Tiki-On-A-Budget

MadDogMike be sure to rub a white cloth on that chair to make sure this stain won't come off on your clothing. Sun can sometimes make it come loose later on too.

hang10tiki we are looking forward to seeing your room. It looks fabulous. Our friends want to see it too so you may have four stopping by in November.

Hale Tiki more details please.

Wendy

I've been racking my brain for what to do above my bar. I wanted to do a roof, but it just won't look right. And I wanted to do an A-frame with thatch, but again, just wouldn't look right. Upon seeing your above the door thingy, I decided that I should do an open A-frame based on a photo I have of I forget what bar right now, but that I could totally get away with it being open and not crowd the room!

Sweet
Take pics

Jon

mad dog hi I'm Steve from Canada ,about your chairs I remember reading a few years ago about people painting those plastic rocking horses to look like carousel horses they said they lightly flamed them with blow torch first then stained.don't know if it will apply to you though

Not sure how I will use this yet, thinking it will go on our outdoor bar area when that happens, but bought the small mermaid today from Hobby Lobby. Both mermaids feel heavy and I'm thinking that they might be cast iron. The ladies are part of their Aloha Summer mdse. The small one (12.99) is hollow on the bottom, the larger lady (29.99) is solid on the bottom but suspect it's hollow inside. Went to HL's website on my iPhone and showed the 40% off coupon at the register and got the little lady for only 7.79. You can only use one coupon a day on one non-sale item. I may go back and get the larger shelf sitter lady tomorrow. She was pretty nice and a good size and for less than 18.00 I think a good deal.

[ Edited by: Polly_Nesia 2014-01-20 14:46 ]

Where may I ask did you get the God "Ku" mold at? I have all over the internet and can't find it. THanks in advance!

I bought a small outrigger on Craigslist and wanted something to display along with it, so I made a Marshall Islands stick chart. All you need are some thin pieces of wood (I used some balsa wood from a never finished model boat, but you could also use some coffee stirrers from Starbucks or maybe even popscicle sticks), small cowrie shells (mine were from a Goodwill necklace), a printout of the chart you want to make at the size you want and then some hot glue and raffia to hold it all together. Super easy and looks very similar to the real thing.

Very cool Fugu. Gonna antique or distress it a bit?

Cool idea, how are you going to display the outrigger with it?

Behold the window blind lamp:

One bamboo window blind, 3 bamboo sticks from the garden center, some assorted lamp parts and some interesting rocks and plaster for a base.

Pretty good bang for the buck.

Very clever.

Nice Philot!

Just read through the entire thread and I find myself wanting to see more! I love low budget ideas, especially since I've been going a little crazy lately on my Tiki stuff.

It's that time of year again folks. All kinds of Halloween junk all over the place. I found these cool little battery operated strobe lights the other day for $3.99. The have LED lights and are fairly bright. They also have a small swing out stand and a dial to control the flashing from slow to fast. This summer I found an awesome antique ships port light and was going to light it up with a cord and a bulb. Instead I put the strobe in the lantern and set it for the slowest flash setting. I got the red strobe and the slow glowing flash through the old grimy red lens looks perfect. Lots of cheap lighting effects out there right now. I thought I would post a few pics and let's folks know that they come in a variety of colors as well.

The big lantern on the right is the one I put the strobe in. It looks great in the low lighting of the bar but it's hard to tell in the photo.

Nice

I saw a display of different lights like that at the Halloween store. I really had to pull myself away before buying a bunch of them.

My wife and I have been using Ikea's Dioder lights for lighting my Tiki collectible shelves.

[ Edited by: Comicbookhero 2015-09-22 07:19 ]

I purchased this to get a cool water light look. Multiple colors and speeds. Works well!

$22

JS LIGHTING®9-watt 7colors Led Laser Stage Light Portable Ocean Moving Waves Effect Projector Lighting

LINK: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015GPDCVC?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00

I have been making these with cardboard scraps and sharpie just freeforming it
Some come out better than others but it gets the tiki creative energy flowing without having to power up the chainsaw

[ Edited by: Tiki Roa 2016-04-09 14:34 ]

Nice, I can see giant ones of these like 4 or 5 feel long.

