Jungalero Lounge featured in IMBIBE magazine (NEW PHOTO)

WOW! Those are native to our loveley Atlantic shore! Cape Cod here I come!

Your bar is everything I wish my bar could be...and I thought I had a super cool place! Awesome horseshoe crab sconce, super original and absolutely ingenious. I just wish I didn't get so sad everytime I look at your place...

Cool lamp. Those horseshoe crabs look so prehistoric, I wish we had them here in the Pacific. It's a big'um too, you just found it laying on the beach. Is that common?

A horseshoe crab sconce? Great idea, never heard that one before. Is this a first?

Aloha, Brad! My proverbial hat is off to you, sir!

I'm still tryin' to catch my breath after viewing this thread for the first time! Whoah! Your Jungalero Lounge is off-the-charts AMAZING! It's not just top-tier, it's Bamboo Ben/Forbidden Island top-tier!

As an enthusiastic newbie to all this, who's just spent the last year doing a fairly elaborate tiki-on-a-budget transformation of what had been an ordinary bedroom into my own lil' South Sea Island paradise (you can check out my recent "Paradise Cove Tiki Lounge" posts on this same forum), I bow in admiration to your remarkable skill.

And just when I thought there's no more I could do with my own wee hideaway, you've managed to go and re-inspire me to new levels of mania! So I don't know whether to thank you or curse you, but you've left a mighty deep impression on me, that's for damn sure!

Well, I guess that's it for now. I'll just crawl into a little hole and seethe with envy for a while...

Very Cool Brad!
i think you may be on to something!
Ingenious you are!

It has so much going for it. The great glow, the sealife a la puffers and turtle shells, plus a sort of creepiness factor like a shrunken head. I greatly dig it. Amazed no one did one before.

The Jungalero makes local news. A friend of a friend who is a reporter recommended contacting me about my tiki bar and possibly doing a story awhile back. The reporter called last monday and asked if he could come do a story on Friday (this past) so I said, 'sure!"

He probably took 15 minutes of video and I went into all kinds of detail but it got edited down to these few seconds. Full story with pics comes out tomorrow morn (mon-28). Hoping they didn't edit too much but I'm expecting it as I had alot to say. The photographer must have taken at least several hundred photos, inside and out but I'll be lucky to see maybe 2 in the newspaper. We'll see how it goes in the morn.

Had Tikyaki Orchestra playing in background while the reporter and photographer were there. Bar was a little on the slack side so I was sippin' Myers w/ seltzer and lime with a sprig of mint in a Hukilau 2004(? I think) mug.

Jeeez, i sound like such a hick! But I AM originally from Gee-or-gee-a! ---But I can sing just like Johnny Cash!!!!

I'll post newpaper article tomorrow, providin' they didn't edit me into utter stupidity! Link below.

http://www.charleston.net/videos/2008/jul/28/504/

edited due to double posting....

[ Edited by: Howland 2008-07-27 21:05 ]

Cool - betcha enjoyed your work getting the attention it deserves. Congrats.

The printed version came out in this morns paper. A little sliced and diced and not everything I had to say made it in and somethings I didn't say did make it in. I never would've used the word 'fad' and I don't really have a 'goat board'. But all in all it has a nice, positive vibe to it. Coulda been worse. We've all seen reporters trash the tiki style before.

here's the link to the online version of todays paper: http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/jul/28/man_resurrects_tiki_fad48936/

Congrats Brad!
It's always a kick when a fellow arteest gets some well-deserved props!
and believe me folks....
he CAN sing like Johnny Cash!
it's uncanny!

Hey congrats! the jungalero lounge looks great on video! But they don't show all of it, do they?
So everything started because of a single mug, when was that? poor Alice she is such a great wife :) !

Wow, Howland, that's awesome, and thanx for "representin' for the T.O. " as the kids would say...

The Junglero Lounge is a huge credit to Home Tiki Enthusiasts everywhere.

JonPaul needs to shoot your place (photos, that is)

Yea, FAD is a lame word, but at least thhey didn't say "Kitsch" for a change. :)

Do you have your TIKIYAKI ORCHESTRA CD YET ?
http://www.tikiyakiorchestra.com

[ Edited by: tikiyaki 2008-07-28 09:47 ]

I have learned there is no better way to get your house clean than to have people over. Have an indoor/outdoor event, and you yard gets cleaned up too. So, having the media show up at your Tiki bar, well, that's gonna get you in all kinds of preparations!

Represented well! Thanks for flashing the Hukilau 2004 mug in there too...

Thanx LLT- I hear that train a comin'.......

