wall coverings for tiki room? Inexpensive

Aloha!

I need some ideas for wall coverings for a tiki room. The walls will be painted a tropical green (called 'dried palm', but it looks more like live palm) and I want something to go on the bottom half of the walls-like tiki wainscoating. I have checked Home Depot and Yardbirds to see if they have bamboo/reed fencing, but they don't yet. Also I've checked out the matchstick blinds, but I'm not too crazy about them for the walls.

There are cats involved here, so woven palm matting might not be good.

The room is 16X16, with 3 walls to cover. I need something that will either bend around the corners or be able to be cut at corners and hidden with bamboo.

Any suggestions? They will be installed on sheetrock walls.

One other thing-the foundation on 2 walls is about a foot high-cement, and sticks out about 4" from the wall. So to keep an even height all around the room the material would need to be cut to fit the one inside wall, OR, if possible, we could put a wide 'baseboard' on the inside wall to make it even.

Help!

:drink:

Tacky

[ Edited by: Tacky Tiki on 2004-01-20 14:47 ]

Hey Tacky-

I'm working on the same idea for my guest room right now. I'm sure there are other sources for this online, or in your local wallpaper store... just ask for grass wallpaper! Looks like thatching, without the mess.

Here's a link to see what I'm talking about...

http://www.wallpaperwholesaler.com/Shoppingcart/searchbook_keyword_kw.asp?choice=grass

You apply it just like wallpaper. Comes in darker or lighter natural shades, depending on your color scheme. Looks great and is as authentic as it gets!

Reever
[email protected]

[ Edited by: Reever on 2004-01-20 15:32 ]

I used vintage tapa cloth as wallpaper, came out really good! But ya gotta spend a lot of time searching to find some thats affordable enough to paste on the wall. Ebay searches did it for me over a few months.

Reed fencing can get pretty trashed by cats too. I discovered how much cats love to sharpen their claws on natural materials like that.

The grass wallpaper would be a good choice.

Another option might be tatami matting, the woven rice stalk matting used as flooring in traditional Japanese homes.

Or what about a vintage style tropical bark cloth or other tropical fabric?

TC is loaded with creative minds, I'm sure you'll find the ideal wall covering... be sure to post some pics of your finished work.

Lauhala Matting 4 X 50 foot for about $100. Or even fire retardant for about $180. You have 64 feet to cover, minus doors, etc, so that should do it with a 4 X 8 piece added. If you get bamboo fencing, it will cost you $80 to do that, you'll have to cut it in half or more and toss the most of it, and figure out a way to attach it to the wall, and stay together. It'll look ugly to boot. Lauhala matting is perfect. Yes, the kitties might scratch, but it'll be easy to install and make it look awesome. You can get it from Oceanic Arts and be a part of the tiki legacy!

[ Edited by: Swanky on 2004-01-21 15:44 ]

Reever:

Is that wallpaper actual grass on the paper backing or is it paper with the grass printed on it? I have a limited amount of wallpaper from my office that we used in the current tiki corner in the way I have described. The cats haven't bothered it. The paper I have is a grass or grass like substance that is bonded onto the paper. That might be the best way to go-since it is kitty-proven.

Thanks for the great ideas for the walls-keep them coming! Can't wait to have a totally tiki 16x16 room!

:drink:

Tacky

On 2004-01-20 16:50, Swanky wrote:
If you get bamboo fencing, it will cost you $80 to do that, you'll have to cut it in half or more and toss the most of it, and figure out a way to attach it to the wall, and stay together. It'll look ugly to boot.

Swanky, didn't you put up bamboo fencing? Do you not like it now? What I was thinking of doing is putting up the bamboo fencing (already bought it) for the lower six feet and then that matting for the upper part, having it overlap over the fencing.

I've got a Tiki room that needs covering too, so many thanks for the tips. I'll post pics once I find anything suitable.

Trader Woody

Kono, no, he is talking about a sort of wainscotting, which would mean cutting the bamboo fencing down to 3-4 feet wide. I just looked over and see that I have a piece like that on my wall just fine. In my mind I was thinking it was held together at the top and bottom only. Okay, so you can cut it down to size okay.

I still would be buying the lauhala. Price wise, you are not paying much more, but you are getting something that looks much better. It's already 4 feet wide, but that may be too tall.

