Tiki the Hut - San Diego, CA

My wife and I moved into a house just over 2 years ago now. We have a garage that we do not store cars in, so right away I wanted to make it into some kind of a finished room. It was pretty ugly when we moved in, the old owner had used all of the cabinets from the kitchen in the garage. The walls were pieced together with cheap particle board that was mismatched all over in small pieces. I had some bad pictures, but they were in an unsupported format so I can't upload them yet.

About a year ago we decided it should be a Tiki Bar, so we started to renovate the walls and started to pull out the old shelving. It was a big ordeal and took us awhile to accomplish. Of course everything takes longer than expected when building a Tiki Bar, especially in laid back beach communities. But we got our friends to pool our resources and made it happen. My friend Kelly came over and wired up 5 new outlets and places for 3 lights. Then my friend Bill came by with his skills and got the walls all put up.

By this time it was well into spring. But I could finally start doing things on my timeframe. So we started to paint the walls. We chose blue as our backdrop color. I know most Tiki Bars are brown, but just wait and see where I go with this before too much judgement.

I had been buying little pieces here and there, mostly off Craigslist. I bought a bar and took off the top part. Then I put bamboo fencing around the bottom. After that I sanded down the top to get it ready to be refinished (which I haven't finished yet).

After we were done painting, I used pieces of bamboo to frame the window and door.

It was beginning to look like a Tiki Bar but not quite there yet. I got a nice bamboo shelf for next to nothing off CL to put my rum on. I secured it to the wall so that my $500+ rum collection doesn't come smashing down in the first earthquake. And we slowly started to throw up some tiki decorations.

I got two bamboo bar stools of CL for $20 for both I think. They are nice and they swivel. We already had a freezer out there so I found a little fridge as well off of CL. Also bought 2 volcano bowls, 3 pineapple mugs and 17 Orchids of Hawaii mugs with the tiki fork and spoon for $40 off CL as well.

We have made multiple trips to Oceanic Arts and Tikiland here in SD. I also found lots of floaters and random things for really cheap at Ocean Beach Gifts and Shells. I am sure we will make many more trips to get everything that we need. We purchased a Blowfish lamp in Hawaii as well as some Tiki totems. Sorry that there are not a lot of Tikis pictured, we have quite a few but they are shy.

We cleaned it out to make way for the flooring. The floor was our most expensive part yet.

Yup, we put fake grass in our garage. I think it really ties the room together. So now that it is over 50% complete and starting to have a good vibe to it.

More decorations and lights are up and I finally was able to move the rum onto the shelf.

[ Edited by: lunavideogames 2013-04-08 17:42 ]

So please let me know what you think. Anything I could do better? I will keep updating as we get further into it. We are going to put bamboo fencing along the bottom to cover up that concrete. We have more artwork to put up too. The bar should be finished within a month or so, but it is a big project for it to be where I want it to be. WE are going to have some artist friends come over to paint murals on the walls soon. I have to make a few adjustments to the tiki masks on the wall, but they have lights behind them that will shine through the eyes and mouth.

So for names I really liked:

Missionaries Severed Head

or

Suffering Missionary

But Em thinks those are too brutal for our tropical look.

We also thought about:

The Trembling Tiki

It is kind of a combonation of both of our names. We do have two cats, so we were thinking of incorporating them into the name somehow. But we are still undecided on a name. Do you have any suggestions?

Wow...you have certainly done a lot of work. The murals sound interesting and your bar is looking nice. Get yourself a beautiful Tiki to oversee your rum collection. I think a palm will go nicely with that grass. Keep up the great work!!!

Give us some more ideas about what you want to evoke in the bar name so we can drive you crazy suggesting names.

Looking good! Are you thinking of incorporating kitties in general or your specific cats names? If so - what are they?

I like the grass - looks more plush than regular fake grass carpet.

Vampiress - Yes, we were definately going to put in a little palm and some kind of fountain or waterfall. We are just not sure really at all what we want to envoke in the name. We have been brainstorming for quite some time and we just can't agree on anything in particular. Thanks for your feedback!

CreepyKbear - Thanks for your kind remarks! I did quite a bit of research on the grass. We wanted something soft and a nice color green. The grass we went with actually has padding on the bottom which will be good for accidents. Hopefully no people or mugs will be injured. But our cats are indoor only, so they are getting a nice new room to explore. The rest of our house is hard wood and tile floors, so we hoped that the cats would like the soft grass. They haven't clawed at it or anything yet, so we are hoping that it will be ok. They don't know what to think of the lighting yet, so they are still hesitant to enter the room at night. Our cats are named Chimi and Changa, so I don't think their names will fit with the Tiki theme.

