The mother load... and its new home.

Well, I just spent my entire day painstakingly pulling hundreds of bamboo strips down one by one... and I couldn't be happier.

I got word from a friend that an acquaintance of theirs just bought a house with a bamboo bar in the basement they did not want. I assumed it was a free standing bar. Was I ever wrong.

Built in the early 1950s this room had remained unaltered (except for the wallpaper "upgrade" in the '70s). There was even the original left-overs in the crawlspace behind the basement. I told them they should keep it and enjoy it, but the husband wanted his "guy room". Whatever.

Here is all the bamboo loaded up in the old Econoline. They range in length from 3 to 7 1/2 feet, most are about 5 feet long:

And here is the room before I took out the pry-bar:

One of the best things to me is the wonderful patina of this aged bamboo as well as the history. I guess we got a good start on the materials to build out our new Tiki room. If we have bamboo left over, we'll offer it here on Tiki Central first.

Reduce, reuse, recycle!
-Duke

Check out Tiki Quest at http://www.pegboardchicago.com/TCintro.html
Tiki Central members get a discount and a special premium!

[ Edited by: boutiki 2008-11-07 09:10 ]

WOW! your friend is an idiot. I guess you will have to build something spectacular to show em what they threw away...

On 2008-09-10 21:11, boutiki wrote:
Well, I just spent my entire day painstakingly pulling hundreds of bamboo strips down one by one... and I couldn't be happier.

I got word from a friend that an acquaintance of theirs just bought a house with a bamboo bar in the basement they did not want. I assumed it was a free standing bar. Was I ever wrong.

Built in the early 1950s this room had remained unaltered (except for the wallpaper "upgrade" in the '70s). There was even the original left-overs in the crawlspace behind the basement. I told them they should keep it and enjoy it, but the husband wanted his "guy room". Whatever.

Here is all the bamboo loaded up in the old Econoline. They range in length from 3 to 7 1/2 feet, most are about 5 feet long:
Reduce, reuse, recycle!
-Duke

Wow Boutiki great score! looks like enough bamboo to make a few bars with if you wish.. what a shame to tear down a great room like that though.. I would have turned it into the Ultimate Tiki Guy Room if I was him... anyways.. any chance you got to keep that ultra funk wallpaper as well?? :wink:

On 2008-09-10 21:23, beachbumz wrote:
what a shame to tear down a great room like that though.. I would have turned it into the Ultimate Tiki Guy Room if I was him... anyways.. any chance you got to keep that ultra funk wallpaper as well?? :wink:

Yeah, no accounting for taste, huh? As they say, "My loss is your gain". At least it didn't go into the trash.

You think that wallpaper was something? You should have seen what was there originally. I couldn't get a decent picture, but you could see it. What at first looked like a fantastic abstract 50's modern wallpaper upon closer inspection turned out to be a custom painted wall treatment. It was a stylized thatch design in warm natural colors. Simply amazing! They spent some real dough on this place back in the day!

-Duke

WOW! Great score for you, but what a shame such an awesome original room had to be dismantled. Keep us updated with pics of your Tiki room!

Duke, any chance to get old snapshots of the original owners in their rumpus room? Those kinda photos are really hard to come by, even though thousands must exist. Even harder to find are any amateur photos of rumpus room revelers holding or imbibing from Tiki mugs...

Nice score Duke!

Almost exactly like the basement that Dave Krys tuned me in on a couple years ago in the north Chicago burbs... though it wasn't tiki themed at all, more like duck hunting or something.
I split the haul with exotica59, there was plenty to go around.

Same great patina on mine... add a little torch to it and you're good to go!

Some of the two trips I made... not anything like your haul though.

Sven,
Here is the whole story– the gal who hooked me up lives across the street from this house, she's in her mid-fifties. Her daughter and son-in-law just bought the place, they are maybe 30. The house was once owned by the woman's uncle, he is the one who tricked out the basement and sadly is long since passed. The house has had a few other owners since he sold and moved, but like I said, none of them took out the decor. The woman has some cousins who were thrilled to learn that the house is in the family again– they asked if the "Bamboo Room" was still there. The woman kept a few short sticks of bamboo that she could send to her cousins as mementos.

