Post #252222 by tiki junkman on Sun, Sep 3, 2006 7:18 PM

It took me a long time to actually take pictures and post my home bar here but I think it's worth the wait. I bought a house almost 3 years ago and it had a full unfinished basement. I have never finished a basement so it was an interesting journey. I ended up building a tiki bar and also a recording/jam studio room for music. The bar took me almost 1 full year to build and like most of your bars, its still not quite done. I have over 100 pics of it from start to finish but I am only posting the finished ones as of now. The hardest part with the pics is the lighting down there. Its so dark and most of the lighting changes colors. The dig. camera I have just wasn't capturing the true atmosphere of it but I guess that's ok. It makes the bar that much cooler when people see it for the first time. drum roll.......

Here is the top of the stairs entering the Kava Lava Lounge. On the left side is my collection of tiki fork and spoons in a design pattern. The right side is my interpretation of tiki torches. I got the flickering flame bulbs that light up the stairs.

On the left wall at the bottom is a mural of the Hawaiian islands. I have a buddy who paints murals. The pic cut some of the whole thing but you get the idea.

Like I said, the lighting doesn't seem to transfer the best with the camera. Here again the mural with a little more of the room.

This is where the big Kahuna sits.

My chair again

When you reach the bottom of the stairs and turn right, this is the wall to your left. The room isn't huge and in hindsight I would have built the room bigger. I think the room is 13 feet by 18 feet or something like that. I built shelves around three sides of the entire room where I display all my mugs and whatnot. I embedded red rope light behind the shelving to light up the collectibles and the room.

Ok now...the bar. It is huge. I really didn't plan it out as much, just started throwing wood together. For the bar top I covered it with burlap and then laid shells, critters, and coral pieces and poured clear epoxy. It turned out really cool. The burlap kind of reminds me of sand with the shells. I made a cushion around the front of the bar with real soft fake animal print fabric... for the nights you need to lean. I also built a huge working waterfall in the other corner. This was a project. I went for a black lava rock idea. I have fake birds and plants all around it. I found really cool waterproof halogen color changing lights that are placed all around it. These are the hardest to capture on film.

Here is a close up the fountain, though maybe kind of hard to see. The water starts at the top, runs down the face, and then hits the shelf with the shells that creates the final waterfall. This is definitely the highlight of the bar and also where I got the name.

Around the fountain, i have murals of leaves and things. This is the left side.

The fountain in its glory.

The bar top

Pic of fountain across to the next wall. Some of the plants.

The bar

Continuing around the fountain, here is the right side. Some witco.

From the stairs looking down

Here is a great table bamboo set I found at a thrift shop in Chicago. They told me it was from an auction that didn't sell and that it was used in a movie set. Don't know if its true.

The ceiling... a pain in the ass to hang with no one else.

This is the longest post I have ever written.

Now all I need is a liquor license

aloha
tiki junkman