Post #760763 by Aloha Daddy on Sun, Mar 13, 2016 4:14 PM

After a month of weeknights and weekends working on the remodel of my Tiki Hideaway, it is finished! I am pleased with the results, of course, I have some tweaking to do but for the most part, I think it was a success. I actually undertook 3 projects at the same time, first was remodeling the center portion of the bar to accomodate a larger aquarium tank, second was building a volcano/waterfall on the upper area above the aquarium and third is two light boxes I have wanted to build with exotica album covers lit from behind. I always bite off more than I can chew and so it went. I made a commitment to a client who I found shared my love of tiki for her and her family to come over to toast the new bar and so the clock started ticking. Take a look and see what you think...

This is my quick drawing of how I pictured the remodel looking like, it served as my model to refer to during the remodel.

And this is the final product...

Here is a detail close up of the tank, I tried to give the impression of an ancient village that was buried under a lava flow and the sunken city below. I incorporated a volcano and a temple with unrealistic colored fake plants with black gravel. I think the effect is fairly authentic.

Here are closeups of the volcano, I used an aquarium decoration that was round with god faces all around. I sawed the piece in half and worked it into the volcano mountain with some rock faces. If you look back you can see the wood and screen frame I used to construct the mountain, I then draped it with plaster cloth strips. I then painted it and finished with a spray of black acrylic and water. The tops of the volcanos with sprayed with red and orange spray paint, the spillway is made of acrylic sprayed on the underside so the water spilling down does not take traces of paint with it into the aquarium below. Yes, the waterfall spills into the aquarium below.

I actually put a unit in the top that smokes and has an LED light, the smoke wafts down the spillway and is an swesome effect. You can't really see it in the photos unfortunately.

The light boxes were fun & easy, a box made of wood, (see previous photos) then 2 pieces of clear acrylic with prints of the covers between is screwed on the top of the boxes. Add a bamboo frame and viola! I mounted these on either side of the center of the bar, and displayed my tiki mug collection in front of them. I moved the bottles of the good stuff to the shelf below.

And here is the whole thing all together...

And the christening with our new friends, Kelee & Tom, Lynn & Kristin...