A little sample of the lighting so far. I am waiting on a couple of LED flood lights from Hong Kong that change color that we were going to point at the side wall. We will see after that if we need more lighting, but it already is pretty bright. I will need a white light or 2 behind the bar so I can see what I am doing.

Lookin good. Love the faux grass, I suppose it needs to be vacuumed now and then? I always wanted to have beach sand in my home Tiki bar but obviously that would have been a nightmare, especially with a cat!

How about naming it "Chimi's Changa Lounge"?

A bit off the well beaten tiki path ~ I like it! I think you should continue with faux greenery. Wendy/DanLovesTikis populated her Jungle room buying things one piece each week from Michael's with the 40% off coupon in every Sunday's paper

Sand would be interesting, but very difficult to maintain and to keep in one place. And you don't want any cat dookiebombs in the tiki room. They banned drinking on the beach here in SD a few years ago (BOO) and so the next year we brought the beach to a friends apartment complex. It was across the street from the beach and we through down a tarp and started hauling the sand. Had a little kiddie pool and everything. But that was still outside of course.

Thanks Maddog! That is actually a great idea. I have the washing machine in the corner, so I was going to cover it up with totems, but man that would look cool to have vines covering the whole side of it with a tiki or two peeking out. It is not your average Tiki Bar. I think we are going for a tropical/nautical/tiki theme. But I do have a lot of cool tikis, so I'll have to put up a picture even if they are not in their permanent positions.

Oh and yeah, I think the fake grass will be vaccuumable with the attachment. They also gave us a little rake so that we can stand it up to make it look more real. We can also take it out and use the hose on it. Then let it sun dry. This will be good to be able to do after a few drinks get spilled on it.

Lookin good
Love the low maintenance grass floor
Kool rum shelf thing

Keep the pics a flowin

So it has been a bit since I have posted any pictures, so I wanted to show the progression of the mural. It is almost finished.

Approved by the younger generation.

We have been working to get it closer to finished. I have done a lot more to the bar recently, I'll try to get some pics up in the next couple days. New lights added and new trim. Got some display cases for mugs and we will be finishing up the spot where we are going to put them in the next couple nights.

Working on the bar. I was going to put these 2 tikis on each side. But the tikis are hollow on the bottom. I was just going to bolt them in but now it is a bigger headache again. So I figured that I could get or make 2 round pecies to go on the bottom that I can bolt to the bar. I just don't know where I could buy those and I don't have the means to cut plywood into a perfect circle. This will be the last main thing that I need to do to get this bar towards completion.

Still no name yet...

[ Edited by: lunavideogames 2012-10-01 16:57 ]

How big are the holes in the bottom of your tikis? (diameter)

Could you use dowels or PVC pipes? That's the method I used to anchor my outdoor tikis into the ground in the backyard when they kept blowing over when the wind was strong. You could drill a hole into the bar top, secure it from the bottom and slip the tiki onto the pole.

The holes are pretty big, like over 5 inches. PVC might work, I do want to make sure that they are stable, so that people don't knock them down right away. Maybe I could drill a hole through the top and custom make some really long bolts and screw them down really tight? They are pretty big holes.

Thank you for the advise, I will look into finding some PVC that might work. Hopefully I can figure it out soon. I haven't had any time to search for an answer to my problem for awhile.

Did you cap off the end of the PVC and bolt straight into that? I guess you might have just put the PVC into the ground firmly if they are outside.

So we were brainsorming some names last night. Here is what we came up with:

Lilo Lounge - I don't really like, reminds me of the 5th Element or a Disney movie and I am sure someone else has used that already

Lilo Hapuna or Lost Harpoon - Getting closer

We do have this harpoon as a center piece behind the bar. If we could incorporate that into the name it would be cool. Harpoon is already a bar in PB I think so that is too common. Don the Beachcomber has their "Dagger Bar" which sounds cooler than harpoon bar so that won't do either. But we are getting closer. Anyone have any ideas along those lines?

Thanks for looking!

So my friend was in town so we threw together a party for her even though the bar isn't 100% done yet. Here are some day pics...

My mugs. I want to tiki this display case up a bit, but it doesn't look too bad when it is dark.
Kiwi Steve - that is the blue Tiki Ti mug up there. Sorry, I can't part with it, but since you live in SD, you should come by for a visit and a Mai Tai!

This is a case for my friends mugs. Our bar is not finished yet but we already have a few friends mugs on display.

