Post #243272 by coconut cups on Sun, Jul 16, 2006 4:44 PM

Tiki on the Cheap! I have a lot of tiki stuff because the last house I rented had a full bar. After we moved, I had to think of a new place to show off my tiki collection, but I really didn't have the space indoors to set up anything. (Nor did I have a whoppin' budget.) So, I bought a brown wicker, stand-alone bar off of Craigslist for $100. I wired bamboo blinds from Cost Plus ($10 on sale) to the front of the bar. They finish the edges of the bar nicely because they're already edged with bamboo stalks. When I had to shorten the blinds, I simply cut across and retied them. I wired my masks from TikiZone (under $20 ea.) to the front as well. Then I cut and glued some kids-sized grass skirts ($4 ea. at Party City) for trim along the edge. The flower lights are also wired and battery-operated. In essense, if you can find an old bar for sale, you can easily wire/glue things on top of it. The top of this bar is covered with heavy, removable glass, so underneath it I placed some fabric I bought off of Ebay for $10. All of the pre-made bars are $200 or more, so I managed to stay well under that price and all in all, it's not too damn shabby! Still want to add more to it over time...

For the shelves, I bought a pine shelving unit from IKEA ($20) and stained it. Again, I sized and glued bamboo blinds to the sides of the unit to give it more of a tiki feel. Also from IKEA, for about $3 each, are the glass candle holders you see above the bar.

[ Edited by: coconut cups 2006-07-16 16:46 ]