Question about home tiki bar supplies

Hi all! I've been on a quest and I'm not having much luck so I'm turning to all of you for some help. I've seen some of the awesome home tiki bars everyone has done and I'm running into trouble finding places to locate things like the bamboo matts and polls for the walls and things of that nature. I've been able to find some random kitsch here and there but the big parts of the decor I've been running into dead ends . I'm wondering if anyone can point me in the direction of websites or places where I might be able to order or find such things.

Right now my husband and I are living in Connecticut and not planning to do much with the little bar area we have now because in about 9 months or so we're moving back to San Diego and we're hoping to do up the living room of whatever dwelling we find into a full tiki bar/lounge. So what I'm hoping to do now is start planning and looking for deals and gathering supplies where I find them and saving up for the more expensive bits. We will be renting so we need things that we can nail up and take down when the eventual time comes to leave and move on.

Any thoughts, tips, help of any kind would be most appreciated.

First... welcome to TC.

Then... good luck with the move. Why San Diego? Is there something wrong with Connecticut?

And then.... Safari Thatch is a good on-line resource.

When you get back to California you will be closer to Oceanic Arts in Whittier.

Pier One is a possibility for some stuff, or whatever equivalent you have to Pier One in your area (s). A bit pricey, but sometimes worth it when you can just put it up and not have to work with it.

Even the garden department at your local home improvement store has possibilities.

There are a million more places and ideas, from salvage to make your own with PVC pipe and a blow-torch. Poke around in here and ask questions of the people who have done stuff you like.

IMO if your doing a major East to West Coast
move this year, WAIT till you arrive @ your
new digs!

In the mean time surf TC for ideas & put together
a game plan of what you want. Many folks here at TC
spents months & months surfin & lurkin putting
a plan in place before they started their Tiki
project. Good luck!

Thortiki

PS IF you buy it here you got to haul
it there, plus your West Coast space
isn't finalized!!!

On 2008-05-04 08:35, Chip and Andy wrote:

Then... good luck with the move. Why San Diego? Is there something wrong with Connecticut?

I'm originally from CT and moved to San Diego in 2006 because my husband got offered a job out there for a company that he was consulting for (he's an IT guy). I was really unhappy while I was out there for a while because I missed home and my family refused to come out to visit me (because they're all a bunch of selfish people who were, in reality, jealous because I got out of CT). Now I wicked miss it, miss going surfing every day and miss the sun. I've been depressed since the end of fall because it's been mostly rainy and cloudy even if it gets warm. So I realized that I missed it more than I thought I would and I realize now that it wasn't California that I didn't like but where in San Diego we were (Carlsbad) and we did find a place more suited to our personalities and whatnot (Ocean Beach) and that's where we plan to move to when we go back. We're moving back for that reason and also because my husband, who's been doing his job remotely since we moved, would be better off doing his job there (less travel) and he'll be able to get a promotion if he does (more money = more tiki!!).

Thanks for the suggestions! We have Pier One stores here and I've been thinking of going and checking out what they might have coming out for summer. I've looked a bit at Home Goods recently and will be going back to check it out again in a few weeks. Most of the really BIG things I'm going to wait on until we move but if I find good deals that I can't pass up, I'm willing to haul it back to SD. I'm getting ride of about half of what I own before moving back (just about all my furniture, most of my random crap, most of my clothes) because I have too much stuff and I need new furniture anyway.

• jess

San Diego company:

http://www.islandthatch.com/

So close to OB you can smell Dog Beach there when the breeze is just right...

Buzzy Out!

Or get everything you need half as cheap: http://www.bensonsimport.com/index.html

Thanks guys! Great suggestions...and yes, I'm going to wait for the most part until I move but I want to start getting ideas of where to go, what I want and so on so that I don't waste too much time hunting and I just have to either place orders or go pick things up. I want to plan this out a bit ahead of time too for that reason. I know I want a cross between a traditional island tiki bar and a 50's Vegas lounge look so it's going to take a little careful planning to not make it cheesy which is part of why I'm working on this now.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you need anything else:

Wainscotting:

http://www.plyboo.com/paneling.html#

Bamboo poles, thatching and wall coverings:

http://www.anythingbamboo.com/MainProdPage.htm

http://www.paradisefoundonline.com/site/745816/page/316545

http://www.phillipjeffries.com/

http://www.bamboosupply.net/default.htm

http://palapakings.com/pages/thatching.html

http://www.tikibosko.com/matting.htm

Tall Tiki Statues:

http://www.maitiki.com/tikipg.html

http://www.palmtiki.com/tiki.html

http://www.tikimaster.com/category/08/

Scroll down: http://www.tikibosko.com/tikibar.htm

http://www.tikibosko.com/tikipole.htm

There are Ebay sellers that are priced well. Check Oceanic arts and Bensons as well. For the most part, you will find the raw materials are inexpensive, but shippin ghtem is expensive. Especially where you are. But in CA, it will be cheaper. Search lauhala and thatch on Ebay.