Hula Sue's South Seas Hideaway

amazing. This will be the coolest room ever!

Nice recap John!
Love the bar with the wahine in the corner.
Great attention to detail.

Here are a few pictures of some recent work on the booth.
First, the (very, very) rough mock-up design for the map. The idea is to make it look like a 3-D representation of an old 1950's Hawaiian travel brochure map:

To make a border for the map, I picked up some of that scalloped wood trim from Home Depot, burned and brushed it and cut up some bamboo.

I positioned the the contour of the scalloped wood in juxtapostion to the half-bamboo sections and added small bamboo rounds
(covering the 'seams' between the bamboo) to create a kind of 'woven wood' effect. I just liked the way it looked so I went with it.

Still alot to do, including mortar mix poured and sculpted over the wood shapes on the sill around the back of the booth
to create a terraced ocean floor for the shell lamps, coral, sea fans, etc.

The ceiling of the booth will have cross beams, matting, float lights, Disneyland Submarine ride Sewaweed, etc. and there will be
irregular cut bamboo poles for partial walls and a thick grass awning wrapping around the front.

The map will have a directional compass with a sculpted/painted flower lei as the border and gold-leaf covered arrows pointing N,S,E and W.
Other details (route lines and chalkware figures) will also be added.

I'll be working more on the booth and the airplane fuselage this weekend.
Thanks guys...and have a great weekend!
John

[ Edited by: Mr. Pupu Pants 2010-05-29 16:21 ]

Wow, stunning bar! Just went through the entire thread, awesome work mate :D

You're killing me! That's amazing!

Lookin' good John! Love your imagination and passion for the detail. Keep the inspiration coming!

Thanks Guys, sorry the pictures themselves are kind of lame. For lack of any real mood lighting in place, I've just been using a work light to throw some illumination for the pictures. I can't wait to make it look more inviting so it'll look the way it's supposed to and, maybe I can hold a foot-candle (bad lighting guy joke) to some of your beautiful postings.

I'm looking forward to posting the airplane section. Really happy with the way that's comin along.
Much aloha,
John

Very clever use of that scalloped wood John - looks great

Beautifully done! It's great how the smallest additions you make tend to flow into the overall feel of the room. Fantastic. I am sure that if Trader Vic's soul was to roam this world looking for a new home your address would be high on the list. Well... it would be on my list too. Keep up the fine work and thanks again for sharing the build pics.

"Anyone who has ever seen them is thereafter haunted as if by a feverish dream" Karl Woermann

[ Edited by: uncle trav 2010-04-10 19:44 ]

Unbelievable! I'm amazed at the attention to detail. I've been inspired once again on Tiki Central. Here I am, fretting about putting up a wall and you are putting a fuselage of an airplane in your room. lol Great job!

The map/mural over the booth is absolutely incredible - what a great idea. Love the relief sculptures of the islands. Can't believe how much work you put into that braided border. It in itself, is art! Happy to see all the update pics in one post. Cant wait to see more!

Man I love seeing your latest posts. The booth & map are awesome. That border is truly unique. Your attention to detail is great. Looking forward to what's next!

Love the new update. It's lookin' awesome!

Incredible. I would love to drink there. And its not even done yet.

The island artwork is fantastic and it curves in the corner just like the booth..

The details really make it incredible.

Nicely done.

Beautiful! Love the map!

Totally looks high end..you are so creative!

Love the map!

For sure one of the most epic home tiki bars!

Love the new additions, creative genius!

Unbelievable, and as Lake Surfer said, epic! It's got what you'd want in a killer tiki bar, and it's right in your own home! It's not hard to believe that it is only going to look better. Wow.

Just went through your thread from start to finish and I'm just flabbergasted. Not only is the work amazing, but so is all the thoughtfulness behind it.

Progress is stunning. I too love the relief map above the booth...

Thanks for posting.

pu pu!!!

Mr. Pupu Pants,
I am fairly new to TC, a lurker for the past year. I just read your entire thread and sir, I must say, I am overwhelmed by your creativeness and you craftsmanship. You certainly have inspired me to get back to work on my humble bar. Amazing, just amazing.

Absolutely phenominal work, John. A thing of beauty! Your 3-8-2010 post with the array of progress pics was cool to swing through. You've surely put a helluva lot of thoughtful work into it. Bravo!

Cheers~
Andy

Its looking nice. I like the outward leaning of the bar, and the map on the wall is really a cool idea! Did you ever make the animatronic tiki with the Christmas tree eyes and mouth?

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any more awesome – it just got more awesome! And it sounds like it’s going to get even more awesomer.

I had to go through the whole thread again just to make sure that this wasn’t a product of a particularly vivid mai-tai induced fever-dream.

Truly inspirational!

J.

Amazing, just amazing. Kudos.