I asked if anyone had old photos or anything from back in the day. She said she looked through everything she had, but found nothing. Mind you, she was a kid when her uncle had this place hoppin'. She promised to ask her cousins and if they come up with anything I'll of course try to get pics/ scans to add to the post. So I guess stay tuned... but don't hold your breath. Like the rest of America, the "Tiki Years" came and went for most folks around here, and many did not see fit to save any memories or evidence. Perhaps they regretted their lapse in "good taste", though I gotta' say what they replaced it with hardly qualifies as "high style" to me. Different strokes, I guess. I get the same bemused expression when a lot of regular folks see our collection of art and mid-century furniture.

Lake Surfer,
I remembered you reclaiming some old bamboo a while back. Did you get pics of the place before it came down? Want to come down and help us put our Tiki Room together? I'll provide the Mai Tais! We really have to get on the ball. It's been a year now since we moved and everything is still in total disarray. It's the ceiling that is giving me fits. It's too low to start, plus there is ductwork and other obstructions that leave me wondering just what the hell are we going to do to make this look right...

Maybe I'll post pics of what we are dealing with and solicit suggestions.

-Duke

What a beautiful room. Sorry, but the people who ripped it out are idiots...period.

Wow. And good on ya, Boutiki, for spending all the time it took to salvage that beautiful place. May it live long in your future creations.

On 2008-09-10 23:01, tikiyaki wrote:
What a beautiful room. Sorry, but the people who ripped it out are idiots...period.

No Shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's nice that you salvaged this stuff though Duke.

Now get Lake Surfer over there are start rebuilding!!!

Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff

I would have lowered the bar top and the bamboo went up the walls too high considering the low ceiling, but... It is fantastic to know places like this exist today. It really takes me to that happy place.

Duke, in my bar, to fight a semi-low ceiling, we are doing textured ceiling treatments and then black paint. Flat black is still very shiney on a flat surface. The texture helps make it really non-reflective. We're months away from done, but maybe a month away from telling just how well the effect will be.

Amazing score! Too bad the new owners didn't understand what they had right under their noses. Great find for you, and I'm sure you'll put all that infused bamboo to good use.

Ah man that's sick! Why doesn't that stuff happen to me!?!?!?

Time and time again I'm amazed at what is still lurking out there in suburban America hidden or covered over etc. Thank God you had the chance of salvaging components of a timeless treasure. How many of us have accidentally discovered something like this -only to have to walk away from it because of "not being prepared" to deal with it immediately under the circumstances? I know I have more than a few times in my life...Thanks for sharing and best of luck with the resurrection. Cheers!

Sad to see it go but it's nice that it has fallen into the right hands, and with that safari wall paper they were probablly wern't thinking poly pop but a dark Africa theme. Even though the design looks like it would be more at home on the walls of childs dentist office.

Some day when I'm long dead and gone, someone is going to tear down all the bamboo, lauhala and tapa from my walls and wonder what kind of nut case would want a room like that. It'll probably be my wife.

On 2008-09-11 09:37, GatorRob wrote:
Some day when I'm long dead and gone, someone is going to tear down all the bamboo, lauhala and tapa from my walls and wonder what kind of nut case would want a room like that. It'll probably be my wife.

:lol:

Duke,

Sure!

Let me know when.

After my week in California I'm free for the fall, save for some projects for my bar.

Low ceilings are not the end of the world... my whole basement has them.

I like them, brings everything in closer and more cozy. You just have to hang things on the outside of the room.

The eyeball lighting I did really makes the room pop by lighting the walls and making the ceiling disappear, paint it dark and it really helps.

I did dark brown paint with half strips of bamboo running the width of the ceiling. Looks like a hut.