This was a painting from my friend Mark. He is a tatoo artist in Minneapolis. It is a really cool painting and the more you look at it the more things you see in it.
You can check out more of his art here...
dangtattoo.com
aladang.com

These are tikis I took pictures of in Hawaii.

Some Doug Horne art.

We are still working on this side of the room. I want to put the water heater and the sink all the way down towards the washer and dryer. Unfortunately we still need to have a couple things in our garage that aren't tiki. I tried to cover up temporarily some of the pipes with our cheapy tiki stuff.

Volcano Bowl. The light on the wall is my little idea. I bought 2 color changing lights and they slowly change color. I put them behind the fish net so that it shines through. I thought it looked really cool! Also our tiki masks on the wall have different colors that shine through their mouths and eyes. I will upgrade someday to cooler ones, but the cheap ones look pretty cool for now.

This one was a little blurry, but you can see the lighting a bit better.

It is coming along!

Thanks for everyone's advice and help! Thank you for the comments too!

[ Edited by: lunavideogames 2012-10-12 21:43 ]

So I finally came up with a good name - Tiki the Hut!

I searched a bunch and it doesn't seem like anyone has ever used it before, so I guess it is mine unless someone else knows differently.

I don't know if I'll spell it - Tiki the Hut - Tikki the Hutt - Tiki the Hutt, but one will work. I guess I like the first one the best. I'll post some more pictures soon!

Love the name. Looking good and having a blast I see! That looks like a gas water heater, resist the urge to cover it with bamboo/reed fence or you may have a campfire ambiance :lol: Maybe a bamboo and paper screen set a safe distance in front of it?

the fake grass is GENIUS! cool name too.

yeah, the grass IS real good lookin' - may have to borrow that idea for my next one

Thanks Skootiki and Holler Waller. Glad you like it and feel free to use any of my ideas. Thank you for the nice comments!

Mdm - yeah it is a gas water heater. The garage still needs some garage stuff in it. I thought that tiki covered it up:)
I will be careful with it. I don't have anything touching it and hopefully we can move it out of the way sooner than later. Thanks for the advice and comments!

Still working on the bar but its getting closer to finished. More pictures in the next couple days!

Sorry I haven't posted progress pics for awhile, I have been busy but still working on my tiki bar.

I figured out a way to put my tikis on the sides of my bar. I just used the longest screws I could find...


And drilled holes all the way through the bar and the tikis.
Then I tightened them down and put rope around the base...


I made a rooftop out of bamboo.

I dried out some of my old fan palm leaves and draped them over the roof. I like to use everything I can that I own or have leftover.

This is a night shot. I still have to refinish the bar top but it is a big project and I have not had time to take it on yet.

This is what my ceiling looks like. It already had a tiki hut feel to it so I am only going to decorate around it. I moved my surfboards down to open it up a bit. Thanks to Tikivato, I now have 4 pufferfish with lights! Bought 3 from him and one in Hilo. I also have 2 smaller ones without lights.

Some nice art and you can kinda see one of my tiki masks lit up.

Decided to put some cheaper tiki mugs up on the top frame and hold them in with rope. I have a bunch still to put up but I'll need more to complete the distance.

Finally got some wall vases from Munktiki and threw some REAL plants in them. I hope I can keep them alive:)

So thanks MDM for the suggestion and to Dan & Wendy for letting me borrow their idea for these fake vines. I put them along side the washer & dryer to hide it, and my wife went crazy and bought a bunch more to line the faucet and the top of the bamboo along our walls. It looks really good I think and I am sure we will add more. The carving in the top right might not be totally tiki, but my Grandfather got it in the 50's in Haiti while he was in the navy. So even though he looks a bit rasta, he is tiki to me. My Grandpa was actually out this weekend and he was such a good sport he even came to the International Tiki Marketplace with me.

Amazing! The creativity behind this blows my mind! Your bar area looks SUPER sick, too!

Reused this part of the original bar. It needs to be touched up still, but I like where it is. These tikis all came from different Hawaiian islands and the 2 inside are some cheaper ones.

I wanted to have a crate or a barrel for a table for these 4 chairs. I looked around but couldn't find one. So I decided to make one.

I started out by framing the box. I used screws to bolt it all together.


Then I cut smaller pieces of wood for the trim and pounded them in with finishing nails. They pretty much covered all the screws.

Then I took a torch to it!!! I weathered it a bit and stained it. I should have torched it a bit more, but I still want to weather it further, so I am open to ideas. I want it to look really weathered and put some barnicles on it too. I guess some black spraypaint splotches? I could run down to the pier and scrape off some barnicles and glue them on??? I have no clue if that would work at all.

