Home Tiki Bar How-To

Before I forget, UB, that is one COOL apartment tiki bar! I have a '50s/'60s toy robot collection (some bugs) that I have to incorporate into my tiki room somehow.

Anyway, here's my question: the room I'm turning into my tiki bar has a (gulp) bay window. Bay windows are about as tiki as French provencial furniture, so how do I camouflage it? Replacing it is out of the question. It has 5 panels (windows). Looking for ideas.

~Tex

Sounds like you have a perfect focal point to look at while you sit on the couch, unless, of course, you already have your tiki bar.

Possibly could you place a thatch\raffia over the window. Another idea is to place large diameter bamboo next to the widow on the walls.

Possibly the easiest idea is to place a consol table (Pier One may have rattan versions) and place your tikis on that in front of the window and then purchase the "TIKI BAR" stained glas window ornament from House of Tiki and have that hanging in front.

Large tropical plants may also appreciate the sunlight from such a window.

you could always do like the mai kai's bar and have the tropical rainstorm water running down the windows... or put a mural up that covers the window if don't want to use it at all.

Go with the bay window - make it look like the window of a Captain's Cabin on a wooden ship, a ship that has run aground in a tiki paradise...
Replace window panes with aged looking glass... a yellow tinted warped glass would be ideal. Paint the wall black and the woodwork gold. Get an ornate nautical looking light that glows red, hang it from a large chain on the outside of your house in front of the window, for a cool night effect...
Station large wooden barrels around the window, and throw in some rope rigging for good measure hanging from the ceiling.

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Have a pull-down shade cut for it and cover it with Tapa cloth.

Maybe frame it in bamboo, and make some sort of bamboo valance/shelf. Some kinda fabric for drapes(print or ?) then use some o.g. fishing nets in front of the fabric? Fabric! Drapes! Valances, so Christopher Lowell.

Damn you, Chikitiki! I was hoping to survive the rest of the year without seeing or hearing anything about Christopher Lowell!!

:tiki:

Tiki Tex,
Thanks for the nice comp.
All these great (TCer’) suggestions can be blended into a single theme.
Use the sun toward your advantage (kahukini), stained glass, and bamboo trim (thechikitiki). Fishing floats look awesome through the sun. Then when the sun goes down, simply replace it with strategically placed light bulbs (color of your choice).
How about a wide and narrow fish tank, centering it (with risers) in the middle of the window and build a nautical\tiki theme around it
An idea I wanted to do, but did not get around to, was to take on of those bubble panels you used to see in the Chic shops at the mall,(which are really cheap now(EBay) (and no fish to feed) and build a nautical\tiki theme around and in front of it.
A frame around the window of palms and ferns will love the sunlight as well.
You will question yourself, what was more fun, having a tiki bar or building one.

Wow! Someone should be so lucky to have a five panel bay window behind a tiki bar! All you need do is string up a set of tiki lights at the top across those windows for a perfect backdrop. Looks cool inside and generates curiousity and envy(!) outside! Perhaps only add an artificial palm tree on one side in front of the windows and just build your bar around those great windows. What a conversation piece! Remember the old adage "A room with a view!".

You have a perfect opportunity to do something that hasn't been done in a home tiki bar before. Take a look at this lamp.... Now imagine you are inside it looking out....Each one of your windows is a pane in this lamp.

As mentioned by Christiki295 you would use large diameter bamboo vertially between each window with small diameter bamboo framing each window. each window would be something like stained glass but perhaps not as complicated or expensive. It would be super cool and totally unique.

Here's one way to make a stained glass effect cheaply:
http://www.rosco-ca.com/rosco_new/technotes/scenic/stained_glass.html
materials:
http://www.rosco-ca.com/rosco_new/technotes/scenic/stained_glass_1.html

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Monkeyman,
That lamp is way cool.

[ Edited by: Unga Bunga on 2003-08-05 13:37 ]

Unga Bunga. You can buy one at Bensons Imports for $350.00!!!! Yikes.

http://www.Bensonsimport.com

On 2003-08-05 13:30, kahukini wrote:
Here's one way to make a stained glass effect cheaply:
http://www.rosco-ca.com/rosco_new/technotes/scenic/stained_glass.html
materials:
http://www.rosco-ca.com/rosco_new/technotes/scenic/stained_glass_1.html

---

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You can also use Gallery Glass from Plaid:

http://www.plaidonline.com/apGG.asp

It's available from Michaels, too. My wife & daughter used some to make some golden glass pineapple bowls out of some clear glass bowls they found at the 99 Cent store in Santa Monica.

Holy cow, you guys are geniuses! Just when I thought I'd get tossed into a cyber volcano for even suggesting a bay window in a tiki bar, you came up with the most brilliant suggestions and made me realize I can work this to my advantage! Thanks a BUNCH.
I saw some ideas I love, like the tapa cloth, the bamboo (most excellent lamp, btw), the stained glass... oh, and lights! I'm starting to see this window as a good thing, not as an obstacle.
Thanks again!!

Skipping off gleefully to start measuring,
~Tex

You could make it a fake aquarium. Buy pieces of blue plastic to fit directly in front of each bay window. Install a large, clear piece of plastic or glass in front. Hang some fake or stuffed fish on fishing line between these. You would need to glue or caulk a top and bottom in place. Put sand or gravel with fake aquarium plants, star fish etc. on the bottom. Daylight would back-light it. You could add a light from outside to illuminate it at night.

Hey look at this auction of Tikifish's!

There's a pic of a semi circular bar in front of an alcove shaped much like a bay window!

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=5055&forum=5&1

Oh that's nice! Makes it easier to envision. Thanks!!

~Tex