Just finished this "float" lamp last night, with almost no budget to work on. The most expensive part was the rope - the other parts include a re-purposed and painted globe shade from a ceiling fan (free), the cord & socket from a yard-sale table lamp ($1), and an LED candelabra bulb ($3).

Bought this real bamboo sign from Oriental Trading. Chalkboard, decent size. I contemplated making one but ended up going this route instead as I wasn't set up to cut bamboo, notch it, nor have the blackboard materials. So for me probably cheaper to buy. Depending on how I use this sign, may either buy a taller and wider bamboo pole to use as a staked ground pole and just insert this inside the top of the larger pole, or I figure I could stick the sign in a pale of sand. Thought it would be a nice "welcome" to my outdoor tiki land or a sign for "pour a drink" or something like that. I'll probably add some hibiscus blooms or such to it but otherwise pretty ready to use as is.

[ Edited by: Polly_Nesia 2016-06-29 16:42 ]

Also picked up Oriental Trading's tiki luminary wraps. As you can see from photo they are translucent. Will probably use some for around candles but want to take a few and make into a light by enclosing in those shadow box frames with a light source behind it or perhaps a lit tiki sign of some sort. Not sure yet. Don't know if I'll get to this before OT sells out of their tiki summer items, so wanted to mention these items for tiki budget minded ones before they're gone.

Old TV Had it
Chromecast 35.00
Plywood 15.00
Stain Had it
Wood glue Had it
Velcro Had it
Wood buttons 4.00
Round AC duct thing 11.00
A few screws Had em
Tools: Jigsaw, drill and sander

Log on to wifi
Stream any utube video to chromecast

Done

:)

Worst sound ever, slurp of an empty tiki mug through my straw!!!

[ Edited by: hang10tiki 2017-07-31 06:59 ]

nice... have an old portable sitting around, will probably steal this idea

:)

Light on tiki, but definitely on a budget. I made this about a year ago, and didn't think to do the step-by-step, Anyway, since I won't be able to build much inside for a while, I decided to give the birds a tiki-type feeder. I had a bunch of driftwood I wanted to use. Wrestled with maybe an A-frame (too many weird angles), thatch roof (would last about 6 months in Florida), and a few other ideas. Ended up using about seven bucks worth of wood from the culls at Home Depot for the seed bin. Roof, lid, and platform were all from driftwood (with a few palm frond spines to fill it out). Front posts are from scrap dowels I had laying around and whittled with tikis - sort of a Ku on the left, and a Moai on the right. Flashing and roof underlayment was from recycled coconut water cans. At least the birds like it!

I'll bet the squirrels love it, too!

Previously found a clear lamp globe for $1 at a yard sale. Grabbed some clear glass Christmas bulbs over the weekend (also $1) and decided to experiment with the can of Krylon Sea Glass paint ($6) I've had sitting idle for too long. I neglected to shake the can thoroughly enough, so almost all the flecking material spurted out in the first couple blasts, leaving the remaining experiments with more of a opalescent look. I'm okay with that though. It works in this case.

Used some cheap jute twine for the ornament bulbs. These things are so lightweight. Thinking of popping them on to a strand of fairy lights.

Swung by Wal Mart and got a pair of their basic basketball nets ($2 each) and boiled them in coffee for an hour to give them that ol' nicotine-stained look. Sockets and cords fund at a rummage sale for $1 each. Brass rings - $2 each.

One net for the red globe - with a clear bulb.

One net for the spun Lucite shade ($10 at an antique store) with a red bulb.

Totals:
6 floats (2 of them lamps)
$30

Nice!

They look great.
The globes are what is hard to find and what costs the most when making these lights.

You made these as cheap as you could ever hope to find the parts to make them with.

Good job!

Thanks guys!

And yeah, I lucked out big time with both globes. Retail prices for these things are crazy!

I thought about making a new thread for this, but I suppose it kinda fits the tiki-on-a-budget theme.

Sometimes you sit down to record and realize that, you just don't have an instrument or even a household object that makes the sound you hear in your head. In this case finding that sound came down to building an Ipu Heke:

Start with two clean, large dried gourds. Ideally one should be rather tall. These were not exactly ideal gourds.

Slice off the top of the larger gourd. This becomes the base. The other gourd has holes cut in both ends, such that one end fits tightly over the mouth of the first gourd. Clean out the seeds and papery membrane.

