Big Kahuna's Tiki Shack

After a month of weeknights and weekends working on the remodel of my Tiki Hideaway, it is finished! I am pleased with the results, of course, I have some tweaking to do but for the most part, I think it was a success. I actually undertook 3 projects at the same time, first was remodeling the center portion of the bar to accomodate a larger aquarium tank, second was building a volcano/waterfall on the upper area above the aquarium and third is two light boxes I have wanted to build with exotica album covers lit from behind. I always bite off more than I can chew and so it went. I made a commitment to a client who I found shared my love of tiki for her and her family to come over to toast the new bar and so the clock started ticking. Take a look and see what you think...

This is my quick drawing of how I pictured the remodel looking like, it served as my model to refer to during the remodel.

And this is the final product...

Here is a detail close up of the tank, I tried to give the impression of an ancient village that was buried under a lava flow and the sunken city below. I incorporated a volcano and a temple with unrealistic colored fake plants with black gravel. I think the effect is fairly authentic.

Here are closeups of the volcano, I used an aquarium decoration that was round with god faces all around. I sawed the piece in half and worked it into the volcano mountain with some rock faces. If you look back you can see the wood and screen frame I used to construct the mountain, I then draped it with plaster cloth strips. I then painted it and finished with a spray of black acrylic and water. The tops of the volcanos with sprayed with red and orange spray paint, the spillway is made of acrylic sprayed on the underside so the water spilling down does not take traces of paint with it into the aquarium below. Yes, the waterfall spills into the aquarium below.

I actually put a unit in the top that smokes and has an LED light, the smoke wafts down the spillway and is an swesome effect. You can't really see it in the photos unfortunately.

The light boxes were fun & easy, a box made of wood, (see previous photos) then 2 pieces of clear acrylic with prints of the covers between is screwed on the top of the boxes. Add a bamboo frame and viola! I mounted these on either side of the center of the bar, and displayed my tiki mug collection in front of them. I moved the bottles of the good stuff to the shelf below.

And here is the whole thing all together...

And the christening with our new friends, Kelee & Tom, Lynn & Kristin...

That is AWESOME. I just have to try my hand at that light box. How did you get the record covers done, local copy shop?

Aloha Daddy, your creativity amazes me. You have a magnificent center piece for your bar.

[ Edited by: MaukaHale 2016-03-14 01:09 ]

Very, very cool. Nice work!

That is freakin' incredible! Wow!

I love that the volcano/aquarium tells its own little story of a lost civilization. These storytelling diorama elements in Tiki bars are fantastic. It's great to see them here on the forum!

On 2016-03-13 23:08, HopeChest wrote:
That is AWESOME. I just have to try my hand at that light box. How did you get the record covers done, local copy shop?

Thank you HopeChest, yes, I scanned the images from my collection of record albums and since they were oversized, 12" x 12", I had them printed on regular papaer at the local copy shop. I first tried to use ModPodge but the images were too large and I ended up with a big mess on my hands after spending a lot of time putting on the goop. I then decided to just use the paper images.

On 2016-03-14 01:08, MaukaHale wrote:
Aloha Daddy, your creativity amazes me. You have a magnificent center piece for your bar.

[ Edited by: MaukaHale 2016-03-14 01:09 ]

Mahalo MaukaHale, that's high praise especially coming from you!!! I respect and admire your work so, the funny thing is, I will look at the work you and others do on this site and it will inspire me to think up something totally unrelated. It is just with all the creative ideas presented on this site, it gets your creative juices flowing, and that's the real beauty of this site.

On 2016-03-14 16:34, EnchantedTikiGoth wrote:
That is freakin' incredible! Wow!

I love that the volcano/aquarium tells its own little story of a lost civilization. These storytelling diorama elements in Tiki bars are fantastic. It's great to see them here on the forum!

Thank you Goth! I'm glad you appreciate the story, I like the association between tiki gods and lost civilizations, ruins in a jungle, etc. Tiki has so many branches that you can go on, like the Pirate thing also, I would love to go that direction also as many others have done. Thanks again for your kind words :)

Aloha!!

Mahalo everyone who left your nice comments, it really means a lot to get encouragement from fellow tiki freaks! I did want to mention before someone beats me to it, the wall behind the volcano is awfully blank and ugly, I am planning on using a piece of masonite and painting it with a far off mural of distant volcanos, a moon and simple images all painted with UV paint so it has a soft glow. I can't wait, I think it will complete the whole illusion.

Then, I really have to concentrate on creating more hanging lamps, i keep getting sidetracked but I know the thing that I need the most at this point is more hanging lamps. All in time, right!

Aloha!

Have to say every change you made redoing a particular area just was right on and the way to go--thatch border, extending the beam, adding the ceiling panels, and wow the bar acquarium/flowing volcano is just the best. Great job with the visualization on that. Everything lit at night especially says "that's a swanky bar you have!"

If you can, can you add a couple more photos daytime of the volcano? I was reading your description and very intrigued to get a closer view. Thanks. Gee can't wait to see what other lights you are working on. The puffer fish came out great.

Wow! Every time I check back on this thread, I see something new and wonderful. I couldn't imagine it could get any better but you just keep topping yourself!

Hats off to some great and inspirational work.

Dang
Gotta say
Ya knocked it out of the park
Good job
Love all the colors, ideas and executions

Congrats n cheers

Mahalo for the nice comments, I get so much satisfaction out of adding and plussing my bar, I don't what is more fun, sitting and enjoying the bar with friends or dreaming up more things to build! And I'm so thankful for Tiki Central for providing a venue to share with all the Tiki community. I get so much motivation from all my fellow tiki bar builders.

