Creative Home (or travel) Tiki Bars!

A post I read about how their apartment is too small for a tiki bar made me think of what a friend did. She also had a small place, so she sacrificed a small closet and attached a hinged piece of wood to the inside of the door. The inside of the closet was where the shelves of tiki mugs and booze was. So, all she head to do was open the closet door, unfold the wood so that it created the bar top and support for the bar, unroll the raffia (or hula skirt) and attached it to the front and now she had a "instant" tiki bar!!

What other creatives uses or designs for home tiki bars have you folks done?

Thanks for posting that but, unfortunately, not only is my apartment too small, but my closets are packed full o' junk (mostley tiki related) and have sliding doors. One of the drawbacks of New York City living (unless you're a multi-millionaire). I do not have a balcony, but I do have a roof deck where I carry up folding chairs and a table and a "boom box" for blasting exotica. Unfortunately, the whole building shares the roof (it's a big high rise), so I haven't wanted to put any of my own stuff out there permanently.

Any creative folks out there with ideas on how to deal with this? I thought of having a portable tiki trunk to bring up to the roof, but there is a storage problem here.
Thanks

Dear Urban,

I believe the friend that Mr. Smiley is referring to, would be me...

Yes, I too, lived in a very small nyc apartment. The Ink Pad topped of at 475 sf. I know your plight well! I also found that no matter how much I love tiki, in that small of a space, I needed to compartmentalize a bit…

Here are a few photos showing how my closet bar worked…

Closed…

Open…

Unfurled…

Add stool!

I was thinking your trunk idea would be great. I would get one of those roadie trunks on casters and clad it with grasscloth. So when you open it, it is the bar…You could drill a hole in it big enough to insert a umbrella with a thatch cover , pre-twinkle lighted, so when you get on the roof you could just pop it open and have your own lit canopy. This is all assuming you have an elevator, and don’t live in a walk up!!!

Good luck and send photos!

Ps. If all else fails, get in a cab and go to Otto’s!

[ Edited by: Hakalugi - Updated photo links - 2010-04-30 17:12 ]

BRILLIANT!!

If i could open by itself ... is all that is missing.

Really creative.

Thanks for sharing...

Urban,
This is going to be a little long, but maybe it can give you an idea, or even someone else too. I'm glad Mr Smiley started this thread. I did a little web surfing after I read your thread in the Bilge. If I'm thinking right, this could give you a full size good looking tiki bar that breaks down easily and just might be able to be stored under your bed, and I think all for under $400.00.

Go to http://www.mastergardenproducts.com/bambooarbor.htm The cheaper of the two arbors has the slightly curved top at $175. It comes in 3 seperate pieces that bolt together. Depending on your ceiling height, it looks like you could easily cut down the bottom of the legs to fit if needed.

You'll also need:

-a hardwood tabletop: cut it to just slide right thru the bamboo side pieces and approx. the 42" height. You may have to cut out a side bamboo support piece to fit it at the right height but those look beefy so no big deal. You can cut it so it sticks out the sides a few inches for stability and even have a small overhang in the front if you want.

-bottom and side panels: measure and cut thin plywood to fill from floor to bottom of bartop. Then wrap luahala matting around it and staple gun it on the backside. Drill holes at the 4 corners of each panel and just lash the panels to the arbor with some heavy cord to create your 3 sided bottom "box". The side pieces would go on the inside of arbor so you can still see the bamboo frame on the outside. If tied tightly it should give the bottom some stability and prevent the bottom of the side arbor pieces from moving apart.

-a couple of 4 ft pieces of weaved palm thatch layed over the top of the arbor and voila! Portable but full size tiki bar for your party or get-togethers. It looks like the side pieces and top have plenty of places to hang all kinds of decorations and lights and stuff. You and some buds could even cart it up to the roof and put it together there for rooftop tiki party. A nighttime view of the NYC skyline at a tiki party would be spectacular!

I checked shipping to your area and it came out to about $78 dollars. So $252 for arbor and shipping. I'm lucky to be able to drive and get stuff locally in socal, so you might have shipping for lauhala matting and thatch but still should not be that much.

Hope this gives you or someone else some ideas.
Later
Jim

Such a humble white door hiding such brilliance and colour. Top marks for ingenuity, use of colour, engineering etc.

Inky Louise,

That is an absolutley brilliant tiki bar! When Arty was here in NYC we got together with Manic Cat and they told me about it, but the pictures are great.

Jim,
I think that is a possible solution to be able to bring up to the roof for outdoor use, and then fold it up and stick it under the bed.

Thanks for all the great ideas. I think I need to make some sacrifices. Being a musician, I have guitars and keyboards and recording equipment taking up a lot of space (including closets and under the bed).

I just need to make room and appease the tiki gods.

Inky,
The closet bar is THE coolest (and cleverest) thing I've seen in a while.

UT,
Whatever you end up doing, keep us updated and post pics!

Jim

On 2005-08-05 11:18, inkylouise wrote:

Is that Russell S. Monkey passed out behind the bar? That's one primate that just can't hold his liquor!

[ Edited by: Hakalugi - Updated photo link - 2010-04-30 17:13 ]

On 2005-08-10 07:29, ookoo lady wrote:

On 2005-08-05 11:18, inkylouise wrote:

Is that Russell S. Monkey passed out behind the bar? That's one primate that just can't hold his liquor!

let it be said for the record that although I co-habit with THAT monkey, it is not me, nor is it related to me....

[ Edited by: Hakalugi - Updated photo link - 2010-04-30 17:14 ]

thanks to every body for their positive comments... I am always excited by tiki spacial challenges!

Although it's no longer around, anybody looking for ideas on how to build a Tiki bar in a small space should definitely take a look at the above "Ink Pad".

!!!