The Grasscutters Club -Philadelphia

Welcome to the Grasscutters Club, a small spot cobbled together by and for the pathfinders and porters, bamboo cutters and coconut gatherers, spear fishermen and swabbies. Belly up, relax, request a tune, tell a joke, knock one back, ask for another...welcome, welcome all!

So with our annual Spring party coming up this Saturday, phase two of my little home bar has effectively come to an end whether I like it or not. My name is Rich and I live in Philadelphia, PA: a relative Tiki desert as far as I can tell (Luckily, I lived in Kahiki-era Columbus for years). I am happy to humbly share my progress here among so many awesome and cleverer home bar builders and hope to keep drawing inspiration for the eventual phase three. I am not very handy: I didn't build much and don't have any in-progress photos to share. If you will indulge me, though, I will comment a bit and try to share a few of the ideas that may or may not be plainly conveyed in the photos. I had a lot of fun.

So the little bar came with the house.

It was unexpected in a home of this era and its placement is odd. The bar is essentially a hallway just off the family room that leads to our laundry room and garage. A door on either side of the bar make it a snug little space, but it remains by necessity a daily thoroughfare. The previous owners had no use for it at all and used it as a dirty laundry dump zone.

There is a little sink that functions and a single electrical outlet above the bar. The sink is poorly built and splashes water everywhere. That's a phase three project at best, though, and I find I use little water behind the bar; especially with the kitchen sink twenty paces away.

Here's where I reveal myself to be a hack: I was really pleased with myself having competently covered my grey mini fridge with bamboo-print contact paper. And excuse me for the cheap booze you see. It's a whopper of a party coming up.

The bamboo paneling went up pretty easily. It's damn tough to cut across, though. One roll on top of another did not cover the whole wall and for months there were about 7" of exposed drywall and white baseboards exposed near the floor. The bamboo base came later and I like it. It gives a little dimension to a cube of a room and is just high enough to cover.

The "Tahitian" mask just arrived days ago and I am thrilled with it. I had a terrific experience dealing with the folks at Oceanic Arts. I gently requested a bit of a rush on the mask and Leroy knocked it out with time to spare. Ironically, the mask arrived at my house in Philly the same day I was visiting OA in Whittier while on a business trip. I did not get to meet either of the founders that day, but I loved seeing it nonetheless.

From another angle, here is my rickety mug rack and fishing float light, also from Oceanic Arts. I have not come up with a good way to mask the pendant light fixture yet. As it is still a plain white ceiling that I intend to someday cover in matting or tapa cloth, though, I am content to leave it until then.

[ Edited by: RichC 2018-04-13 07:10 ]

I got a great tip from another poster here about color-changing LED lights at Ikea. I did get some and installed them under the shelves of the mug rack.

The Sepik carving is actually an antique or at least semi-antique. I am an antique specialist by profession and the piece was destined for the trash at the old auction house where I started.

The ukulele is only as good as a prop to me, but it is an original gold-label Kamaka from the 1950s. It was a gift to my dad when he was a kid. The tarantula in formaldehyde was a gift from a client to me.

The little Hawaiian idol looks like a turd up close, but from a distance it looks better to me than so many bad (and expensive) carved wooden ones I see on-line. I bought this one fro a pet supply store for under $10. It goes in a fish tank. The skull is a Halloween prop, natch.

Having started on the bar without checking here first, I learned too late I like lauhala matting better as a wall covering than bamboo. I can live with it. I did try to incorporate a bit on the back door. I was not allowed by the wife to cover the whole door in matting, but she came up with a great idea to just fill in the recessed areas. I like it a lot. The pineapple is an ice bucket, by the way.

Nailed it.

Hope you liked the bar, everyone. Aloha and Mahalo, one and all!

Nice start Rich, before you know all the walls will be covered with tiki stuff. Keep us posted with your progression.

Rich - Looking good! I like where you're going with this. Have fun with phase three (four, five... - you know how this works) and keep us posted.

Great job, Rich! I especially like your base boards--that bamboo edging does indeed give it added dimension. I'll bet you it'd look great as crown molding as well. You can consider that when you install the lauhala matting to the ceiling! :)

Ahhh
Another fine place to sit and enjoy the Tiki vibe
Cheers

Outstanding!

Very clever!

Your place looks fantastic! And I love that lamp on the table. Your idea to cover the fridge in contact paper is brilliant too!! I hope you don't mind if i steal that for my own fridge? It's killer!!

I love that Tahitian mask. And not just because it reminds me of a tiki version of Master Shake:

Beautiful little place and I like the stories behind the decor. One of my favorite parts of a tiki bar are the stories behind where the items came from.

On 2018-05-09 13:29, Rheanna wrote:
Your place looks fantastic! And I love that lamp on the table. Your idea to cover the fridge in contact paper is brilliant too!! I hope you don't mind if i steal that for my own fridge? It's killer!!

Thank you, everybody, for the kind words. And I'm thrilled you like that trick with the fridge. Steal away!