My Tiki Room now known as The Kohana Wahine Lounge

Just to make this seem more real and to get me off my arse to finally make it happen, I'm starting my own thread. (converting this room to a Tiki lounge has been my goal for about 4 years).
Here is a picture of the "to-be-tikified" room. Can you say WHITE?

I did this project last year but stalled when I got to the hearth. The bricks had been painted white long before I moved into my 1960's ranch style home. I have no idea what the original color might have been.

Next week I have a painter coming to turn my white popcorn ceiling brown.

Stay tuned..

Darilyn

Update 3/31
Here is the newly painted brown ceiling.

Today these shelves were cut in to make room for mugs or rum or both.

(This bar will be up for sale soon to make room for big Bertha)

Now I have to decide which to do next, carpet or walls?....

Update 4/16/10
Carpet samples have arrived, go to this thread to vote on which one you think is more tiki.
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=36186&forum=1&0

[ Edited by: LiddleLola 2010-03-24 22:36 ]

[ Edited by: LiddleLola 2010-03-31 19:43 ]

[ Edited by: LiddleLola 2010-04-16 09:01 ]

[ Edited by: LiddleLola 2010-07-19 08:13 ]

[ Edited by: LiddleLola 2010-08-28 09:40 ]

That's about as white as my game room was when I started my home bar, The Tiki Nui. Good Luck with your room, can't wait to see the transformation.

Hey Darilyn...that is a good sized room for the bar. It takes time so just do the best you can. I end up paying a ridiculous amount of money to have my handyman do work in my house, but he is wonderful, I trust him and he does what I want. Budget challenges extend the timeline out though, so ya just gotta go with the flow. That fireplace looks awesome and ya got some good furniture going on. Looking forward to your first party!!!

Some progress made over the last two days. Update posted above.

Darilyn

Carpet samples added above.

I posted this in your other thread too....

WAIT ! Before you buy anything...check out FLOR carpet tiles. Rubber backed carpet tiles that you just stick to the floor. If you spill on it, just pull the tile up and wash it out in the sink.
They have the super cool "Housepet" series that is a 50's style mohair.....really cool.

WAY less work, and much better looking than regular carpet.

http://www.flor.com/service/flor/shop/item/House-Pet/60900609164.html

Those Flor products are great...I have researched them before and am contemplating using them when I turn my garage into a billiard room...if I can afford it.

Wow Darilyn, it is shaping up nicely. Can hardly wait to see what the big bar looks like in there.

The carpet is in!! I love it. In an empty room it is hard to ignore, but I'm sure plenty of furnishings and my giant bar will tone it down a bit.

Now on to the walls....... Who wants to help? I'm thinking about making a day of it. Could be a great excuse for a party.

Congratulations...that is really beautiful. Looking forward to seeing your new bar in there.

Love the carpet!
Wish we could buy it here. It's going to look great when the Tiki stuff starts.
Trader Bob

If you plan the wall covering party on a day we are off we will be there with our staple gun ready to work! Wendy and Dan

Love the choice of carpet. Keep us posted.

What are you going to do to the walls? Just painting, or are you going to put up some bamboo, and/or lauhala matting or something?

Definitely Lauhala and Bamboo going on the walls.

Thanks for asking.

Darilyn

I'll help out if I'm available on that day. Let me know.

You went with choice "E" from the samples...

Looks great. With all the bamboo and matting, I think it will look very 50's Tiki...cool.

Can't wait to see more.

Bamboo and Lauhala have arrived. I'm thinking of making it a weekend event July 17-18th as I have 5 days off then. Anyone want to help? I'll make sure cocktails and food are available. Once the walls are done then I can finally bring Big Bertha in from the garage.
PM me if you are interested.

Darilyn

[ Edited by: LiddleLola 2010-06-24 05:37 ]

I'm gonna try to make it by. The place is looking great!!!

Update on my room. I had a glass company install bronzed mirrored glass in the wall cut outs. I'm so happy with how this turned out. The lights still need to be mounted, they are just dangling in the photo. The bamboo that will frame this area is from the Stockton Islander. It will be my Islander Shrine.

Tomorrow is the big day. My "Raising the Tiki Bar" event. Local friends and Ohana are showing up to help install the matting and bamboo framing. Wish us luck. More pics coming soon.

Darilyn

Sounds like fun, Wish I could have helped being in W.Sac...

Good luck, looking awesome!!

The mirrored inserts are great! I can't wait to see what all gets done today. :)

Although we did not finish the framing we got a good jump start. Best of all the guys muscled the bar into position. Everyone worked so hard. I'm really a lucky girl to have such helpful friends and family.

Here are a few shots of the progress.

Where do we start?

The patio workshop.

It's looking kinda tiki...

Matt and brother Duane were the real brains of the construction.