[ Edited by: lunavideogames 2012-12-03 19:37 ]

Thanks Pockeytiki - That is very nice of you to say.

Almost forgot. I reused the stems of the fan palm fronds to frame this Tiki Ti menu. I think those stems look VERY TIKI. I hope you agree. I still have a bunch left over too. I might make some more if anyone wants to trade for one:)

This is what it is looking like now. Kinda blurry, but I'll take pictures with my camera instead of my phone when it is complete.

Looking cozy. I'll try to get some night pictures with all of the lighting up soon. The ship picture my wife got at an art fair outside of Bali Hai while I was having too many drinks. I don't know if it will last there or not but it is fine for now. Grabbed another REAL PALM for the back corner. I could use suggestions on where to get a really cool tiki looking vase for it.

I will try to keep the pictures coming. I wanted to be "finished" by now but it always takes longer than you think it will. Hopefully some folks in San Diego or wherever will attend my grand opening in the early spring. Everyone is invited, but I haven't met a lot of you:) I am kinda shy at meeting new people, So you may have seen me at tiki events and not talked to me yet. But I am a great host and I would love to have you guys over to tell me what you think! I have to finish my bar and I want to get a small bar table with 4 stools. I also want a little cool fountain. I might have to talk to Ben on that one...

But it is coming along. It is a fun and relaxing place for me and my family and friends to sit and chill. We have been using it regularly for months now. We get 1000 times more use out of it than our boring garage!

[ Edited by: lunavideogames 2012-12-03 19:22 ]

And I want to do something with that garage door. I might put up bamboo or reed fencing. Or a mural of some sort. It is nice to be able to open it up and be exposed to the outside and to be able to close it for warmth and to cut down on noise. But it doesn't fit in with my bar...

You've been busy! It all looks great but the fan palm stem frame is brilliant! Besides looking bitchin', it'll teach the kids to keep their grubby little hands off of things :lol:

Thanks MDM! I agree. You better watch out when you try to climb behind my bar!

The next ones I make I might try to use a backframe and use finishing nails and not overlap them. I will post them when I get to that point.

Two things:

1. I'm making a rum branding iron that would work great for that crate.
2. Tell me you named it after Pizza the Hut. It was the first thing I thought, and I got quite a laugh.

I like how you use everything you can find around the house like the old fan palm leaves on top of the bar. Several years ago I used fresh palm leaves on top of my tiki bar which is outside in the garden. As the leaves dried they draped over the edges of the roof of the bar very nicely and I just kept on adding more and more. I used different palm leaves from several trees and shrubs I had in the garden. It looked very authentic and attractive for home made thatching. Nice progression pictures.

Hale Tiki - A rum brand would look really cool you are right! I was going to put some kind of logo on the side, but I didn't even think of a brand! Also Space Balls was always one of my favorite movies. I can watch it everyday and not get sick of it. I feel like I have seen it more times than I've seen Star Wars.

Hiltiki - Yes, I think that the fan palm fronds work well as a thatch. I dried them out in my backyard for a couple months, flipping them over occasionally. Then I chopped off the stems and threw them up on the roof. I guess I have a never-ending supply so if these go bad I can replace them quickly and easily. It is the only palm in my yard, but since I have been trimming it, it has grown 3 times its original size. It has little stringybits that hang down now and it looks cool. I think the longer they stay up the better they will look.

Hahahahaha. Excellent! I'm not sure which one I've seen more, myself. I'd guess Star Wars. Or, at least, I reference Star Wars more.

I started work on a Dark Helmet helmet awhile back, and never got to finish it. It's quite a project, to get things screen correct, and to be so massive. Maybe I'll shoot for this coming Halloween.

We got a new guy in at work, and I decided that I was going to start calling him Barf. He calls me pig-fucker, but I get to call him Barf. He gets the reference, and is amused by it.

Check out the Rum Brand thread over in Other Crafts, or you can always burn it on yourself. It'll look great on there!

And you can always make those cases look like bamboo with a little JB Weld or Clay and paint!

Sounds like you have a pretty cool job! I want to see the progress on the brand, seems like a great idea.

The Dark Helmet costume sounds amazing. You will have to post some pictures once you get that together. I have never seen anyone do Spaceballs as a Halloween costume.

Excellent palm frond picture frame!

Thanks ToddVegas! I like it too :)

[ Edited by: lunavideogames 2013-01-02 17:24 ]

It has been a month since my last bar update. I wasn't slacking, I am still in the middle of a big project. It has taken a month at this point, and it is still not finished. As soon as it is I will start posting more often.

So I though that I would give a few updates on other things happening in my bar.

