Wanting ideas for a tiki bar

So I was taking my daughter to band camp this morning,and passed a house that the folks had just moved out.There,by the curb,was a bar!I couldn't get it into my car,so I called my husband,and bless his heart,went and picked it up.It was sitting in the driveway when my daughter and I got home.So much for background-I'd love some ideas for tikifying this bar.I figured maybe the bar rail would be cool in bamboo,but other than that,I'm open to any and all suggestions by the lovely folks of Tiki Central!Looks to be a fun summer project.

"this one time... at band camp... I found a tikibar..."

Could you post a pic so we know exactly what to visualize?

-Z

How serendipitous is that? I'll have my fella take some shots and put it on-I'm illerate when it comes to loading photos and stuff.

one thought...i picked up a simple white
bar at a liquidator store..and tiki-fied
it in this fashion.

1. made two simple tiki masks out of
   pine board...sorta like bosko masks..and
   glued them to the front of the bar
2. used green stone-texture to cover the
   whole base of the bar (comes in spray can
   at wall-mart..etc)
3. used a spray can leather texture to
   cover the top of the bar and the padded
   arm rest
   works well and looks good...pretty inexpensive
   too. good luck

For what it's worth, here's mine in progress,

Super ideas,everyone!Please keep them coming-we'll post some pics asap.

Raffertiki,
How do you get the stain so dark on the bambo trim? I've tried and tried, but my bamboo won't take stain easily at all, and I sand it. That is a beautiful dark color!

Maybe it's not stained? If you add a little oil based pigment to a shellac or varnish, or use a pigmented varnish, you can get something like that. I'm not certain if you need to sand the bamboo first to make the varnish stick.

A technique I used with good success is to sand the bamboo, wipe on a dark OIL based stain and let it dry (only wipe it on once. If you go back to wipe it again, you wipe off the first layer). It never fully dries (sort of sticky) so I cure it with a spray lacquer. The spray lacquer dries within a few minutes and seals the coat under it. That is the technique I used to make the dark bamboo frame for Tiki-Bot (you can see it at the bottom of my frames thread for reference)

There may be other ways, the varnish stain mixture sounds interesting, I will try that sometime.

Monkeyman

i've finished some bamboo with a mixture of Minwax Polyshade cut 4-to-1 with Lacquer thinner, applied with a foam brush.

its shiney ~ and nicely colored.

[ Edited by: TNTiki on 2004-11-06 15:51 ]

TNTiki, that's a Tiki Farm bar, but I don't remember if it's a Bosko mask, or if it's just Bosko influenced. It does look alot like Bosko's "Haku" mask, but I don't know where they came from. Is Holden around?

not my auction:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=47103&item=5505043439&rd=1

The bar is by Krypton, but don't know if they have anything to do with the farm. Bosko used to make the masks for Krypton, then they "borrowed" the design from him and had someone else make it. Looks Bosko to me.

Here's one I built recently:

...not really complicated, but very solid and functional.

I just have to say that you TNTtiki are so good about responding to people-you were done raised right!

How do you get the stain so dark on the bambo trim? I've tried and tried, but my bamboo won't take stain easily at all, and I sand it. That is a beautiful dark color!

I bought my bamboo at Pier 1 Imports. The larger pieces came pre-stained. The smaller cuts are, I hate to admit this, actually 4 placemats I scored for $3 each. They wrap around the entire sides of the bar.

[ Edited by: TNTiki on 2004-11-06 15:55 ]

Sounds like a good read-thanks for the suggestion!