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Tiki Central / Home Tiki Bars / First Attempt at a Tiki Light

Post #806949 by coldwarspacemonkey on Tue, Dec 20, 2022 11:33 AM

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It all started with the “thing”. I found it at the local Habitat for Humanity Re-Store for a couple of bucks. The form vaguely reminded me of some old MCM lamps I saw back in the day. 8” tall, 6” outer diameter made of some sort of composite material. I’m thinking it’s a core for some sort of pump or filter, but it looked like a good start for a light.

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It sat in the garage for a few years. In the meantime I had drooled over the beautiful lights in home bars here on TC, and reviewed some how-to’s (thanks Tikiskip and Prikli Pear!). This fall, after the temps in the garage subsided, I finally decided to take the plunge. So with proper sacrifices to the gods of tiki lights and rum I girded my loins and got started.

First up was to open up the “windows” on the thing. Awkward angles and weird material so it came out a bit rough.

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Frankensteined some hardware.

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Wrapped it with some cool Tiki Tony fabric from Spoonflower.

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Added some cheap bamboo from AC Moore’s going out of business sale.

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Some seagrass braid to cover the screw heads.

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A coat of amber shellac to even things out and here it is in situ.

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Lots of learning opportunities (in other words “mistakes”) for me in this adventure. I’m generally happy with it, with the exception of the chain I used to suspend it. That will have to do for the time being until I can figure out a better answer.