-ups as this project develops. Much mahaloz for everyone's interest and support. I will investigate the leads that everyone mentioned above, especially that Pacific Blue Traders. I'm also going to check out various stone and tile companies, like Walker Zanger, and Cost Plus, and maybe even Home Depot - they might have shipping crates for all kinds of items.

Here is a picture of Swanky's back bar from that thread:

[ Edited by: Mai Tai on 2004-12-04 04:15 ]