My friends are starting to get into the spirit of things. Lots more mugs on my friends shelf.

Got this bookshelf at the International Tiki Marketplace from Smokintikis for only $10!!! I had to fix the top shelf though cause my BOT wouldn't fit originally.

Got this Tikipops lamp as well. I really like this one and I am glad no one beat me to it. Thanks Pops! Also I got 3 of these little blowfish lamps from Tikivato. He is a great guy and his prices can't be beat!

Got this cool tiki from Skootiki. He has a nice new home now.

Sadly my plants in vases died off quick so I replaced them with fake ones. Oh well you can't win them all.


This is my tip jar :)

Thank you to the 5,000+ people who have looked at my bar. It is coming along and it should be "finished" soon!

That shelf unit is great! Thanks for sharing.

Chris

Thanks WestAdad!

So I have been working on my bar top basically this whole year so far. When I started I didn't realize how much time it would take and how much it would cost. Turns out it cost a lot more than I thought!

I started by framing in the bar top. I went down to the beach and grabbed some sand. I sprinkled a thin layer over the top of my bar as seen below.

I then added some shells, coral and swizzle sticks and other cool items and set them out to where I liked them to be.

Then I started to pour epoxy glaze all over the shells. I had to coat it like 20 times to get to the desired level. Since I started in the winter, it took forever to dry as well.


After 3 months it seemed dry enough (after leaving a heater in front of it for a week). So I took off the barriers. I like the way it turned out! It looks really cool, like real water!


I still need to finish the trim, but I am working on something really cool for that purpose right now.

Also decided it looked cooler to burn the knots in the bamboo.

Does anyone know or has anyone else done their bar with epoxy? I am wondering the best way to clean it and the best way to keep the scratches off? Thanks!

Also, we are having the Grand Opening May 11th. You are all invited and I hope some of you will be able to make it! Kalua pig and lots of free drinks (not free for me). But we will have different food and drinks, hopefully everyone can get something that they like. My wife is a vegitarian, so there will be some meat free items as well.

So mark it on your calendar! I will put it in the events section when it gets closer. Located in San Diego - PM me if you would like the address and you think that you will be able to attend! WE are thinking around 4 PM for the start time so that we can go into the night and show off our lighting as well.

On 2013-04-03 16:06, lunavideogames wrote:
Does anyone know or has anyone else done their bar with epoxy? I am wondering the best way to clean it and the best way to keep the scratches off? Thanks!

I did my bartop with clear marine epoxy, and it cured in about 48 hours. Not sure why yours took 3 months, that seems pretty excessive, but it might have had something to do with mixing it in small amounts and applying it in thin coats. If you mix up a larger batch, the chemical reaction with the hardener generates more heat and causes it to cure faster. You should also apply it in a layer about 1/8"-1/4" thick.

Soap and water is the best cleaner. Don't use anything alcohol- or bleach-based, as it will soften and possibly dissolve the epoxy. You can remove light abrasions with a oil-based furniture polish, like Old English. Heavier scratches may require wet/dry sanding with 650-grit sandpaper, followed by an application of furniture polish.

[ Edited by: MrBaliHai 2013-04-03 17:15 ]

Thanks MrBaliHai! I will do that. So far I just cleaned it with water, so I will use dish soap as well from now on. I will look around for some sandpaper over 400. Would a buffer or something work as well?

Yeah, it did have a lot to do with coating it in layers, and my desire to have it perfect before I touched it. I really didn't know how much I was going to use so I had to keep going to the store to buy more. I had to wait 5-7 hours to apply each next layer, which sometimes turned into a day or two. And the 5-7 hours was at 70-80 degree temp, which in SD in January in a garage, was not the case.

That wa quite an investment in time...looks great!!!

Looks cool

Thanks for the comments Vampiress and Hang10!

On 2013-04-03 17:34, lunavideogames wrote:
I will look around for some sandpaper over 400. Would a buffer or something work as well?

I've never tried using a buffer, but I'd be concerned about it generating too much heat, as that might soften the epoxy. 650-grit sandpaper should be available at an auto parts store, just make sure you sand it wet, and parallel with the scratch.

...and I forgot to mention that you did a great job. Very nice effect with the swizzles, starfish, etc. I used paper ephemera that I collected, like menus, postcards, etc. It worked really well with thick card stock, but there was some minor staining and discoloration with the thinner items.

A crystal clear resin top is likely to scratch no matter what.

What I did is buffed the entire top surface with 0000 steel wool and then using buffing compound (a type of car polish).

Then the whole top will have a matte finish and becomes much more scratch irrelevant.