The other real luxury might be to plan around a trip to Southern California. I say that all glib, like California is all right around the corner from each other. I'm sure it's like me getting to Memphis. Yeah it's in TN, but it's 8 hours away! But you never know. Should there be a trip in your future where you can go look at the options at OA or some such place, you are doing well.

I do wish the fencing was taller, but I plan to obscure the upper area by doing a drop ceiling with thatch and an over hang of thatch that covers that area. The big thing the drop ceiling also does, is control the light. Lighting is crutial in a tiki bar, and if you have a white ceiling like most people, a little light will bounce all over the place and one 40 watt bulb can be too much. Try a few lights and pretty soon it's just too bright. So putting in the dark thatch ceiling means the light is absorbed and I can put in a lot more lights and still have a warm, dark room.

By the way, one of my cats is obsessed with one section of my fencing and spends too much time messing with it. He chewed the string in two and keeps pulling at it. With that, it has been still very easy to put back. Cats. They also love to climb on my 7 foot Papua New Guinea Oratory Table...

here's a topic about tapa:

https://tikicentral.com/viewtopic-new.php?topic=5723&forum=1

it might be useful.

Tacky, I don't know if you have the beloved behemoth of Ikea in Tackyville, N.C. But if you do, they have a 6' wide, approx 4ft high bamboo pole 'screen' strung together (it's flexible). I think they run around $40 per section. No cat will want to sharpen a claw on that!

If you want to do it cheaply and aren't opposed to periodically replacing where your cats attack, an idea that I had was to use those grass beach mat rolls. They are about $3 each and you could cover any fabric seams with bamboo poles.

I was thinking of using Lone Star Beer boxes.... flattened out of course.

hey all I can say is it's been a long week and I have 10 minutes untill my work week ends.

On 2004-01-23 15:55, Unkle John wrote:
I was thinking of using Lone Star Beer boxes.... flattened out of course.

I was just looking at a retrospective book on an artist and noticed that he had used bean labels(red) to wallpaper his kitchen and it looked really good!

While we are on the topic of wall coverings, I was thinking about covering my ceiling in a brown burlap.

Anyone ever worked with it as wall coverings?

Where do I find the stuff burlap.com is under construction?

Aloha!

Saturday we painted the walls-it looks fantastic! I have checked out a few wallpaper places, but they don't have anything as nice as the scraps I already have. SO...we are taking our grasscloth wallpaper remnants on Saturday and will unroll them to see how much we have and if it will reach. I still have braided sea grass from OA that will go along the top edge and on any seams.

We have an Ick-ea in Emeryville (near Trader Vic's!) and I was there yesterday. None of those cool bamboo room dividers. I want one for the patio area. I did pick up some placemats of woven palm stuff.

I have decided to do the wall covering thing on one long wall and the 32" wall in the corner by the bar. Those are both inside walls.

:drink:

Tacky

I've got ugly pegboard wall in my dungeon studio and want to cover it. I have 5 fishtanks in front of one wall so cannot paint it without moving them. Which I really don't want to do! Also there are a few pipes and beams in the way that I would need to maneuver around by cutting to shape. I like the look of the Lauhala. Can it be stapled direct to the pegboard or is it too thick? I was thinking that I could slide it behind the tanks then tack it to the pegboard. Is that do-able or am I dreaming?
Painting other sections later today including the whitewashed at least a hundred times but peeling rock foundation and brick wall.
The measurements on the fishtank wall are 7 ft 6 inch high by 13 ft 5 inches. The wall that I want to cover behind the tanks (the base of the tank the top of the bureaus that they are on to the ceiling)is 4 ft by 13 ft. 5 inches so if it comes in 4 ft rolls that seems ideal. That would leave another section to cover approximate 4x4ft behind my frog tanks.

Update... just discovered a stash of grasscloth in the attic so might attempt some wallpapering coverups.
:)

Hmmm... decided to gluestick the grasscloth to the pegboard instead of wallpaper paste and so far so good, no mess, no smell, non toxic. Of course it all may fall off in a week but I figured it was worth a shot. I tacked the top edge with staples and worked my way down. Looks fantastic!

[ Edited by: susane on 2004-06-06 11:42 ]

i use from those mats that you can roll up and Lay on at the beach they cost about half a dollar or so