Lava Wall in Progress

Well I fingally figured out how to post a picture, so I'm sending a pix of my "lava-lounge" in progress. After 2 tear outs and start-overs, I've finally come up with a little wall that will hopefully look like fake lava. Granted I've never seen real lava, so this is only my impression.

This is a tornado shelter/storage closet off my tiki bar that I decided would be more fun to make into a tiki "nook" and somehow the whole lava idea took on a life of it's own. Anyhoooooo, this is what I have so far, it's a sandwich of masonite siding, foam insulation, foam insulation squeeze stuff, black matte spray paint, and a sheet of acrylic plastic, two sets of twinkle lights that have indiviudally "twinkling" lights (simulates a flickering embers look), an assortment of tools, messes, mistakes, pinkie assassinations, and cussings.

I still have finishing work and a booth seat to build.....I'll update as I go along.

LavaLounger

cool!

Great place to sacrifice virgins! ...and pray for surf in Kansas!

LavaLounger,
That looks kick-ass!
Any chance you can post more pics...or a step-by-step? I've been planning to add some lava-ish effects to the Moai Lounge, and yours looks phenomenal!
Great work,
Scottiki

Yeah, I second that. It looks great from the pic you posted, but I'd love to see more close up pics and a step by step if you can swing it. Maybe in the winter the "lava" could heat up the room!

How cool is that! That is gonna rock when it's done!

Scotiki - WOW, thanks for the tiki kudos! Sure I can post few pictures.....but I was bad...I didn't take many. I was so freakin' frustrated with the first two attempts and how bad they were that I wasn't sure this try would be much better.

But I can probably explain it well enough since I started out making a little 2' x 2' box to experiment with and went from there. It's been more of a process than a direct project.

Yesterday I added a frame and "drooled" more foam insulation around the edges for a "burned through the wall" look. That wasn't my intention however, just the result of tweakin' the tiki'.

Here's today's update:

I added that "frame" as a stroke of genius I came up with in the middle of the night as I wasn't happy with the look of trim or bamboo around the edges. The frame is a chunk of the masonite siding that I used around the rest of the walls, just jigged it out crookedy, then back-filled with more squeeze foam insulation, painted it black. I'm finally reasonably satisfied with it! Wish I could post what it looks like while the lights are twinkling so it looks like it's really glowing. This is probably as close as I'll ever get to the real thing.

I'll work on putting together a parts list and a guide so I don't miss a step, then post it. ANd of course now I'll take more pictures while I do things. Duh.

LavaLounger - finally is having a lava lounge

That is so cool lavalounge!
Thanks for showing us what you've been up to, what a great effect!

Cool! Please do the step by step. I want Iwant I want!

Glad you didn't give up! You have really found the right combination. Congrats on a great look!

Well, I'm ALMOST done. Ran into a snag the other day after knocking over a quart of red acrylic enamel paint onto the carpet. And according to murphy's law, it landed upside down and glugged itself empty before I could do anything. Big fun cleaning up that mess, a lot of water and a big shop vac did a decent job. Thankfully the carpet is red, even before the paint spill. After that crisis I thought I needed a couple days of a break. Let it be known that i build with Murphy's Law as my motto.

I've since trimmed out the little "dashboard" under the lava wall for setting some of my tiki doodads on, and upholstered two 5/8" plywood slabs to make a nice "booth-type" seat, but it's not level yet so will have to fix that. It's always something!

So here is my almost finished "lava lounge"... (in a tornado shelter/storage closet):

I've been taking pictures this time so I'll post "how to" info when I finish.

Can't wait to crash in there with a drink and just relax!
LavaLounger

Very Creative. Very Cool. I think we're gonna start seeing other "active lava" walls in the near future. Too bad you didn't have more space to tikify. I'd love to see what you could do with an entire room.

[ Edited by: Slacks Ferret 2006-01-27 09:46 ]

Yes, that Is really nice. I would say it's cool, but actually it looks HOT, in Both manners of the word. It almost looks like it is oozint right off the wall.

That is SO great. So great in fact that it would fit right in with any good commercial tiki bar as a cozy little nook for quiet conversations and (of course) drinks! Nice job!

Damn, that's nice, and very original, too. You ought to think about marketing it, seriously!

Wow, thanks again for all your backpats! Makes all the trouble, cussings, and headaches worthwhile. I can't tell you all the nights I laid awake trying to figure out how to get the look I wanted....and the couple failed attempts.

I will have to say what impresses me are the tiki carvings you people make...I'd give my, um, right arm to do that, but the way I work, I'd probably lop off an eyebrow or ear if I took up power tools and chisels.

BTW - I do have a main tiki bar area in the basement and the little "lava lounge" was originally a storage closet in the bar area that has an 8" concrete slab on top and concrete walls that was designed as a storm shelter. I hated thinking about sitting down there among boxes, spiders, and cobwebs during tornado warnings, so this sort of evolved as a fun place to do our "tornado time".

When I get the rest of the bar done, or at least sorta done, I'll send along pics, but it's not as "different" as the lavalounge. I did manage a couple other peculiar projects like hiding those dam support posts that are in teh middle of the room in plain sight. Ha ha!

LavaLounger
Broke the blender yesterday - Life is in crisis now.

Man that is cool Mr. Lava.....I've spent alot of time in Kansas.....Salina.....Meade....Tescott (huge ville)....Never seen any Volcanos.....seen a girl or two get red hot and lit up!
That wall is awesome and I far as know completely original here on T.C. Great Job.
Where in tha land of Ahs are ya?

I have been racking my brain trying to figure out how to get the "lava" look here in my bar and now you have given me some inspiration!

It's fantastic! Looking foward to some step by step pics!

Very, very cool wall you did there.