Banana Bill's Blowfish Lounge

I've been a long-time lurker here, as I progressively expanded my tiki obsession and my humble basement getaway over the last few years. Now I'm pleased to share a few shots of my "Blowfish Lounge." I don't spend a lot on my stuff - It's all about thrift shops, estate sales, garage sales, garbage picking and building things out of random scraps in the garage.
This whole thing started with the big tiki you can see in the second image. My wife rescued him out of a nearby neighbor's trash! An amazing find here in Michigan, where tiki stuff is pretty hard to come by. Thanks for looking, hope you like it!

Thanks for coming out of the shadows to share your space! It's looking great. I completely understand how it is to live somewhere that has no tiki stuff whatsoever!

It looks great, i love the hanging chair.

Storm

Thanks! The hanging chair was a lucky garage sale find ... '70s vintage, I believe ... cost me 50 bucks. I've been looking for one of those since I saw JoJupiter's pix of the Lava Pit Lounge.

Looks awesome Bill...and very well stocked!

Welcome to TC Bill. Your bar looks awesome. I'm glad to see another Michigander holding out from the cold in the basement bar. Hold on buddy spring is still a bit in the future.

On 2015-02-21 12:56, uncle trav wrote:
Welcome to TC Bill. Your bar looks awesome. I'm glad to see another Michigander holding out from the cold in the basement bar. Hold on buddy spring is still a bit in the future.

Thanks, Uncle Trav. Yeah, spring will come ... and I'll still want to be in the basement bar. I need to build a second one on the back porch! :)

Just showing off some more junk ...

Little tiki collection. I carved a couple of the cruder ones. :)

Love the awesome octo my wife gave me for Christmas.

Random junk and a garage-sale panther TV lamp.

Made some mods to what used to be a "Venus" rain lamp. Community garage sale find for 5 bucks!

My garbage-picked tiki.

The mugs.


And some other stuff ...

Looks great...love that octopus!!!

awesome place you've assembled. that larger tiki you found looks like one of those fernwood tikis. there are some threads on TC about those if you're curious. :)

On 2015-02-22 07:08, TheBigT wrote:
awesome place you've assembled. that larger tiki you found looks like one of those fernwood tikis. there are some threads on TC about those if you're curious. :)

Big T, thank you SO much for mentioning that my tiki is fernwood - I had no idea what he was made out of and I'm glad to see that there is some interesting history behind this type of tiki. I will study up. This guy was decaying pretty badly when we rescued him. Little bits of fernwood dust around him every day after I set him up. Ultimately, I gave him a good thick coat of Mod Podge and it has worked wonderfully. He looks great, he's rock solid and not decaying anymore. Hopefully, slathering him in glue wasn't a huge sin in terms of his collector value, but then again, I don't think I'll let him go until the Zombies finally kill me (drink or apocalypse), so I'm not sure I care about value!

[ Edited by: Banana Bill 2015-02-22 09:59 ]

On 2015-02-22 09:58, Banana Bill wrote:

On 2015-02-22 07:08, TheBigT wrote:
awesome place you've assembled. that larger tiki you found looks like one of those fernwood tikis. there are some threads on TC about those if you're curious. :)

Big T, thank you SO much for mentioning that my tiki is fernwood - I had no idea what he was made out of and I'm glad to see that there is some interesting history behind this type of tiki. I will study up. This guy was decaying pretty badly when we rescued him. Little bits of fernwood dust around him every day after I set him up. Ultimately, I gave him a good thick coat of Mod Podge and it has worked wonderfully. He looks great, he's rock solid and not decaying anymore. Hopefully, slathering him in glue wasn't a huge sin in terms of his collector value, but then again, I don't think I'll let him go until the Zombies finally kill me (drink or apocalypse), so I'm not sure I care about value!

[ Edited by: Banana Bill 2015-02-22 09:59 ]

Bill, I wouldnt worry. When you have a vintage item that's pretty trashed already, then restoration probably won't hurt it. We're probably not talking Antiques Roadshow value here. :lol:

Way cool set up

[ Edited by: Jungle John 2015-02-28 23:39 ]

New house, new Blowfish Lounge. Got the bar built and trimmed out except the bar top where people sit. Everything else in the pic is temporary.

