Post #53657 by Traderpup on Fri, Oct 3, 2003 10:39 AM

I found most of the tapa I used in the Spectacular East Indies Room on ebay, and I never pay more than .65 a square foot. One of the pieces was large enough to wallpaper the entire room with the same design. And it actually is wallpapered to the walls! I used an old fashioned type wallpaper paste known as "wheat paste". I know that some of you are probably freaking out that I actually pasted vintage tapa to my walls, but hey, thats what they did with it in most all of our treasured Polynesian restaurants.

Tapa that is in good shape is very cloth-like and will fold and ship just fine. Usually heavy creases will come out with a little steam. If there are bad creases that seem "worn out", thats probably how it was originally folded, and that edge has worn from years of handling.

Using the real tapa gave my home bar an incredibly authentic look, for under $100.