Thanx Clarita. No they didn't show everything and they didn't show any of the outside. It all really started way back when I was a child on family vacations to places like Disney (Enchanted Tiki Room, Polynesian Village) and other tropical themed resorts, etc. I ran across a tiki mug yeeeeears later (around 1994 or 95) then the nostalgia aspect kicked in. In fact, I just remembered, when we got home from Disney in 1973 I went in the back yard with my dad's flat chisel and a claw hammer and carved my first 'tiki face' into a live tree. Basically just a smiley face. I'd like to see what it looks like now! :)

Tikiyaki--my pleasure representin' the TO. One of my faves to play in the Jungalero--perfect! JP has an open invite to shoot anytime!

Swank--I spent a couple of hundred dollars on plants, a concrete border for the patios and bought a pile of fresh fruit, none of which made it into the news, It was stuff that needed to be done though. I thought you'd enjoy my mug selection for the article.

Hello Mr. H, that's a mighty beautiful bar you got there. Mighty beautiful :).
Would you be willing to field a few questions about the simulated bamboo bar edge you built? Could you share some details about how it was created? It's just amazing how cool it looks.

It appears to be two layers of wood (upper and lower) that were sandwiched for thickness. Is that correct?

What did you do to introduce the curve on it? (wood?...curve, curve? wood)
Was it simply cut out of a large piece of wood as a curve or did you bend it somehow?

What was the painting/finishing process? Did you use a glaze as well?

Thanks very much for any tips you can pass along.
You do great work.

BUMP! Whatchoo workin on Brad?

Bump bump

On 2009-05-02 05:12, Mr. Pupu Pants wrote:
Hello Mr. H, that's a mighty beautiful bar you got there. Mighty beautiful :).
Would you be willing to field a few questions about the simulated bamboo bar edge you built? Could you share some details about how it was created? It's just amazing how cool it looks.

It appears to be two layers of wood (upper and lower) that were sandwiched for thickness. Is that correct?

What did you do to introduce the curve on it? (wood?...curve, curve? wood)
Was it simply cut out of a large piece of wood as a curve or did you bend it somehow?

What was the painting/finishing process? Did you use a glaze as well?

Thanks very much for any tips you can pass along.
You do great work.

Hey Mr. PPP, sorry for the delayed reply but here's some answers for you. It's actually 3 layers of wood that wrap the edge of the bar -top and bottom. The bar top is 1.5" thick so for the middle piece I used a 2x12 (which is really only 1.5"thick). The top and bottom layers are only 3/4 " thick. I laid the 2x12 across the top of the bar edge and transferred the curve of the bar top to the bottom of the 2x12 with a pencil then with a compass set to 2", I drew another line following the line transferred from the bar top to give me a 2" wide x 1.5" thick curved area to cut out. Basically repeated the process with the 3/4" wood but using the 2x1.5 cutout and cut the 3/4" pieces 3" wide to provide a 1" overlap on the top and bottom of the bar edge. Hope this makes sense, starting to sound jumbly to me. Also the 2x12 didn't cover the entire length of the bar so there is actually a joint in the faux bamboo edging about 3/4 down the length of the bar. I rounded the edgeing over with a belt sander to give it the rounded shape. The only bending I did was the banding above and below the real bamboo on the face/base of the bar. Those are just a 2x6 (top) and a 2x8 (at floor) that I cut saw kerfs into about 3/4 through the boards and about an inch apart to make them flexible.

The faux paint job --hmmm. I don't remember exactly how I did it but I didn't use a glaze. In one of the pics of the bar during construction you can see that I painted it a pale yellow. I either went over that with a wood stain or some thinned down brown paint to give it that antiqued amber color. For the nodes, I just painted 2 thin lines about an eighth of an inch apart with burnt umber acrylic paint and took my thumb and smudged the lines outward away from each other to give it the torched node look. I then hit the whole thing with several layers of marine grade polyurethane. Hope this helps! Here's a cross section photo of the end of the bar where the top flips over for back bar access. The green is the 2x12 and the red is the 3/4" material:

While I'm here, a photographer friend from Knoxville, TN, Scott Kirkham, was down a few weeks ago and took some great shots:

On 2009-05-05 20:16, little lost tiki wrote:
BUMP! Whatchoo workin on Brad?

Hey Cizur Nek,
Well I haven't been working on much in the tiki genre lately although I still have a big Ku I started carving last year and have yet to finish along with my surfboard/tiki painting I still need to fix. Slacker! I have, however been dabbling around in the backyard some working on 'The Jungalero Lagoon'. Want to make a clamshell waterfall or a waterfall with at least one clamshell embedded in it. We'll see.....
Not tiki yet but it's part of the grand plan of the Jungalero Lounge, Gardens and Lagoon.