I did have a problem with the volcano, it was leaking and dripping down where it was not supposed to be dripping. I replaced the tube and built up the sides of the top of the spillway and now there is no problem. I will take a video of the volcano running and the smoke coming out of the top, I have to admit I LOVE this part of the bar as I have always been fascinated with volcanoes. I am now working on the piece that will complete the scene, a backdrop painting. I was researching what I wanted to do there and finally decided on a fantasy style painting of tall mountains with waterfalls and palm trees. I will be using UV paint to give it a midnight like look so it should glow. I'm so excited to finish the scene as the white wall looks very un-tiki!!!

Aloha!!!

On 2016-06-26 14:17, Polly_Nesia wrote:
Have to say every change you made redoing a particular area just was right on and the way to go--thatch border, extending the beam, adding the ceiling panels, and wow the bar acquarium/flowing volcano is just the best. Great job with the visualization on that. Everything lit at night especially says "that's a swanky bar you have!"

If you can, can you add a couple more photos daytime of the volcano? I was reading your description and very intrigued to get a closer view. Thanks. Gee can't wait to see what other lights you are working on. The puffer fish came out great.

Hi Polly, thanks for your compliments, I'm glad you like what I have done. I took some photos for you showing the volcano without the lighting. I also found some progress photos that show how I framed it with the small pieces of wood and attached a sour cream cup at the top as the collection point for the water. Hopefully this will give you an idea of how the volcano was built. Also, watching Peter Brady build his volcano helps, :wink:

Thanks for the closeup photos Aloha Daddy. I really like how you designed the lava flow and painted it. If I remember correctly you said you used a piece of acrylic and painted the underside, with water pumped down the front side. In your photos I'm now seeing some additional detail in the flow area. Lines of clear caulk or solidified hot glue maybe? However you did it, it really added some depth to the look of the 'flow'. It's all so clever and I couldn't help notice it looked so perfect with your Yellow Bird album cover. I've seen so many fabulous bars on this site but I think your volcano among so many other things makes this my favorite.

Wow...the volcano is looking good!!!

Aloha, I thought I would post photos of my swizzle stick collection as it is very important to me. My Grandad liked to...well, let's just say, he enjoyed life and part of his normal routine was to visit a place where everybody knew his name at the end of the day. He loved everything Hawaiian and started to collect the swizzle sticks that came with his drinks. He passed in early 1990's and I eventually inherited his swizzle sticks. I also loved the colorful sticks so as soon as I was old enough, I started my own collection.

His collection was so large, I had to sort them out and decided to include only those that were from Hawaiian bars or Tiki bars of some sort. I bought a glass container to display the collection and it is almost full. For the photo I separated them so I have mostly one of each, I actually have several of each stick. Some of the sticks are over 50 years old! Many are from bars that no longer exist. Blow up the photo and have fun looking at all the places they are from.

I also included a photo of my other collection, match books. I have a huge collection, but the ones in the glass bottle are from only Tiki bars and places in Hawaii. I wasn't fortunate enough to get those from my Grandad so you are only seeing the ones I personally have collected.

Here are my swizzle sticks

Here is the glass container with my swizzle stick collection.

Here is my matching glass bowl with my match book collection.

Here is a sneak peak at what's next at the Tiki Hideaway...I'll let you see more this weekend as it gets installed behind the Volcanoes...

Love to see you take a little video of the center piece, with the water flow and the smoke operating. Great job all around, remarkable.

Just finished mounting the background painting for the volcanoes. I painted it with acrylic paints and then painted over it with the invisible UV paints. I am pleased but I will probably tweak it a little to get some different colors in the UV paints. I shot a video also so you can see the water flowing and the fog coming out. I have never posted a video before so hopefully it will work but for now, here are a couple of photos. You can see the fog in the close ups.

Aloha!!!

Eager to see the video. Looks great. Hope you're able to post it soon.

I am not the most tech saavy person in the world, I'd rather spend timedoing more creative things frankly! So until I can figure out how to download my video here, if you are interested, please go to my Facebook page via this link, https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1197803183645327&id=100002469691480&comment_id=1199345736824405&notif_t=feed_comment&notif_id=1474692220925291. I'd love for you to check it out and let me know what you think.

Aloha!!!

You've done some very creative things. I enjoyed watching the video. Keep reinventing your bar, it gets better all the the time.

Thank you Mauka, that means a lot coming from you! I have so many plans and so little time, it can get frustrating but winter is coming and things will be slowing down so I will have more time to see my plans come to fruition. Please let me know if you're ever near San Diego, I'd love to have you taste my Mai Tais!!

aloha!!!

Aloha everyone!

It's been a while since I posted anything on my site, I have been taking photos of my Friday night cocktails and posting them on my FB page and I get a great response. I usually post that the Big Kahuna is making such and such tonight and show the photo, so here are some of my Friday night libations, enjoy!

Wow, how did we miss this thread?

Nice pics, great colors, love the volcanoes and ceiling! And you have one detail that the best of the best always have: aquaria!

Hope you post more often here...

Love everything and the lighting is really great. CHEERS

Aloha fellow Tikiphiles!

I have a potential announcement, I may have to move across the country soon. If I do, I will need to sell my Tiki Hideaway. I built it to be fairly portable so it is not too hard to break down. I am located in Southern California just 1 hour north of San Diego in Murrieta, CA.

I just wanted to get some interest, I will know within the week hopefully if this is going to happen. If it is, I will post the dimensions of the bar and a tentative price. I LOVE my hideaway, it gives me great pleasure and has been a place to escape, get away from stress, enjoy the ambiance of a South Seas hideaway and have a great place to socialize.

If you have thought about owning your own Tiki bar but don't have the time or talent to build your own, then this is your opportunity to buy one ready made for your own space.

Aloha and thank you everyone!!!

[ Edited by: Aloha Daddy 2017-05-21 11:31 ]