My tiki bar, it's a start...

I just finished building this bar for an outdoor party I'm throwing in September for my wife's birthday. I'ts really my first attempt at creating anything tiki, so don't laugh to loud at my clay mask!

When it was done, we wanted to move it outside to try it out. But guess what? It's to big to get up my basement stairs! Guess what honey, your parties in the basement now! Oh, and guess what honey, now we have to build a tiki room around the bar. Oh well, what else can we do, right?

LOVE the backlit tiki on the front! Extremely effective!

And is having a basement tiki bar really that bad of a fate?

Awwwwwwwww MAN, I know I will not be the first, what is up with the parrots? Just ribbin'ya man. LOOKS GOOD! Like how you lit up the front. Good work bro.

And is that a tiki you carving I see in the background by the way?

Forgive the parrots. Buck a piece at the Dollar Tree. I'm not even a Jimmy Buffet fan, so I don't know. First try. Like I said, It'll get better.

No, that's not a carving. It's something I started a while ago for the party. There are two tiki's I was making out of paper mache. I'm going to paint them with that stone-finish spray paint. And, if you can believe I did this, they have bowls placed inside the top for chips and dip. I do bare a heavy cross of shame...

I love the way that mask looks when backlit, very atmospheric. Maybe you could replace the parrots with 2 more small Moai in 3/4 view looking outwards?

That sounds good. Wouldn't be to much work, and should look cool. thanks for the idea.

Paper mache, wow I thought they were carved wood, had that unfinished wood look to them, and no jokes about needing my eyes checked and we will call it even after my dumb parrot remark.

On 2004-06-30 08:54, finkdaddy wrote:
Forgive the parrots. Buck a piece at the Dollar Tree. I'm not even a Jimmy Buffet fan, so I don't know. First try. Like I said, It'll get better.

Don't think of them as Buffett Parrots, they're Tiki Room Birds!

Amen Biotron2000! To the best of my knowledge, real tiki's and real parrots could presumably be found in the same place at the same time without the help of Jimmy Buffet. So yes, tiki room birds it is.

Don't let 'em get you down on the parrots. Parrots figure highly in my memories of living in Hawaii as a child, parrots are all over the place at Bahooka, and as mentioned above, they're the centerpiece of the Enchanted Tiki Room. I put a number of them in the Humuhumu Room. I'm sure the Caribbeophiles don't mind sharing the noble parrot with us, I don't see why we should mind sharing it with them. Just be careful, don't mix them with steel drums, flamingos and tequila.

Is carbon monoxide a concern with those torches burning indoors?

Humuhumu,

Unfortunately, the torches wont be lit except in photo-shoots. I built the bar to be outside, so I was pretty upset (and feeling rather stupid) when I couldn't get it up the basement stairs. In fact, once they even set off the fire alarm in the basement, so yeah it's a hazard. I might do it in summer with all the windows open, and I'll trim the wicks down to nothing. I'm also burning good quality lamp oil, so maybe it wont be to bad.

Thanks for the support about the parrots!

On 2004-06-30 10:48, Humuhumu wrote:
Is carbon monoxide a concern with those torches burning indoors?

ooh the Safety Girl in me was thinking the same thing..if he CO didnt get them, the flames would!

you can easily retrofit those torches with flicker bulbs, for safety's sake!

nice bar (i'll not tease about the parrots) do love your clay mask..and those paper mache poles!! i've been thinking of what non-carving methods i might be able to use to craft my own tikis.. if you could, show us those tikis!!

great work.. and sly that it didnt fit up the stairs!!

elicia

Forgive the music/tech geek in me, but what are the keys leaning against the wall in back?

Very cool bar, by the way :)

-Z

That is a great start Finkdaddy!
Again, screw the critics about the birds.
I have a killer ceramic parrot at my bar and I have this sound box that makes tropical bird sounds. It's awesome while the waterfall is flowing. Blows away my friends every time.
And I have NEVER owned or liked Buffet crap.
So there ya go.

Fun lighting effect with the mask!I wouldn't worry about the parrots-if you get bar stools,people's knees will hide 'em.

On 2004-06-30 10:54, finkdaddy wrote:

Unfortunately, the torches wont be lit except in photo-shoots.

You could always electrify the torches! You can find more info here:
Looking for-electric flicker light tiki torches

[ Edited by: TNTiki on 2004-11-06 15:56 ]

Are you sure you did not build it so it would not get up the steps on purpose? Dog gone it, I guess you will have to go ahead and put together that tiki room.

I know, I'm just soooooo upset about it. I guess I don't have a choice. But what else can I do? (insert sly smirk and giggle here)

On 2004-06-30 13:00, Feelin' Zombified wrote:
Forgive the music/tech geek in me, but what are the keys leaning against the wall in back?

Very cool bar, by the way :)

-Z

It a very old Casio. It's called a Casiotone 701. I don't know much about it's history, but I got it for free when a friend emptied out his apartment. It's a little cheasy sounding, but it has some nice vibrato and reverb effects. I used to use it mainly as a writing tool, but now I do most of my stuff on my guitar and the PC.

On 2004-06-30 16:21, UtopianDreem wrote:

On 2004-06-30 10:54, finkdaddy wrote:

Unfortunately, the torches wont be lit except in photo-shoots.

You could always electrify the torches! You can find more info here:
Looking for-electric flicker light tiki torches

Thanks for the advice and the thread! I will definately give it a try. I will post pics for everyone as my new tiki room arises from the ruins that are my basement.

finkdaddy, thanks for the pics of the backlited moai bar, will have to incorporate it into my design if you dont mind.

tbird.

On 2004-07-01 11:19, Tiki Bird wrote:
finkdaddy, thanks for the pics of the backlited moai bar, will have to incorporate it into my design if you dont mind.

tbird.

It would be my honor. But you don't need to ask me for anything, the moai belong to everybody.

The moai that you see is the first tiki anything that I ever made. So I'm totaly happy that you all even recognize it for what it is.

Thanks everyone!!

Hey finkdaddy did you use one of those $1.50 beach mats for the top and behind the mask. I used the same thing on my bar. I'm actually thinking about using them on my walls then framing them out with bamboo. You can't beat the price.

Yes I did! But they were only a buck at the Dollar Tree.

We have a serious bamboo shortage here in Milwaukee, so the reed mats were the only thing that looked tropical that I could afford. I think it turned out ok.

I thought of framing them also. I was going to make some more masks and use it as a backdrop inside a frame.

It's to bad tiki doesn't use pine branches instead. I could build a whole tiki mansion with what is in my yard!

Finkdaddy,

The bar looks great! I like the parrots... The bar birds I'm used to seeing are of the "flipping" variety as I'm not the best tipper :wink:
You realize you'll have to decorate the rest of the basement now, right? There are some good threads here with resource links to matting, bamboo, etc.

You realize you'll have to decorate the rest of the basement now, right?

I can't wait to start. Doing the bar first was the only way to prove to my wife that our basement becoming a tiki-bar was a cool thing!

Thanks for the kind words, and believe me, I will be asking everyone here for plenty of advice. Pics will be posted at each stage of construction, but I suspect it will be a while before I start.

for the electric tiki torch thing, I did a step by step too. You can check it out here:
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=7522&forum=7&vpost=76497

Pretty easy to do and FUN!