There is a real easy drop ceiling kit out there right now that would probably work for you.

Let me know when you need an extra pair of hands, I've got some ideas that I'd even like to try on the other half of my basement.... the wahine is starting to give in! :wink:

On 2008-09-11 09:37, GatorRob wrote:
Some day when I'm long dead and gone, someone is going to tear down all the bamboo, lauhala and tapa from my walls and wonder what kind of nut case would want a room like that. It'll probably be my wife.

You too? My wife walks by my room, averting her eyes, shaking her head.

Boutiki, I can just imagine your reaction when you walked into that room.

Man!! How many times I have imagined my home bar to look like that. Through my Mai Tai induced fog staring through the plastic bamboo jungle as gentle waves of exotica play in my home bar I can see my place looking like that someday. A great rescue mission Duke. At least someone can enjoy it in a new location other than the dumpster. Thanks.

Wow! What a find! Kind of makes me think of Quagmire from Family Guy - can't you see him behind the bar mixing a martini with a bunch of "chicks" dancing around!?

We found on Craigslist a PanAsian restaurant in Tacoma, WA that had closed and was changing it's decor - the enire outside of the building had been covered in half rounds of 8' bamboo poles and they had ripped it all down and left it in the parking lot for the taking. We picked up as much as our truck could handle and I think we got a bit more than we really needed! Gonna have to figure out what to do with the remainders! Better too much than too little I guess.

Nice haul! I was able to fill my VW Jetta to the ceiling a few years ago with bamboo from a bar that decided to go all Sinatra/Martini. I still haven't done a thing with all of it, but someday....

wow! nice score boutiki! your right about the beauty of the old patina of the bamboo. We love the stuff we got with lake surfer. I even asked the owner if I could have the bamboo covered door, and they said, "sure go for it!"
Hope you guys are all dry and Ok. I hear the flooding is pretty bad by you.

Boutiki/Duke,

I love the proportions of the bamboo before the pieces were removed from the walls.

I wish to do a bamboo remodel of a spare bedroom over the winter months here in California and wish to achieve an effect similar to the photos you posted, therefore I have two questions to ask you.

What is the average diameter of the bamboo shown?

What was the approximate vertical height of the area covered by bamboo on the walls where the bamboo did not go all the way to the ceiling? (5' ?)

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, Greg

TikiG,
I hadn't looked at this thread in a while and just saw your question. The bamboo is almost all about 2 inches wide and most of what was in there was about 4 feet tall. It works out real well and has made installing it in my place much easier. So much is pre-cut and pre-drilled, I used the same idea of a bamboo wainscoting and put matting above it. It works out great if you have 8 ft or lower ceilings as you can mount the 4 ft wide matting over the 4 feet of bamboo and you are good.

One great trick I picked up and is worth passing along– they backed the bamboo with black paper. I just painted the wall black. This way when you put up your bamboo the irregular spaces between the sticks are given more contrast and a stronger graphic quality. Makes a big difference.

I've been working like a fiend since I got the bamboo and have made a lot of progress. I've taken some photos along the way and will post them ASAP.

Lake Surfer,
I wish I'd seen your reply before tonight, I could have used your help, as it is I've been doing this 100% solo. Amy comes down, critiques my work, then goes back to her work or watching the kid. He just comes down and wants to play in the Tiki room. If you are still interested in rolling up your sleeves, I have more still that I could use help on.

-Duke

Check out Tiki Quest at http://www.pegboardchicago.com/TCintro.html
Tiki Central members get a discount and a special premium!

[ Edited by: boutiki 2008-10-28 15:33 ]

Thanks Duke - This info helps me fine.

I'll take your suggestion of a black wall behind the bamboo to heart. Cheers!

PS Thanks for autographing my copy of Tiki Quest for me!

On 2008-10-27 23:17, boutiki wrote:

One great trick I picked up and is worth passing along– they backed the bamboo with black paper. I just painted the wall black. This way when you put up your bamboo the irregular spaces between the sticks are given more contrast and a stronger graphic quality. Makes a big difference.

