Post #668986 by JamesDanger on Wed, Feb 27, 2013 9:43 AM

This forum has fueled my want for my own home Tiki Bar for years, so now that I’m finally pulling the trigger, I thought I’d start sharing my progress from the beginning.

Needless to say, there are some MASTER BUILDERS on this site, and their work continues to inspire me, (I truly thank you) My stuff will not compare to theirs, but I’m sure there are others like me, those with almost zero budget, people who rent their homes, etc., who might get ideas from mine. I hope "sharing the love” lights a spark for someone else, just like mine was started here.

This entire project will be primarily built from "found items", such as this. I had an old video game chair that you can wire to your television, it’s all set up with simple input/output plugs, same as any IPod would use. The chair was just taking up space in the sight of my future Tiki Bar (corner of my garage). I could never bring myself to toss it because the sound from this thing was fantastic! But I never used it, and I needed the space for the bar, so I decided to cannibalize the speakers before pitching it. Once I dug into it, the light bulb went off. Years ago, I got one of those cheap battery operated tiki heads (from party city I think) as a gift when I first started talking about a Tiki bar. Sure, it’s a little tacky, but it was a thoughtful gift, so I held onto it. A little hack and slash later, I made a surprisingly loud IPod dock. Using existing hardware from the chair, total cost to me was $0.00!

This will be a nice addition for two reasons. 1)I won’t be able to purchase a new sound system right now and 2)This being an indoor garage bar, artificial flame is always a good idea! haha.

The pic doesn’t show it well, but the sound board is hidden so it is accessible from the top of the lantern, and when its powered up, it illuminates the eyes with a dim blue light, without taking away from the color of artificial flame. Looks super cool in low light. It sounds great, but it isn’t so loud that it will drown out conversation, nor wake the neighbors! Once the bar is built and decorated, I might paint it to match whatever it ends up being next to, maybe add some things to make it more of a "Frankenstein". I plan on it being nestled on a wall shelf, behind the bar. I’ve got a 5ft male-to-male cord that docks IPod itself, so we won’t have to stand up from the bar stool to change the music!

Thanks for reading! hope someone might catch a spark form it. I'll continue to post cheap/free ideas as my little garage getaway progresses.