Trader Scott's

So, we started out with our version of a tiki/Caribbean/coastal bar, much like our favorite bars in our favorite places. It grew and got cramped. I know it's not "pure tiki" but it was our little hole-in-the-wall, literally.

Tiki65 gives the thumbs up.

That's all about to change. Stay tuned. We're expanding the bar and moving it across the basement. 600 square feet to be exact. Stay tuned for pictures. The contractors come in sometime in the next couple of weeks to install flooring and a sink and I'll be posting progress pictures. We're moving toward more of a midcentury/traditional style. We've been collecting furniture, parts (like a two-door, slide-top beer cooler) and decor to begin. Any who were at Hukilau saw the Adrian Pearsall couch that was part of the Moderna Muerte display. That's now in our basement and is just the beginning, to go with our new-to-us Mai Kai chairs. Can't wait until we get this show on the road!

This is in your house? Wow! Most awesome!

Thanks. You can see more pictures of gatherings, progression, pictures with the bar as a backdrop, etc. here.

Looks like a cozy and inviting place, Phinz! If I had a place like that, I would probably never leave my house!

The lighting looks amazing and highlights all the hard work perfectly!

It has begun...

Dismantling the old bar area to move the bar to the new area.

Bar placed in its approximate location.

Everything moved to the wood-floored side for carpet repair in the old bar area.

Trader Scott, your place was already GRRRRREAT! But now that you've expanded it's looking like it will be spectacular! The bar area already looks great!

Can't wait to see more progress shots phinz - such a great room to work with...Thanks for posting in advance. G

Wow - it's HUGE!!!

You've got to include a stage. How about a bowling alley too while you're at it?

I'll be watching this thread with interest.

Best wishes,
CN

Base of the bar is in.

Bar area is a little over 13' long by about 10' deep. Enough to get two bartenders (and maybe even three) behind the bar without them tripping over each other.

Don't believe everything you think.

[ Edited by: phinz 2010-08-29 20:12 ]

Wow...that is gonna be one big bar...you should even have room for torch dancing and a limbo line!!!

Wooohooo!!! Major part of the bar arrived and is in the garage. Installation tonight!

Cooler is in place (excuse the stuff stacked on top). Dishwasher will be modified to blend in once we get to the decorating/modifying stage.

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A bit of deconstruction to fix some minor things.

Beginning to build the sidebar/prep counter top with variegated strand bamboo flooring.

Starting the puzzle that is the sidebar/prep area.

Mrs. Tiki 65 gives a cheers. Countertop is assembled. Tomorrow it will be pinned and glued in place, then we start on the main bartop.

And Tiki 65 is wiped out after a 20 hour day (he was up at 5 for work and then came over for tiki bar assembly)

BIG PANIC!!!!!1! BUY BATTERIES!!!

[ Edited by: phinz 2010-09-11 21:34 ]

Laying in and gluing/toenailing the sidebar lower top.

Bar faced with OSB as subsurface for final overlay.

Note lights and plugs on the inside of the bar.

Bartop base test fit.

Visualizing the next stage of bar surfacing.

The LED lights go up into a groove routed on the underside of the bartop.

WHOOOOA!

Looks like you know what you're doing! Can't wait to see the progress.

Bartop has been in for a couple of weeks. We restocked the bar just to have someplace to put all the booze that had been in the back room.

Test fitting the plywood to hold the rafters, lights and upper storage boxes.

Rebuilding the rafters from the old bar.

Bamboo splits being added to rafters as underlayment.

Thatch being applied.

Reed had to be applied before we could put in the roof.

That crap was heavy (about 250-300 lbs) and we had to make some "adjustments," percussive and otherwise, to get it to fit once everything had been added to the plywood.

In place.

Bamboo panels came in for the walls and bar.

Test fitting the lauhala.

Starting to look a little more tiki.

On 2010-10-07 12:12, phinz wrote:
Bartop has been in for a couple of weeks. We restocked the bar just to have someplace to put all the booze that had been in the back room.

Lord God Billy Bob! I've seen BevMo's with less booze!!

Looking really great, where did you buy the bamboo panels?

The bamboo came from Mainlanders. http://www.tropicaltikis.com

I deeply, DEEPLY covet those barstools.

As you were.

The bar stools are from http://www.nagsheadhammocks.com/chairs.asp They're the best bar stools we've ever found. I would love to have one of their Lightkeeper's Durawood chairs for the bartender. Kind of like a lifeguard chair. Very cool.

We sheathed the new storage box (pictures of that in a moment) above the bar in planking to simulate wooden crates. The open space will have a rack for glasses. The exposed plywood now has split bamboo covering it, but not in this picture.

Installing the lights for over the bar.

Here's a shot of the storage box before the crating is installed.

You can see the storage box in the top left here. The lights in the bar are not this bright. It's a long exposure. They're blue and shine down through the planks like you're looking through the deck of a ship. The service light in the middle will be surrounded by a box that looks like a deck hatch.

Cutting bamboo for the post that holds the house up as well as acting as a conduit for electrical to the storage box and upper lights.

Bamboo post in the right foreground.

The other bamboo post is in this shot. That white TV cable is temporary until we get the cable run to the other side of the room for the new TV location.

Torching some bamboooooooo...

Lauhala and carbonized bamboo up.

Tell me more about the planking around the storage box, is it new wood that you aged or did you salvage some old wood?

Love the ship's deck effect on the ceiling. You have really thought this through, probably all the things you wish you'd done with the first bar!