Absolutely love the new bar! We just don’t have lauhala matting here in the uk! So I’m having to look at alternative wall coverings got my bar build! Keep up the good work.

Thanks, Big Smooth - have you looked into Cheeky Tiki? I think they’re based in London and they have awesome stuff, including lauhala. https://cheekytiki.com/
Not cheap, of course.

That new bar is looking pretty sweet. I live the use of bamboo for vertical supports. Any special plans for the top?

Hey, Jayme! I’m a fan of your build-alongs! I have another huge slab of butcher block for the upper bar top - same thing as lower bar top. Open to suggestions, though! Considering decorating it with tiki menu images and covering with epoxy. Or not.

Woo! Love seeing fresh build-outs. Nice job on the bar thus far.

Epoxy's a popular choice, Bill. I'm not that experienced with it but I've seen some amazing bar tops done that way. Vintage postcards are another choice to embed in the bar top--either old tiki restaurant or exotic destinations would work well.

Thanks for the kind words about my build-along. I'm looking forward to seeing your finished bar!

On 2019-07-06 02:46, Banana Bill wrote:
Thanks, Big Smooth - have you looked into Cheeky Tiki? I think they’re based in London and they have awesome stuff, including lauhala. https://cheekytiki.com/
Not cheap, of course.

Thanks for the info bill il check it out. Hope the build is going well. Looking forward to seeing what you do next.

I'm not a tidy or organized (or terribly skilled) worker, so it's looking rough, but a few updates. Started adding in a reed fence ceiling after tearing down the old drop ceiling. Installed three wifi-enabled color-changing LEDs over the bar so I can tell Siri to change the mood (so cool!).

Added a little roof for the thatch I have yet to order.

Now, trying to figure out what to do about the back bar wall before adding shelving. I found some reasonably priced cedar paneling at Menard's and, after quickly referring to TikiCentral, I saw that, yes, you can burn and wire brush cedar to get the raised grain look. Since I have a sort of sunken ship thing going on for the backbar (e.g., the paint job on the crappy oak cabinets), I'm considering a horizontal installation so it will look kinda like weathered ship lap. Just did a few test pieces with the scorch and brush technique. Curious what the home tiki bar community thinks - how's that gonna look all the way up the wall, bearing in mind that there will also be shelving added for booze and mugs?

I'm not at all married to this. I can put up the cedar and just stain it ... or go natural ... or do something completely different. Thoughts?

[ Edited by: Banana Bill 2019-10-06 16:31 ]

[ Edited by: Banana Bill 2019-10-06 16:32 ]

The build is looking great! I for one dig the cedar paneling and think the color contrasts very nicely with the color of your cabinets. Keep posting updates!

Benbow ... still dig it?

Got thatch up, as well ...

Looking great, love the thatch.

Yeah I dig it! Will look even better once you put up shelves and get the lighting dialed in!

Took a couple of vacation days and got close to finishing phase 1 of my tiki basement build. I employed my limited construction skills to add shelves of scorched and wire-brushed pine (huge soot mess). Added strips of LEDs that still need a little tweaking.
(Is there a way to rotate pix on here???)
Once that was done, I couldn't resist staging some of my bottles, which then had to be stashed back in the rum locker to keep my teenagers away from it.

Then, I unpacked a whole bunch of boxes that have been waiting for about three years and started to make the space look like a proper tiki bar.



Nothing's permanent, but at least now I have a little space with which to content myself. Next steps include getting plumbing installed to get that sink functioning while pushing ahead with the rest of the basement. The door next to the back bar leads to my "rum locker," which will hopefully become a tiki-themed bathroom once I find another secure place for the booze.
Clearly, I'm a bit obsessed with my lava-red lighting scheme at the moment. Next time I post, I'll add some properly lit pix.

[ Edited by: Banana Bill 2019-12-16 14:09 ]