Glue the two gourds together. I found I needed a form to hold them in place while drying.

Once dry and cured, tie a decorative cord around the neck as a handle. In this case, I finally found a use for those honor cords that have done jack squat for me since graduation.

If desired, the Ipu can be sanded and sealed, and decorated either by carving into the skin, or painting.

You Ipu is now ready to play!

Total cost for gourds: $6 at a fall flea market.
Gorilla wood glue and cord: on hand.

Well done! Very cool

BamBam I have three big gourds like that that I bought a couple years ago. Two days ago I got one out and plan to make a lamp from it. Waiting for my Muse to bring me design inspiration

Mermaid sign at Hobby Lobby for $12 with a 40% off coupon. 50 cents of acrylic paint for the lettering and voila!

Ha Ha those are my high school colors. No honor guard for me but I did get a perfect attendance medal. Thank you for the step by steps. The gourdes turned into a really nice piece. I'm looking forward to your next piece. Wendy

Quasi-Tiki on a Budget. Started with a $4 garden statuary frog from Ross. Added some spray and acrylic paint that were laying around. Now he's a Poison Dart Frog to hang out by the pond.

No poison darts next to him? I have to admit I'm a bit disappointed. HAHA

Nice frog.
Reminds me of the 70s.

Nice work guys

What a wonderful idea. Beautiful. Wendy

Hi guys. Well this is probably as budget as you can get! I salvaged this old fire service basket strainer from work! (Im a fire fighter). It was going to be thrown out but I thought I could make use of it! Kind of looks like a fish trap or a lobster ? pot!
I have a colour changing blue tooth speaker bulb to put in it! So it can be a light and a speaker! I tied some rope to hang it but I think it looks a little plain! Any thoughts on how to give it a bit more of a tiki twist?

How about a 6 inch band of tapa cloth or other fabric print around the center?

On 2019-09-25 06:36, MadDogMike wrote:
How about a 6 inch band of tapa cloth or other fabric print around the center?

Hi Mike big fan of yours! Thanks for your input! We don’t get much in the way of tapa here in the UK! I have some old grass beach matting that I was thinking about using! Or perhaps I could find an old Hawaiian shirt or something! It’s something I’m going to have to work on! I also have another basket strainer but it is a more modern one! I’ll see if I can do anything with that also!

I would leave it alone.
Or you could do some rope work on the sides, like tie it like a drum.
Maybe even have some rope ties coming down the sides and ending at mid point.

look up knots on YouTube for some rope work ideas.

Ok so this is the best advice you will ever get for your tiki bar.....
Don't rush around buying ANYTHING that is remotely able to work in your bar.

We all have tons of crap we bought and it was not that great then and it's still not that great only now it's in a box waiting to be thrown out.

WAIT, get the good stuff.
It will come.

Not many people find Tapa where they live, it comes mostly from eBay and Oceanic Arts, that's where I got mine.

Real Tapa is best, the best Hawaiian shirt looks like at the end of the day.... a Hawaiian shirt.
If your ok with that then use it.

The best place to get stuff for your bar is the tiki events as many people bring all the stuff we want.

For me if I don't think I would see it in the Kahiki or the Mai Kai or the many great bars, (Not good GREAT) you see on TC then I won't buy it.

I have never felt bad about buying the great stuff even when I paid too much, if anything I often wish I had bought more while I had the chance, the people I was nice enough to let get some of the Kahiki table lamps at the last sale they just ended up selling them for a huge profit in the end.

I could have done that myself!

Good luck!

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2019-09-25 20:34 ]

Thanks for the wise words mate. I definitely know what you mean! I bought PNG mask from an antiques shop the other day! I was hesitant because of the price! But I absolutely love it! So Iv come to terms with the price. Il see what I can do with some rope! Also I can see the bulb through the gaps! It doesn't look as good as I wanted it to! Andy tips to defuse the light?

I just bought Des Pawsons book on knots. Il see if I can find some decent stuff

"Andy tips to defuse the light?"

perfect time of year for the question.
I have a fish trap light much like that.
What we got for it was those orange globe Christmas c7 type string of lights, well they are Halloween lights.
But they are not as off putting when you can see them a bit.
I just put the whole string in there draped around a bit.

Hope that helps.