Hale Manu - Nashville, TN

I'm finally getting around to posting the basement tiki bar that we started building out in 2016...

There's a dock at the bottom of the stairs (with ocean sounds playing underneath)

Higher Res Pics

[ Edited by: gooneybird 2019-02-28 14:53 ]

What a great space. Love the attention to detail and the layering. Cheers for sharing

Very nice and inviting, love the decor.

Great use of lighting and very well done. I can almost smell the rum from here.

Wow, very nice! I'll be in town for the Nashville Boogie, photographing models. I'd love to come see your space.

Spike

On 2019-03-01 10:06, Luckydesigns wrote:
Wow, very nice! I'll be in town for the Nashville Boogie, photographing models. I'd love to come see your space.

Sure thing! I'll be at the Boogie, too.

Love your Witco pieces.

It's come a long way since we first saw it. Wow!

Stupendous! I hope to one day have a space a fraction as well put together as this. All the elements are there.

Great job
Well done

Thanks for the kind words, everyone! Here's some more:

Here's the door leading to the stairs...I covered the existing door with wood panels, banged it up a bunch, stained it, and added a portal mirror.

And here's the stairway. It's embarrassingly bare at the moment (but at least it's painted now). I thought sharing it with you guys might encourage me to get started on it. The plan is to build a pitched thatch roof and hang some lamps (to begin with). Then I'll cover the walls with some sort of treatment and a bunch of art. Since the ceiling is so low in the basement, this is the one place I have unlimited headroom for lamps.

[ Edited by: gooneybird 2019-03-05 14:17 ]

On 2019-03-05 14:15, gooneybird wrote:
Thanks for the kind words, everyone! Here's some more:

And here's the stairway. It's embarrassingly bare at the moment (but at least it's painted now). I thought sharing it with you guys might encourage me to get started on it. The plan is to build a pitched thatch roof and hang some lamps (to begin with). Then I'll cover the walls with some sort of treatment and a bunch of art. Since the ceiling is so low in the basement, this is the one place I have unlimited headroom for lamps.

[ Edited by: gooneybird 2019-03-05 14:17 ]

Looks exactly like our stairway (except yours is painted) even with the little ledge on the right side! It's a huge blank canvas. Can't decide what to do with ours. And getting up there to add lighting is going to be a bear. I'm thinking I'll put some hooks up there and chains so I can maybe add lights later without a giant ladder and fear. It seems possible.

On 2019-03-06 06:07, Swanky wrote:
Looks exactly like our stairway (except yours is painted) even with the little ledge on the right side! It's a huge blank canvas. Can't decide what to do with ours. And getting up there to add lighting is going to be a bear. I'm thinking I'll put some hooks up there and chains so I can maybe add lights later without a giant ladder and fear. It seems possible.

Painting it was no fun. I used a long pole and did it all from the ground.

I'm thinking about hanging the thatched roof from the ceiling using a bicycle storage system (2 hooks with a pulley system to lower/raise a bike for storage). This way I can lower the thatch section and add lamps when I need to without having to climb up again. This still leaves me with the issue of getting up there the first time to hang the hooks, but I think I can do that...once.

[ Edited by: gooneybird 2019-03-06 08:57 ]

or just hang up a tiki bike up there! ;D

Updated 2 of the plain wooden doors in the tiki bar:

Those doors are awesome! Especially fantastic job on the nautical one. Would love more detail on how you did that!

Wow I love the detail on that ships door! Looks amazing! Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work

Here's some pics I took of the ship door while in progress:

Thanks! I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but I'm really pleased with the result.
Basically, I just drilled some holes to add the wooden buttons (mushroom-shaped wooden pieces to make fake rivets).
Next, I used 2 colors of spraypaint (copper and antique copper) to give it an old metal finish.
Then I added the green/blue acrylic paint to look like rusted patina. I'd wipe it off with a rag to let some of the underlying color show through.
Using a brown/orange acrylic mix, I made rust streaks under each of the rivets. I made some fake hinges out of wood blocks to make the door look heavier, and added rust to each one.
The next step was to add the portal mirror (a cheap one I got from Amazon). I sprayed it down with sea glass spray paint, so it looks like a fogged up window instead of a mirror. I added more rust effect to the portal and the hinges, and added a few fake barnacles to the bottom of the door.

I've got to admit, painting on rust is pretty fun.

Great job! Thanks for sharing the details.

Holy moly! How did I miss this when you first posted? Your bar looks phenomenal! Those doors are pretty spectacular--thanks for posting your how-to. I've long argued that the big advantage TC has over FB and other sites is the searchability to learn techniques like this. Everyone's home space is different, but the knowledge base here is incredible and folks like yourself help to make it that way!

I hit up Justin, before the Nashville Boogie, and set up a photoshoot with some models in his incredible bar. Here's one of my favorite photos from the shoot.

You can see more on Instagram @spikandthecamera

I have to say, he's done and INCREDIBLE job in building this space. Super fun guy too! Hopefully I'll be back in Nashville next year.

I always think it's funny when home bars are better than most commercial tiki bars.

Awesome room. That ship door turned out great.

That ship's door really looks the business. The rest of the bar is pretty kick ass too.

Now that Tiki Central's back up, I thought I'd post some updated pics:

You've definitely put the intervening two years to good use! You space is just so... lush. Love what you've done with the stairwell. Also like the Omni Hut placard.

excellent, plus excellent lighting effects!

Looks very nice, cozy and inviting, great job.

Amazing!

WOW! Took the last couple years and put them to use. Great work.

The hidden wall of rum behind the mug wall is genius. The green lighting by the corner of that work of art nautical door is moody AF. The lighting is spot on. That gigantic mask face is so spell inducing. I love everything about your bar. So well done.

Awwww.... Thanks for the kind words everyone! It is greatly appreciated. Hopefully we'll have some more stuff to share soon.

This thread deserves a bump... I always enjoy my visit to the Hale Manu... even if it is only looking at the pics... very inspiring.