Post #730224 by jimsflies on Fri, Oct 24, 2014 7:02 AM

Here are a few updates I've made to the bar over the past couple months.

Added a few more tikis to the collection:

Completely rebuilt the back bar area. Finishing it off with bac-bac matting for now. Lots of plans for the backwall, but needed to get that white fence covered. This photo shows a couple other new additions including the awesome Tiki Skip double float lamp hanging on the right in this photo. I've also added a string of vintage moai head lamps on a dimmer to each side of the bar (inside). I had two sets of lights that were different size moai heads, so I combined them so that every other one is larger/smaller. It was easier than trying to find another matching set of lights for now. I also found 3 of the large moai head lamps seen on the left of the photo...I have a red, amber and green one. This picture only shows the red one currently in the bar.

I also have been working on the trim on top and bottom of the bamboo on the outside of the bar.

I decided to go with a fairly simple carve for the outside trim as opposed to animals that I had previously posted in a mock up. With both the top and bottom trim, I went with a pattern that ties in the triangular shape of the roof. Its one of the more common patterns seen on trim here on TC...hopefully I'm not infringing on anyone's copyright on this pattern.

The top is a little more unique. The idea was to make it look somewhat like eyes. The carve pattern is based on a cowrie shell shape. Then in between each eye, there are small triangles to again tie in with the structure. I was further inspired by the light that we discussed earlier in this build thread (which isn't very tiki, but I like it):

I cut out holes in my pattern and added a glass lens for eyes. There is a little compartment behind the trim that I ran an individually addressable LED strip light so that they colors can be changed.

In addition to the individually addressable LED strip behind the "eye trim", there is also a led strip light behind the trim facing down so that it indirectly shines down on the bamboo and provides a little "courtesy light" for walking around the bar. It is also RGB so its color can be adjusted. I tend to like the red/amber light the best around the bar...easy on the eyes and sets a more relaxing mood. Here is a photo trying to show the lighting. Night photos are difficult...especially with LEDs. They tend to look more like lasers in night photos. I'm still working on dialing them down for the right subtle effect. But they do look better than this photo suggests.

I'm still working on completing the other two sides of top trim and will post some photos when its complete. Hopefully can make more progress before it gets too cold to want to work on it.

So yeah...I guess with my light up trim my bar slides further off the scale of traditional tiki. I guess it probably trends more towards kitsch tiki. But I'm building it to be fun and different, so far I think I'm still on target to achieve that.

[ Edited by: jimsflies 2014-10-24 08:03 ]