First a Room
Now a Lagoon!
with a Clamshell waterfall!?
If it's even half as cool as the Jungalero Room
I need to visit the East Coast!

Bunned I'll be missing you kids at the Hukilau this year...
C'mon to Oasis!
your turn!

Its been a while since Ive looked at your pics... and the details of the whole thing are really amazing.

The curved bar.. the walls.. the floor....

Its just an incredible place and your skillset really shows in all of it.

Great job!

Amy

YA ...WOW!
the room looks amazing and the pond well it makes the one I let fill with leaves and dirt in my back yard look even worse! lol
GREAT WORK!

Hi Brad, thanks so much for explaining your process. Your bar has been one of my biggest inspirations on Tiki Central. It's just incredible looking.
I'm also trying to decide whether or not to use tile or paint on my floors and sure admire what you did with yours. Is that just painted concrete? Did you add 'texture'? It looks as though there is actual 'relief' to the faux rocks but I'm guessing that it's painted on in 2D? (and extremely well:)
Thanks again!
John

Amazing job with the place! Everything a Tiki room should be! I love that fish tank diorama. Did you make the rock thing inside it? I also like the bamboo grid roof, oh and the faux bamboo bar edge... and the floor, well, its all amazing! The combo of matting, tapa, and bamboo should be put into some equation for others to follow!

Thnx everyone for the comps! It's been a labor of love and still is --will probably never be be finished because I will just keep adding more stuff to it. Someone once told me that the secret to eternal life is having unfinished projects --I can't die because I have too much to do still!

Kinny --I'm not making Hukilau this year either, nor Oasis so you just need to come hang on the right coast for a few days and I'll put you and miss T up for a few days anytime.

Thnx for the comps Monkeyman, I could really use some of your frames and lamps here--they're the best and I couldn't do a better job myself. We'll have to talk.

Queen K! I can only dream that my place will one day look like yours --you've got the best skilled peeps taking care of you --your place rocks in a BIG way to me!!!!!

Tikiville --my pond is only a few days old, don't even have the filter hooked up yet and it already looks like shit, maybe because I don't have the filter hooked up yet...getting there. Have plenty of leaves, etc., that I need to take care of.

Mr. Pupu --it's a concrete slab floor that I taped off 'grout lines' with a roll of duct tape that I split in half to be about an 1" wide then painted the floor with some garage floor paint (impervious to anything, supposedly). I used a mix of black and dark green then got some grey garage floor paint and used the edge of a piece of sheet metal to make the lighter colored marbley relief look you see on the floor. Many 'how to' paint tips on youtube.

Mucho thanx, Tiki Tony. You're an amazing artist yourself. I'll have to have one of your pieces in the bar one day for sure! I found the Moai head online at some aquarium website. I also have a few pieces in the aquarium that I got from ebay--I have a 'saved search' for vintage aquarium ornaments ---cool stuff! Thanx!

How,

I like your thinking on the Lagoon...

Shallow.

No Drunken Drownings!

You rock man!

Bamboo Ben
Custom Tropical Decor
I build stuff for you!
http://www.myspace.com/bambooben

[ Edited by: RevBambooBen 2009-05-12 21:13 ]

Gotta keep my peeps outta the deeps.... no U rock!

There he is... back again!

Good to hear from you Brad!

Its been a while!

Glad to see you're keeping busy, and the backyard looks tops!

I remember last year when it was a jungle of banana trees and plants... the lagoon is an excellent addition!

Have fun with it all!

Now there's a lagoon!!!! how did I miss this development, I need you to come to my back yard and direct some projects. my pond is leaking ever since the big windstorm blew down a tree and cracked the concrete.

That joint is beautiful inside and out!

Thanks all! Dawn, at least you've got concrete, that beats a liner IMO. You should be able to drain it (if it's not already) and use some kind of concrete patch kit. I've seen something like that at one of the big box DIY stores.
Thnx, Wayfarer.

Been outta the tiki loop here lately (creatively, anyway). With all this recession stuff I've just been crankin' out graphics jobs day in-day out. I did manage to put together a couple of pretty cool beachcomber style hanging lamps a few weeks ago --I'll try to post pics tonight!

BRAD!
TheBackyard lagoon looks STELLAR!
You've still been keeping creative
between the junglearoo and the tee graphic(which look great,by the way on FB)
Hopefully,some Crative playtime will consume you to follow your bliss
and create some more artistic goodies!
LAMPS!
let's see those Lamps!

