Mai Kai Ceiling, Tapa?

I'd like to try to replicate the look of the ceiling at the Mai Kai in my tiki room. Does anyone know what this stuff on the ceiling is? Also does anyone have a good resource for tapa cloth? I'm looking for the two-tone brown with smaller geometric patterns, as opposed to the really huge patterns or the floral barkcloth. Thanks for any advice!

That stuff would be called "Seagrass Matting".

Looks like woven seagrass rug on the ceiling. It comes in a 6'x9' at Oceanic Arts. This has changed color since it has been on the ceiling for soo long. Age it with some amber colored shellac.

It is Seagrass Matting.

You can find it at some Home-Depot's, usually at Pier One, or if your close enough, Oceanic Arts.

Fair warning, the stuff is kinda heavy to put on a ceiling..... you can cheat and do it as a painting technique with some patience.

Paint a base coat. Mask off the diamond shapes (any shape really) and paint using a dry-brush technique to get a grain effect. Remove the mask and apply to cover the newly painted areas and paint again with the grain in the opposite direction.

What makes this method easier is you can paint the pattern onto wood panels and then apply them to the ceiling. That allows you to work comfortably on the ground instead of over your head.

in the old days, they put the flooring

on the ceiling

so when that last Jet Pilot hit you

you'd feel better looking up at the floor!!!

keep the room from spinning.......

Haha. Reminds me that my favorite house in the world has black fake fur on the ceiling of the bathroom. Wish I had a pic of that room.

Anyway, thanks guys. Found one website- Frank's Cane and Rush in Huntington- that looks like it might have a seagrass carpet made up of squares with this pattern. Good advice on the painting technique Chip and Andy. To me the actual texture is preferable, but cost and other factors might make painting the way to go, and that sounds like a good way to do it.

Oh yeah, Tiki Diablo, I don't always think of OA since they don't have everything laid out on a website and every time I'm in LA can't seem to make it there during their open hours. But I see they have a catalog. Guess I know where my next ten bucks is going.

If you decide to put seagrass matting on the ceiling (and I applaud you if you do), mount it to something first, like plywood. I was dead set on seagrass matting for my ceiling, but backed off after I decided it was more trouble than it was worth. There are other options. Personally, I'd recommend a pressed bamboo board of some sort for the ceiling. It is somewhat stiff and can be adhered to the ceiling with Liquid Nails fairly easily. There are two suppliers in my area for this, Amazulu and Safari Thatch.

Thanks GatorRob. You may be right about the matting being too much trouble. I'll check those other guys out too.

On 2008-07-20 20:48, Koitiki wrote:
Haha. Reminds me that my favorite house in the world has black fake fur on the ceiling of the bathroom. Wish I had a pic of that room.

Koitiki, are these pics of the same house? This is fabulous -- where is it and who designed it?

Here's a tip if you decide to go with painting. One way they got the raised grain look back in the day was to use a whisk broom to make the patterns on the top coat ... a few years back I did an article on mid-century painting techniques for a trade journal & if you're interested I can dig it up.

Mike

Sorry Mike. Hadn't checked this thread out in a while. The house is in Port Aransas, TX. It's what got me started on tiki. I'm always looking for unusual accomodations when traveling and happened upon this rental place online. Didn't have many pics online so I was floored when we got there. Within 3 minutes I said, "I'm going to own this house someday," just thinking it was a pipe dream. It did actually go up for sale a year or so ago. The man who owned it was a crotchety old geezer who hadn't done ANYTHING to fix it up in 30 years. We had some investors lined up and were seriously interested, but after an inspection revealed how much money would have to be put into it on top of the sale price, it fell through. Even rentals couldn't make it break even. Anyway, the owner couldn't tell me the architect's name, but did say he designed it for himself and lived there. Apparently the "Pod House" as it is called is the stuff of local legends, hosting many wild parties, hosting the Dallas Cowboys, and was a brothel for some time. That last part is easy to believe if you saw the huge round tubs and mirrors everywhere. One of my friends was convinced the house was wired with cameras to broadcast seedy videos over the internet. haha. A builder on the island did buy it and remodel it. I haven't seen it, but talked to them extensively about the need to preserve as much as possible. It wasn't very far away from being eligible for Historical Building status. They seemed like they were going to preserve quite a bit, but they did say they gave some carpet sculptures off the wall to the demo workers, and the worst- the wife wanted to paint the lava rock wall beige! Arghh! They also have an incredible Witco dining set I told them must stay with the house- or sell it to me!
As it was before remodeling: The property was entirely fenced. The gates had tiki head handles. To enter the front door, you must first cross a rock bridge over the pool. (You can swim beneath this) In it's heyday there was a stream of water running down the steps to the bridge. There was an actual channel marker made into a fountain next to the pool and two garages, one of which has a rock mosaic of palm trees. The building itself is two octagon-like pods supported by a single pole each. Have to post more pics and more about the inside later. This is probably more than you ever wanted to know!

i used sea grass matting on the ceiling in my bar and attached it at the sides so it hung down (under it's own weight) in the centre.. was dificult but worth the effect.. see here:
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=26319&forum=18

Koitiki - show us more!

Mike, I think everyone would be interested in the painting article.
Trav, Very cool bar. The matting looks like the Mai Kai for sure, but does look like a bit of a pain. Did you ever try to stick it flat up there, or had you always planned on swagging it?
Hey Kilikopela, I was bummed we didn't get to talk more when ya'll were here.
Here's some more photos.

Lava rock edging the walkways matches the lava rock flowerbed by the front door. Holes in the rock wall behind the pool used to house one of the many water features.

View of the front walkway showing holes for water feature.

This is the main room of the lower pod. The plaster ceiling looks like cake frosting. The brass cones are star effect lighting. On the right you can see one of the fiberglas doors with embedded crabs and starfish, etc. The kitchen has black river rock counters and an embedded mechanism where you can set your blender pitcher right in with no base needed. Very handy!

Bathroom in lower pod. Look closely by the tub and imagine what it's like to do your business on the counter. lol

Main room in upper pod. Witco dining set on left. Crystals in ceiling all light up different colors. There's a hatch up there where you can climb in and change the bulbs. Someone who used to live there told me there's secret passageways to go from one pod to the other. Unverified by me, but could explain the ease with which certain unmistakeable smells have wafted between the two floors of the upper pod. Colorful walls are carpet sculpture(now gone), and the middle windows are fiberglas with PVC rings- some colored in various shades. Not seen on the right is a wall fountain with a mermaid sculpture, planter and gas fire outlet.

Bar in upper pod.

Kitchen in upper pod. Yes- two kitchens!

Kitchen in upper pod.

Might head that way next week. If they let me in to take pics I'll post them.

Check out Bensons for Sea Grass Matting:
http://www.bensonsimport.com/pages/wholesale/tropical_mattings_palm_tiki_carvings/Page1.html

On 2008-08-13 21:59, Koitiki wrote:
Trav, Very cool bar. The matting looks like the Mai Kai for sure, but does look like a bit of a pain. Did you ever try to stick it flat up there, or had you always planned on swagging it?

had planned for it to sit agianst the ceiling but it was obvious immediately that it would sag so i made it all sag evenly, this also meant i could run wiring for lights etc above it easily after the matting was installed as i had no idea where my lighting was going at the time... also used it as a trim around the walls at waist height...