Navigator's Island Adventure Club and Tiki Bar.

Aloha,
We closed on our new house on Monday and one of the criteria was for a finished basement. The house we found not only had a finished basement it already had a bar in place. The bar as it stands now reflects the 1960 date of construction. The plan is to go with a bit more of a British colonial feel. My two design inspirations are The Explorer's Club in NYC and Trader Sam's in Anaheim. These are the before pics.

Congrats on the new house! Can't wait to see what you do with your basement. Keep posting pictures!

Looks like a lot of potential there!

I forgot to mention, it came with this really neat Midcentury portable fridge. It's a Servel Wonderbar. I don't know if it works or not. I haven't plugged it in yet.

I love the name of your tiki space.
And that room is awesome!

You can see that Servel Wonderbar refrigerator here from American Pickers
but this one has a "cowhide covering that is not original to the piece, but in this case, it actually increases the value, which is $700.00"

See it here mid page...

Good luck!
And add pic's of your progress.

http://coolandcollected.com/american-pickers-frank-flips-episode-recap-and-review/

Dam just saw this in the comments below...

"Since this recall program was launched in 1990, more than 22,000 refrigerators have been destroyed. On average, 100 new requests for rebates are mailed to SCAC monthly, demonstrating that there are still many more in use."

This fridg is still cool as heck and I would never turn it in, plus they killed 22,000
of them making them even more rare.

Another Fan says

September 19, 2010 at 11:34 pm

http://recalls.justia.com/household-and-office/refrigerators/98-145/
Sadly, the Servel gas refrigerators (including the Wonderbar) were recalled years ago for carbon-monoxide poisoning deaths. While Speedy had it out in the garage, the boys had better hope they sell it to someone who looks it up and gets it checked.

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2016-06-14 05:57 ]

I say if there's a way to drain it easily, just keep it behind the bar for ice storage during parties, but don't plug it in.

I'm not so sure that poster is correct about the Wonderbar being included in that recall - it's the gas-burning refrigerators that look to be the problem, not the electrics. Although, it would not hurt to check the coolant and lines to make sure it's not going to rupture and tear another hole in the ozone layer.

That stone wall is a killer though! Yowza!

Thanks all, I'm looking forward to what I can do there, though right now it's just a box farm. I might just use the fridge like a cooler. I have a newer full size fridge for beer and cocktail components just out in my garage. Once I get things a little more organized I'll try to get the last of my bottles from storage and start putting things together. In the meantime I need to order some lauhala mat cover the front of the bar.

Starting to unpack things for the bar. I finally was able to open up the lamps from Disney's Polynesian Resort that I won on eBay. I got them over a year ago, but didn't want to unwrap them when I knew we were moving soon. First up though is going to be filling in the liquor cabinet.

Progress update. Liquor cabinet is in place and restocked.

Of course, I acquired more spirits and they don't all fit.
I also put up my mug shelves with lights. No pictures right now. Unfortunately, I had a total of four mugs break. Three are modern repros and I'm meh about them, but the other was my Trader Sam's 2nd Ed. Zombie mug.
I also finally opened the set of lights I got from when Disney World renovated the Polynesian Resort.

Detail of the lights:

I have several items that were at my in-laws or on order on their way.

Some more progress pictures as we're unpacking and figuring out where everything is going in the house. Still to come is redoing the bar. I got my lauhala matting yesterday and we just need to cut it and attach it.

Tiki mugs, string of float lamp lights, and lamp from the Disney Polynesian Village.

The Guinness poster isn't particularly tiki, but it does fit with British Colonial outpost bar feel that we're going for. And it was free.

A nod to the Disney Jungle Cruise with the backside of water sign, and it's hard to make out but beneath that is an original print of the Well of Souls from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Second string of mini float lights. I tucked postcards and photos on the trim piece behind the cord. My wife and I got married on a 1920's yacht in Newport CA Harbor and we have a life ring with our names on it in the background.

Oh the joys of unpacking. Sorry you lost the Trader Vic mug.

Do you have a game plan for the stone wall yet or the ceiling? Wonder if you could make the stone wall look like a lava rock wall. Add some vines maybe? That or I guess you could alway frame the upper portion above the seat wall but it might be a costly route. If you don't redo the ceiling, I was thinking maybe the individual ceiling panels could either be painted brown or covered in some matting or cloth. The metal supports could be painted and covered maybe with bamboo planks in some places. I've seen hooks for suspended ceilings so you can definitely hang things down from it pretty easily. Big room to tackle. Look forward to seeing how it progresses.

Like the view out to the back!

[ Edited by: Polly_Nesia 2016-07-09 19:42 ]

It's been a while, but I do have an update. I removed the very 80s puffy vinyl from the bar.
It turns out that underneath was actually a pretty nice wood.

But, I already had my Lauhala matting cut to size and ready to go up.

After I had both pieces of matting up I needed to cover the seam. I went out and bought $6 worth of plain trim and then spent a little quality time with just me, the wood, and my Dremel. After I was done carving I stained it mahogany and nailed it up.

I'm trying to decide what to do about the top still.

What a wonderful room you have to grow in. Congratulations on your purchase. You have some very interesting pieces in your collection. I will enjoy watching you grow.

How is the quality of the Polynesian wall lamps?

The lamps are pretty good. They're a thick plastic and the string detail is painted on over the molded plastic. But you don't notice unless you get right in on them. I put in some dimmable LEDs and they work great.

Fantastic space to work with. The thing I am most impressed with is the quality of what I could see you have in your bar, I take it you are a serious craft cocktail mixologist.

Look forward to updates here