Totally Insane! I still love it. The floor looks like turtle shells.
Good times hang'n in there. Beautiful job.

Haha yay for the Lagoon! it's so cool how you can materialize what ever comes to your mind, with your own hands. (Every time someone asks what super power I would like to have, if I could have one, I choose that, materializing what ever i want.. and i try to be like that all i can in real life.. but hat off to your power sir...) :)

On 2009-09-22 12:08, Clarita wrote:
Haha yay for the Lagoon! it's so cool how you can materialize what ever comes to your mind, with your own hands. (Every time someone asks what super power I would like to have, if I could have one, I choose that, materializing what ever i want.. and i try to be like that all i can in real life.. but hat off to your power sir...) :)

Thanx, everyone. Clarita, I most definitely consider you as one who has the 'super power'!!!!

Here's a couple of new lamps I threw together. Didn't take progress shots but the first one is made from a rattan foot stool, fabric from a shirt I purchased on ebay that didn't fit me and a large wicker plate holder for the bottom. The top is made from local thatch. I made sort of a thatch, chicken wire and roofing paper sandwich for the top because the deck (above) leaks a bit and I wanted the lamp to be semi water/weather proof. Also coated it all with marine grade poly except the fabric which I used the 3m waterproofing spray for fabrics, shoes, etc.

The second lamp is made from a basket, a plate holder bottom and a Chinese 'coolie hat' for the top. I rolled up a piece of screen printers vellum (semi-transparent film) that I had spray painted red and inserted it into the basket. Using a 25w clear bulb --looks nice, not quite as bright as it looks in the photo.

Starting to get a little more tiki/nautical going on with the patio under the deck area. Made (not finished yet) a nautical ships cabin door with porthole window and dock cleat handle, still need to trim it out or something...

Here's a couple of random shots of the patio/pond area...


More to come soon, thanx fer lookin'...........

can i come live with you?
:)

spell-binding,Brad!
:)

Tnx Kinny -we can put you up here although HB has gotta be better than FB....spell binding =niiiiice words!

I really dig the lamps, but the pond blows my mind. I wanna take a dip in it, disappear into its depths.

Brad, great to see an update on goings on at your place!

All the new work looks spectacular!

Good to see you've hung your Marquesan boat up on the wall!

Always envious of your tropical local with all the great plant life adding so much to the overall feel.

Soon we'll be buried under a fresh coat of white! :o

Looking great! cool lights, the lagoon adds a lot to the hole place for sure

Thanx, Robb -the pond has certainly been a crowd pleaser since I finished it. I've built a pond or water feature at every place I've ever lived including rental houses, although those were on a much smaller scale. Gotta have my fishyness with me wherever I am! Taken a few dips in it as well. The view in the above pic is about the same view you get when laying in the pond with your head under the waterfall --it's very nice! (the goldfish/koi don't seem thrilled with my presence but they get over it eventually).

Dave --good to hear from you brutha! Yea, finally found a place in the Jungalero for the canoe and got my Benzart piece right under it --my favorite wall in the bar. SNOW -accckk! I hate winter and cold but I would gladly welcome some snow accumulation down here, very rare for us. I've only seen snow a handful of times in my entire life but have a blast with it when I do get the chance to experience it. CrAzY StUfF!!!!!

Thank you Claritaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You're so kind!

Howland, I know the thread is old but the pics are still stunning! I am very impressed and blown away with so many different parts of your paradise. Really inspiring! Love the lagoon!!

Thanks for bringing this one up again... I love this thread! Killer pad, Howland.

On 2009-09-26 10:10, Howland wrote:

Starting to get a little more tiki/nautical going on with the patio

With places like Smuggler's Cove, is Nautical the new big tiki trend? I know this is the way I leaning towards right now.

Howland Love the lamps and I'm thinking about them a lot right now (right Kahaka). Can you post a pic of the bottom of the basket lamp with the plate holder. Thanks teaK

Hey y'all, thanx for digging me up again. Not been doing too much with the bar lately aside from giving it some use/abuse. Gotta big party coming up this weekend in it for some of my wife's hospital coworkers so gotta get her shined up, think I'll even wax the floor. TeaKs I'll get you a shot or 2 of the plate holder thing. Probably gonna put together 2-3 more lamps before the party. Will post pics of those as well.

2 solid weeks with lows in the 20's wiped out a good bit of the plant life in the yard, aside from what usually comes back in spring (bananas and elephant ears) so I'm on a landscape kick now -putting in some palms and such for year round greenery. :D