ideas for covering a window in a tiki room

I've mooved to a bigger appartment, so now I can have my own room to turn it into a tiki room.
I've already painted the walls, put some bamboo, I have to fix shelves, lights...
But my problem is I have a huge window that create too much light.
What do you think I shall do to cover it.
All the bamboo curtain I can find are too small, and I don't think a big curtain would make it look nice.
I can't find huge tapa cloth too, but that's an idea.
Any suggestions ?

Here are some pics (before and after the paint).

You could get some very dark blue gel and cover the glass with it.
That way it would always look like night.
Hey is that a Kahiki velevt I see?
Good luck!

And it looks like masonry walls instead of wood, so whatever you try to hang will be more difficult. You might get the blinds you want that fit, and attach tapa cloth to the front. That way the tapa rolls up with the blinds and what light comes through them is much dimmer through the tapa and has a nicer look. I had something similar in my last bar.

How about curtains made from your typical "Hawaiian shirt" cloth?

Or a bamboo shade? They usually come in a variety of sizes.

Can you hang something outside the window? Hanging plants to give a tropical type of view?

"I am Lono!" -- http://www.347steps.com

[ Edited by: arriano 2008-10-01 14:27 ]

I would use a vinyl roll-up sun shade (stay away from slated shades), they do a good job of blocking light. You should be able to find them at any of the Big Box stores. Then decorate the interior surfaces in whatever you have handy; tapa cloth, tropical postcards, paint, markers, a giant photo of a tropical beach, etc. If you use something flexible (another textile) you could use 3M spray adhesive to apply it to the vinyl shade, and still be provided use of your window if needed.

On 2008-10-01 16:52, TikiMango wrote:
I would use a vinyl roll-up sun shade (stay away from slated shades), they do a good job of blocking light. You should be able to find them at any of the Big Box stores.

The roll up shade sounds like a good idea. I think a sponged tapa cloth design (using stencils of cardboard for the design) would be a great way to tiki-fy it. And you might be able to find a nice bamboo colour to begin with too. :D

thanks for all your great ideas.Now I have to find some material.
Problem is, the window is very large, and I can't find bamboo curtains large enough, so as tapa cloth...
I'll have to make it myself.
Thanks

I also wanted to make an tropical exterior, such as at Don the beachcomber, with a rain every 20mn, and birds..., but I don't see how, considering I'm on the 2nd floor...!!

I think I want to keep the light from the outside, as especially during the night, there's some great lights coming from the moon and artificial lights outside that create shades on the walls...so a sun shade or something could be nice.

Oh, and yes, there's the great velvet from the Kahiki there (as well as BK's weapons, Robb's painting, vintage paintings and pictures of Tahiti, marquesan art...), I think it's gonna be nice if I can do something with that window.

oh, and Swanky, I think you influenced me with the choice of the painting color, I hope you don't mind !!!

On 2008-10-02 01:03, virani wrote:
oh, and Swanky, I think you influenced me with the choice of the painting color, I hope you don't mind !!!

Yes, I saw that, but didn't want to flatter myself! Your color looks a little brighter than what we picked, but we thought the burnt orange was a more modern color and would allow darker or lighter objects to pop well. Especially thinking of some square woven place mats we found that we can use to frame smaller pieces. Have not put anything on those walls yet, but, I think it's a good color.

Look here to see what we did with 6 foot split reed outdoor curtains. This size was easy to find here, and a shower curtain fit perfectly. You can also find tapa this size easily for $1 a square foot or less.

plywood.

They have very large bamboo roller blinds in Ikea. Not in their catalogue, but in the shop.

Here are my totally lame ideas:

Shutters = you can stain or paint them and even use just shutter frames and place fabric panels in them

Sheets = there are so many great patterns and various sizes to make curtains

Bead Curtains = lots of patterns and sizes

Looking forward to pictures of your solution. :)

If you have some deep pockets you can hit a plastic store and get some colored plexiglass cut to fit the window. My tiki space was beginning to remind me of a dungeon and the color brought it back to life, especially during the winter funk.

Hey Virani, my wife did a bunch of "Thank You" cards after a Tiki party by cutting the end off a potato and carving a little Tiki design to make a stamp. It sounds crazy, but she produced a lot of cards that way.

Maybe you could do something like that to quickly produce the designs for your big tapa curtain? You could also buy premade, or carve-it-yourself blank stamps. It'd sure be easier than hand-painting it all.

Thanks for the great ideas. Now, I have too many solutions, I'm lost !!!!
I'll post pics of the final result. I hope you'll like the room.

The bamboo does it work. I like the way the sun comes through during the day...for now, I'm happy with it.

Looking goooooooooooooood! :D Nice color & layout.. Like the lighting on the shelfs..

WOW dude, looks excellent !
I love what you did with the window.

Benjamin.

Im moving into a place right on the ocean (boardwalk) and the drapes in that place have to go, there are 3 large windows that face the ocean that are not your typical cookie cutter size, ive been racking my brain how to re-do them kind of on the cheap. Since its on the boardwalk its kinda like living in a fishbowl at night when people are taking their walks they can see right in so i want something tikified and something to block my peeping tom buddies!

Just a thought...
What about layers of dried palm fronds? Sort of tucked in a fish scale or shingle pattern...