Best tropical mattings for walls and ceilings (Bac Bac to the Future?)

The time has arrived to upgrade some wall and ceiling surfaces in our basement staircase leading to the bar area. (There's a rumor of an upcoming NW Tiki Crawl.) I broke out my OA catalog and liked the look of Bac Bac w/Sennit and also the paper backed Bac Bac w/Sisal. In fact, it's hard to find an OA matting or reed fencing that doesn't look great. Looking through member photos, it appears that the woven Lauhala matting is a favorite material. Rather than decide looking at inch and a half catalog pics, I thought I'd see what experts at TC had to say. So what did you use and how do you like it?

I used the OA bac-bac with sennit for the ceiling in the Spectacular East Indies Room, and I'm very happy with the results. I painted the ceiling behind the matting a medium brown, as the bac-bac has some reveal because of its loose weave.

I wanted to do something different from lauhala matting, and turns out, I haven't used any at all in my room.

Just about any natural matting would look great!

[ Edited by: Traderpup on 2004-02-12 15:52 ]

Ours has a combination of Lauhala ceiling and lower wall, 3/4" straight weave) and polished reed, with Jap Giant and Robert Young bamboo trim and 6-inch Moso bamboo open beams on the ceiling along some Fijian tapa accents (overboard on tapa generally looks like a dirty circus tent on ceilings, but looks killer on walls when trimmed out.. ). Seagrass looks great on ceilings, too. Tahitian Neou palm matting looks very nice and is the standard at the fabulous Trader Vic's Atlanta, but the sheets are smaller so they require more trim.

[ Edited by: Basement Kahuna on 2004-02-12 16:48 ]

Traderpup, your vaulted ceiling looks great. How high is that sucker? I'll go to work with some paint while my order
gets processed and shipped. I like BK's idea of getting some tapa on the walls. My bar ceiling is burlap with some bamboo trim.
I don't think it rises to the level of dirty circus tent. It's got more of a dirty yurt look. I should probably upgrade that while I'm at it. Thanks for the feedback.

Traderpup,

I think your ceiling rules. I would like to blow up a big picture of your ceiling and tape it to mine. It's just too cool.

I used Bamboo Board on my celings. I purchased it at Franks Cane and Rush, but, you can get it at OA.


Mahalo,
Al

[ Edited by: Alnshely on 2004-02-14 09:49 ]

I'll post some pictures of my new place tomorrow or Monday and maybe you guys can give me some ideas. I've had to settle on a corner of my living room for tiki at the moment so the matting will have to be placed just so.

Your places are great. I'm itching to get back to the KTPR.

BK, where did you find the Lauhala? Once I finish the raised area of my basement, I need to start on the walls and ceiling.

Ours came from Oceanic Arts; the Moso too.