Here are pictures of our Tiki bar on the cheap! - Tiki Carving

LD Lisa D. Member East Coast of FL Joined: Jul 03, 2007 Posts: 6	LD Lisa D. Posted posted on Wed, Jul 4, 2007 11:06 AM On 2007-07-04 08:44, insanetikiers wrote: Well I'm sure you're alot better with real plants than I am.All mine are the fake variety.I even manage to kill cacti;if you can believe that.Keep me posted on how things go.I'd love to see what you manage to come up with. Does your atrium consist of lots of windows?...I know Lowe's has that stuff you apply to windows looks like bamboo...I haven't seen anyone utilize that yet;just an idea here..something 1/3 up so as no to block your light may be interesting. I know my basement consists of concrete walls;so all my art,and etc. has to be nailed and hung from either this tiny piece of shoe mold or the ceiling.It tends to be very limiting. Thanks for writing and good luck. Thank you. Actually I don't have a green thumb but I am proud to say that a year after I visited Hawaii I have some how managed to grow 4 different plumerias thanks to the folks at our island hotels for their tips and yes this summer after 7 years of trying and failing optunia (cactus for my chelonians). The atrium is like this and sorry if I confuse it is very hard to explain... first you walk in our front door heading east and right away we have a ranch style FL house so the first thing you see ahead of you as the door opens is 3 ceiling to floor windows the kind you cannot open. On the wall directly opposite of that is an 9 foot high privacy out swinging gate and two wood walls of T-1-11 wood on each side of that gate. The top is a half V invert made of wood that has screening over it. Now on the north and south side walls are full wall sliding glass doors. They are about 9-10 feet in length on the south end is those sliders overlooking the atrium from the kitchen and from the north side it is overlooking the atrium from one of our spare bedrooms. The entire atrium is about 10 by 10 box squared all around surrounded by everything I have described. Being at the house central enter it is the "focal" point. I used to maintain it well when I added the pond back in '01 but let it slide and it needs a mad face lift. The pond was built when the house was and taken down. I rebuilt it when I bought the house and put a concrete wall with rebars to bind it around it to build it up higher and make it a lot deeper. I keep koi and CAE in there, but I want to convert that to another turtle pond and keep some of mine out there. Anyway the plan is to remove the small concrete patio addition I added that has a small cast iron table and two chairs on the left side and a small garden of trpical plants plumeria, coconut, banana palm and other things on the right side. Then completely deck out the bottom remove all substrates and landscape pavers and stones and use dock lumber above thick and heavy plastic sheeting. So the whole 10 by 10 outside the kidney shaped concrete pond would be a wood deck..does that make sense? I think this may be hard trying to deck that out but we will see. I am replacing the out swing fence and the T-1-11 woods too and repaiting them they have warped from the hurricanes and rains over the years. So on the deck I want to put in a small DIY tiki bar to overlook the pond with maybe 4 bar stools. I could get a thatched umbrella and put some of my thinner wood tikis out there to keep it more or less also covered and unique but not overcrowded. I have water hose in there and several power outlets also so the idea may work to be creative. I think that would spruce that area up and flow with the rest of the tropical decor and make that focal point a lot more attractive. Could you link me to the bamboo you are talking about at Lowes please? I haven't seen that here? If we go the deck and remodel with a DIY tiki bar I really don't want to use window coverings such as panels or wood blinds on the sliders or hall windows to block the view, however it gets so hot down here we have a power bill that runs higher than the price of a luxury car payment...monthly so I could use something like that to showcase the area and allow enough but not too much light in. We recently have spent 7 months remodeling ceiling to floor the entire house by ourselves no less so by now we're on a shoestring budget for decorating or those last little things we want to do so I am open to all ideas. I really like your concept, creativity and design. We'e gone with the Hawaiian theme throughout the house in terms of decorating between my tiki, fishing and turtle hobbies and our love of Hawaii and the culture there. I have some my smaller tikis on the fireplace mantle (yes being in Florida the joke of having one of those doesn't escape me :)!) and some large ones in and outside in the landscapes. Oh I apologize for typing so much in your thread but I was looking for something just like you made and found it so I couldn't help but comment. :) Really nice job! Thank you for your help and encouragement.