Hey it's getting dark in here! That's Dan, Brenda, Duane and Matt putting up the last pieces of lauhala.

Note to self: finish painting the bricks!

While they were cutting, hanging and nailing I was cleaning the bar. It had been home to a rat in my garage. Ewww...... I had to decontaminate it before it come into the house.

The bar arrives in it's new home.

Brenda of Brenda's Tiki Hut, initiating the bar.

Me with my 19 year old son (who is secretly planning his next "My Mom is our of Town" party)

There is plenty left to do but I really feel like I have a tiki room now.

My sincerest Mahalos to
Duane and Vicki
Matt and Melodie
Brenda and Robert
Dan and Wendy
my boyfriend Brian
my girlfriend Deborah
and my "gofer" son Eric

Darilyn

[ Edited by: LiddleLola 2010-08-28 09:43 ]

WOW! You guys got a lot done. It is looking great.

All of you folks are such an inspiration. I promise....one day I'll get to have a thread. :)

Darilyn I am so sorry..I got your evite but I had no idea what your real name was and realize that I just put it in my "what the heck is this email" folder and never took a look again! Did not mean to ignore at all!

The place is starting to take shape...and just like Brenda to lay all over it! lol

Making some progress there! Looking good. Kind of jealous you have your own personal bar initiator, though.......

Brenda...will you be hiring out as Tiki Swag for all Bar Building Events...LOL.

DAYUM...that just looks awesome. Your mirrored cubbies look kewl and needless to say I am so looking forward to checking out that magnificent bar. What a great find that was. It is really coming together in there and you did a nice job on the fireplace, that will really be nice when it is done. There is definitely going to be some drinking done in that lounge!!!

that bar is realy wild!

Finally getting around to posting some progress shots. I'll try to get some shots of the lighting in here at night, the ambience is nice. I hosted a party for my girlfriend, so stuff just got thrown up on the walls in a hurry. But all the non-tiki people were blown away.

After much debate I also came up with a name for the lounge...... The Kohana Wahine aka The Naked Lady

The framing around the glass shelves is from the Stockton Islander.

I didn't take much time getting the few art pieces arranged. Just had to get something on the walls for the party. Corner speaker shelves were a bitch to put up but sound great and so worth the effort.

Not a good angle on the puffer fish lights but they look very cool lit up.

The mug shelf needs a lip of some kind. I think I'll put another shelf over the slider. Definitely need to tikify the pub table (until I can find a vintage rattan pub table :wink:, perhaps some stenciling and rope? The flowers over the window are string lights.

Don't give me a hard time about the Oriental Trading company boxes. They are full of patio decorations for my girlfriend's party and will be stashed before any "real" tiki people show up for the crawl.
I still have lots of detailing to do, art, foliage, more tikis, lamps, beaded curtains for the doorways and of course more naked ladies, but I'm happy with the overall feel of the room. Being a doll collector and reliving my childhood, there is a lot of whimsy and feminine energy in the room. It makes me happy.

Mahalo for looking.
Darilyn

Love the name...it is really coming along. Looking forward to my visit on the crawl.

That's a really beautiful bar, what's the story behind it? Where did you find something that kick ass?

Looks very inviting. The obvious suggestion would be velvets by Iokona Ki'i/Jason for a nakkid lady bar :D

Oh yes, an exquisite velvet nude is going to be a must have.

Regarding the bar. Here's the story

On our home crawl last year. http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=32907&forum=17&start=90
" As my friend and I left Brad and Melanie's house we saw a yard sale sign just a few blocks away. In the garage were two of the chairs. I was admiring them when the owner asked if I wanted to see the bar. I reluctantly said yes. She took us through the very neglected backyard to the sunroom. She explained that her father brought it back from the Philippines in 1971 when he got out of the service along with a bunch of other furniture.
She had it on Craigslist but only had a couple of interested parties who could not make the arrangements to transport it. She got scared off by some creepy people who had contacted her so she pulled the ad and decided to try to sell it at the yard sale. All she was asking was $175.00 for the lot. It cost a lot more to have it moved to my house because they had built a 3 foot concrete brick wall around the bar. It had to be lifted up to get it over the wall and out of the yard. All tolled I still think it's a great deal. I love love love this bar.

What do you think, more fishnet on the ceiling? I know the chunky lamp has to go. I'm open to ideas and constructive criticism.

mahalo for looking

Darilyn

I should also mention that the former owner of the bar is half chinese half phillipina. She teaches polynesian dance. I'm hoping I can get her to come to my inaugural party and dance for us.

Hi, split a piece of thin bamboo to use as the lip for you mug shelf. The chunky lamp is cool. No need to replace it in my opinion. :)

To see her dance would be awesome and I bet she would be happy for the appreciation of her talents...hope you can make it happen. FUN!!!