Thank you all so much. You guys are way, way too nice -- but I do really appreciate it :)
Makes me want to work around the clock!

I'll have some more progress pics in the next day or so.

Here are some makings for a lamp I'm experimenting with (making two of them) using parts from a couple of those old motion lamps (these ones had fish that 'swam' around as the inner 'shade' rotated via bulb heat-powered metal fins on top).

When mounted inside the float and combined with another inner shade I'm making and some sand and sea plants, it will look like the fish are swimming around inside the float.

Back in a couple days :)
John

[ Edited by: Mr. Pupu Pants 2010-04-21 02:57 ]

Can't wait to see it, John... you've definitely got the Midas touch. Looking at your work keeps me motivated. This stuff is fun, but it ain't always easy!

First view of your room and I'm awe struck. I'll be back over and over again to see what's up next. Wow, Wendy

B-A-UTE-TEE-Full! Simply stunning workmanship.

Hey John, It's about time for an update... whatcha been doing??

Not much else to say. Another great home bar. Love the map. Very creative.

Did you make these frames?

On 2010-03-08 15:47, Mr. Pupu Pants wrote:

Some Frames:

[ Edited by: mrsmiley 2010-05-11 00:20 ]

Total envy... WOW!

PuPu, I couldn't be more impressed. I've been making very meager progress on my Room of Great Adventure, and your Hideaway is both inspiring to continue and discouraging, as it is more than I could imagine accomplishing.

Well played, Pu(2)

Angry Idol

Thanks guys. I'll post more pictures of the booth area shortly (been making alot of progress) but here's a recent quick crappy one:

In the mean time, here is the basic design for the support beams/bamboo arch that runs between the airplane/WW2 area
and the booth/bar area.

The beams are already in place but I have lots of carving to do.
Those are the large Disney Tiki Babies in the carved out sections of the brackets. The 'animated tikis'
will be operated by the Christmas tree face mechanisms fed by an external audio system that was mentioned in an earlier post on this thread.

ps: mrsmiley, I didn't make the bent bamboo wooden frames for those wall hangings but I am making identical smaller versions for some other stuff.

[ Edited by: Mr. Pupu Pants 2010-05-19 04:43 ]

[ Edited by: Mr. Pupu Pants 2011-05-13 04:34 ]

I was just thinkin' Mr. Pupu... how horrible it would be if you ever had to move and leave this amazing work behind. We've seem others dismantle and remantle(?), but I'm bettin' you know this place is yours for life.

:)
Yeah, my wife often jokes about how I'll be buried in our basement someday. I asked her to wait until I'm done.

AWESOME!!! (again :roll: ) Animated tikis - I missed that one earlier, how cool!

John, I hope she waits until you're dead before she seals you in the basement :lol:

Thanks Mike :)
At least it'll be a fun place to 'wait it out'.

i'd be honored to be buried there, and would enjoy it even more if you didn't make me wait until i was dead!

Sir Pupu Pants,
I'm blown away by your craftsmanship, but just as impressed by your ability to plan and design. I've watched my place evolve bit by bit, typically on a saturday morning after a little liquid brainstorming late friday night. i think the difference shows. thanks for setting the gold standard!

Thanks very much Faz! For me, the design part is definitely half the fun. (Because--when you're still planning-- 'anything' is still possible :) )
Here are another couple of recent pictures of the booth area (sorry about the lighting). Most of the bamboo walling is up and the awning is next.

There will be a pass-through window and ledge on the right side for serving drinks (with similar cut/arched bamboo protruding down from the ceiling).

As soon as the booth is done, I'll be back to the airplane section.

[ Edited by: Mr. Pupu Pants 2010-05-19 04:46 ]

PuPu your room is my favorite.

Let me know when you start accepting house guests...I would like to sign up!

I am , however, still waiting for pics of the other theme rooms in your house. I believe somewhere you posted to this effect but we have yet to see them. Am I right? If so please post these as well!

Do you have any tiki themed rooms to rent? I'd like to vacation in your basement.

Love the bamboo wall outside the booth. Nice touch!

I don't recall seeing what you had planned for the floor in all these posts. What are you thinking about doing on the floor. Looks like right now it is raw concrete. Just curious!

Thanks for the update.

Regarding the floor:
I'll be painting the floor to look like lava rock, adding some crystalline sparkles and sealing it with some
kind of clear epoxy when I'm done with everything else.

Leleliz, thank you :)
The other rooms in my house aren't as far along and I kinda want to wait until I can make some progess before I post pictures. I'll try to take some pictures to give you an idea of what the master plan is.

Wayfarer, the only other Hawaiian/tiki themed room in the house is the master bedroom but the couch in Hula Sue's pretty comfortable :)

Perpetual Awesomosity! :)