The planking on the box is comprised of ancient pallet wood. This is wood that is probably 40-50 years old and has been piled up on a farm. It's thin and very well weathered. It's amazing stuff.

Place is looking good! Very cool attention to detail going on. Can't wait to see it finished.

Trader Scott's has its own Facebook page.

What a transformation! Can't wait to see more!

Can those ceiling boards over the bar be removed fairly easily so you can change out the bulbs/strings of lights mounted to the ceiling?

Yep. Just unscrew the boards and they come down.

One side will be harder to remove than the other, because it will require removing a crab trap that houses lights over the sidebar, but it can be done relatively quickly.

Boards are now weathered. Black lights are installed. False walls in storage boxes are in. Lights over the bar/seats are installed and need to have their shrouds built. Switches and dimmers are in place. More pics a little later.

[ Edited by: phinz 2010-10-25 08:52 ]

It looks like your are getting rid of the white ceiling...Awesome!

Tiki 65 has big wood

Weathered boards in place

Installing lighting

Time exposure

More roofin'

Woohoo!!!

Awnings for lights for artwork in the works

Still have to do wiring, luan and thatch for the little roof/hip area, but it's on its way. This is the lounge side of the bar. In the upper right you can see the concealed fluorescent light for last call/cleanup.

Frak!

Can you please come do my house next?????

Liquor cabinet going in.

Liquor cabinet is almost done.

Maps are in place on the back of the liquor cabinet.

Liquor cabinet is up.

Installing tiki mug cabinets.

Nice, Scott!! Really a kick in the pants project you've got goin' there. Thanks for posting.

For those who do the Facebook thing, Trader Scott's Tiki Bar and Lounge just posted up some pictures from a photoshoot we had this weekend. Several local burlesque dancers from Salome Cabaret came over for pictures, pizza and cocktails. 'Twas a great time.

Salome Cabaret Photoshoot album.

Nice set of jugs in the lounge Phinz!!

This is totally rad. I wish I had a place like this to chill closer to me... maybe I'll have to build one!

OMG...that liquor cabinet lighting is freaky. Looking forward to more pics of your progress.

I really need to do a real photoshoot with the good lens. :)

this is like looking at porn!

I mean that in a good way.

[ Edited by: spy-tiki 2011-06-05 19:42 ]

Yes..the blue lighting is awesome!

Totally awesome! Thanks for posting these quite inspirational photos!

Just curious...how did TIKI65 attach the bamboo to the bar/walls and what about the bamboo slats trim pieces?

All done with a small finishing nail?

EDIT: I am not worthy to look at these photos....WOW

[ Edited by: newB24 2011-06-09 07:21 ]

On 2011-06-09 07:20, newB24 wrote:
Just curious...how did TIKI65 attach the bamboo to the bar/walls and what about the bamboo slats trim pieces?

All done with a small finishing nail?

EDIT: I am not worthy to look at these photos....WOW

We used an air gun with small brad nails to do the split bamboo veneer on the bar face and lower half of the walls, as well as the slat pieces and the wood making up the crate that the glasses hang from. They virtually disappear. You have to be careful to nail into the knuckles of the bamboo, as well as dial down your pressure a bit so they don't split it.

The big bamboo pieces on the bar face were attached with countersunk cabinet screws. They're special Phillips head screws. The screw heads are almost the same diameter as the screw, so you don't need to put big countersink holes into the bamboo. These are also the screws used to assemble the split bamboo post in the corner of the bar that hides both the electrical wiring and support post holding up the upper level of the house.

The big pieces of bamboo on the ceiling are attached to the drywall with the same Phillips head screws, countersunk, into self-tapping drywall anchors. We went through several contractor-sized boxes of 2" and 3" screws during the build.

The lauhala was temporarily attached with staples as I stretched/coerced/struggled with it, and then I used copper flashing nails, evenly spaced throughout, to permanently attach it, pulling the staples out as I went.

The thatched roof over the bar is literally lag bolted to the floor joists of the floor above. I can literally do chin ups from it, and it had the added effect of reducing some of the squeaking in the floor above.

The walls, as you can see in the early build pics, are paneling, so we had a great base to attach to, without having to worry about making sure we were in studs.

The bar top is strand bamboo flooring in a tiger stripe pattern, and the bullnose was custom routed and assembled out of rock maple with tapered rock maple plugs covering the mounting screws. These were planed down and sanded before we applied about 10 layers of clear varnish to it. The lights under the edge of the bar and sunk into a routed channel, with the underside of the bullnose covering the leading edge of the lights so you cannot see them when looking from the front. This also helps control bleed of the light so it only shines down and toward the bar.

I need to do a video tour of the bar with the lights up to show all the cool features, like the lights inside the underbar cabinets, the overhead boxes for bartender storage, the dishwasher, sink and 18-case slide top beer cooler, as well as other assorted neat stuff.

We used an air gun with small brad nails to do the split bamboo veneer on the bar face and lower half of the walls, as well as the slat pieces and the wood making up the crate that the glasses hang from. They virtually disappear. You have to be careful to nail into the knuckles of the bamboo, as well as dial down your pressure a bit so they don't split it.

Amen to that! That was exactly my experience with air nailing the bamboo. It took me a few hours to realize that I had to lower the pressure (I'm not exactly the sharpest arrow in the quiver)...

PHINZ...thank so much for the great information!

I love this thread of information and the outcome is super. Wendy

Pics of the mugs and bowls in their shelves.

Really looking awesome, love your neat organized mug display!!!