On 2007-07-04 08:44, insanetikiers wrote:
Well I'm sure you're alot better with real plants than I am.All mine are the fake variety.I even manage to kill cacti;if you can believe that.Keep me posted on how things go.I'd love to see what you manage to come up with.
Does your atrium consist of lots of windows?...I know Lowe's has that stuff you apply to windows looks like bamboo...I haven't seen anyone utilize that yet;just an idea here..something 1/3 up so as no to block your light may be interesting.
I know my basement consists of concrete walls;so all my art,and etc. has to be nailed and hung from either this tiny
piece of shoe mold or the ceiling.It tends to be very limiting.
Thanks for writing and good luck.

Thank you. Actually I don't have a green thumb but I am proud to say that a year after I visited Hawaii I have some how managed to grow 4 different plumerias thanks to the folks at our island hotels for their tips and yes this summer after 7 years of trying and failing optunia (cactus for my chelonians).

The atrium is like this and sorry if I confuse it is very hard to explain... first you walk in our front door heading east and right away we have a ranch style FL house so the first thing you see ahead of you as the door opens is 3 ceiling to floor windows the kind you cannot open. On the wall directly opposite of that is an 9 foot high privacy out swinging gate and two wood walls of T-1-11 wood on each side of that gate. The top is a half V invert made of wood that has screening over it. Now on the north and south side walls are full wall sliding glass doors. They are about 9-10 feet in length on the south end is those sliders overlooking the atrium from the kitchen and from the north side it is overlooking the atrium from one of our spare bedrooms. The entire atrium is about 10 by 10 box squared all around surrounded by everything I have described. Being at the house central enter it is the "focal" point. I used to maintain it well when I added the pond back in '01 but let it slide and it needs a mad face lift. The pond was built when the house was and taken down. I rebuilt it when I bought the house and put a concrete wall with rebars to bind it around it to build it up higher and make it a lot deeper. I keep koi and CAE in there, but I want to convert that to another turtle pond and keep some of mine out there. Anyway the plan is to remove the small concrete patio addition I added that has a small cast iron table and two chairs on the left side and a small garden of trpical plants plumeria, coconut, banana palm and other things on the right side. Then completely deck out the bottom remove all substrates and landscape pavers and stones and use dock lumber above thick and heavy plastic sheeting. So the whole 10 by 10 outside the kidney shaped concrete pond would be a wood deck..does that make sense? I think this may be hard trying to deck that out but we will see. I am replacing the out swing fence and the T-1-11 woods too and repaiting them they have warped from the hurricanes and rains over the years. So on the deck I want to put in a small DIY tiki bar to overlook the pond with maybe 4 bar stools. I could get a thatched umbrella and put some of my thinner wood tikis out there to keep it more or less also covered and unique but not overcrowded. I have water hose in there and several power outlets also so the idea may work to be creative. I think that would spruce that area up and flow with the rest of the tropical decor and make that focal point a lot more attractive.

Could you link me to the bamboo you are talking about at Lowes please? I haven't seen that here? If we go the deck and remodel with a DIY tiki bar I really don't want to use window coverings such as panels or wood blinds on the sliders or hall windows to block the view, however it gets so hot down here we have a power bill that runs higher than the price of a luxury car payment...monthly so I could use something like that to showcase the area and allow enough but not too much light in. We recently have spent 7 months remodeling ceiling to floor the entire house by ourselves no less so by now we're on a shoestring budget for decorating or those last little things we want to do so I am open to all ideas. I really like your concept, creativity and design. We'e gone with the Hawaiian theme throughout the house in terms of decorating between my tiki, fishing and turtle hobbies and our love of Hawaii and the culture there. I have some my smaller tikis on the fireplace mantle (yes being in Florida the joke of having one of those doesn't escape me :)!) and some large ones in and outside in the landscapes.

Oh I apologize for typing so much in your thread but I was looking for something just like you made and found it so I couldn't help but comment. :) Really nice job! Thank you for your help and encouragement.

Post #316678 by Lisa D. on Wed, Jul 4, 2007 11:06 AM