Great nugget of insight! I'm going to have to remember this...

Let this be a lesson for us all!

Write your will up so that, upon your demise, if your un-grateful spawn or inheritors of your tiki treasures are idiots or just "don't get it" your legacy is not left to those who would destroy or not appreciate them. I, thankfully, will live forever. My Chinese fortune cookie said so.

OK, so here are some photos of the new Tabu Tiki Lounge in progress...

Laying down the base black...

Up goes the matting and bamboo...

We wanted some areas to be painted in classic Tiki green and orange...

Ceiling has to go black...

Raw materials...

More to follow.

-Duke

Duke,

Its looking amazing! Love the bright colors coupled with organic tiki materials, of course the collection does not hurt!!!! Wow!!

Nice Duke!

Love the long wall. The recycled bamboo looks like it was in place all along. I can't wait to see the finished room with the tikis in place and all the mood lighting. This thread is very inspirational for me in a way that I'm not jealous, but motivated to do the same in my home as well. Thanks for sharing. Cheers!

Hey Duke,

I won't lie. I am jealous!! Very nice work.

Sungod

wow duke!! that's shapin up great!!! nice collection of tikis too!! can't wait to see more....

wow~! That looks top!! I'm loving it! Can't wait to see it done :)

Thanks for the positive response. I love seeing how others create their own environments, so I thought we should share too. Here are more progress shots. Getting things trimmed out...

Laying carpet. We found a couple different lots of inexpensive carpet tiles on Craig's list. One is this new Envirotex by Shaw. It's a high-wear contract grade carpet– and the best thing is that it's 100% recycleable. We went with the carpet to make things a bit warmer and cozier. Plus, with the squares if you spill a navy grog, you can either clean the effected square or replace it if need be.

Once we've addressed the walls, ceiling and floor, we can start to bring in furniture, lay out the decor and hang art...

Covered the windows with vintage curtains in a Tiki print.

When we decided to paint some of the walls rather than cover everything in bamboo and matting we were thinking we might be able to approximate some of those great Witco catalog shots Sven included in Tiki Modern.

We still have quite a ways to go.

-Duke

Wow, that is so cool!! I'd never want to leave the room! Great stuff :D

Liana.

this tiki-phile can only think of one word to adequately describe maestro boutiki's new tabu tiki lounge.... and that word is: tiki-licious!

Yowza! You da man!

Looking real good Duke!

No worries on the mixed connection... it looks like you've got it down great by yourself!

And with your collection you're set on decor! :wink:

WOW !!! I almost do not miss your old tiki bar, seeing this new expansive one. Looks awesome.

it's an odd layout....but not as tiny and cramped as your last tiki room and coming together nicely...that painted cinder block throws me...looks too institutional/high school cafeteria in the 70's for me....but the rest of it is tops.

Though it has much lower ceilings and a totally different feel, we are fortunate to have nearly twice the square footage as our old Tiki room. The new space is basically just a large rectangle, but there is a storage room in one corner and a big chunk in the middle taken up by the furnace (hence the louvered doors– access and ventilation) and that cinderblock support. It is, after all, a basement. That cinderblock structure supports the stone hearth for the fireplace upstairs and houses an ash trap. When we are done there won't be much of it visible– the orange is just kind of a background color. It will be largely covered by framed artwork, Tikis, and display shelves. I didn't like it at first, but it divides the room in two spaces, the more Hawaiian side and the Witco side. Plus, it has to be there to hold up that fireplace which we love:

-Duke

...sounds cool. - i like the idea of being able walk around the room and not see the otherside..kinda like a tiki room shaped like a square donut, but with the furnace room in the center....or is it shaped more like the letter "L" because the storage room cuts it off. -either way, i'm glad i gave you the opportunity to showcase your fireplace. nice!

Ok, again, WOW!

I loved the look and feel of your old home from downstairs, to up, and even the backyard. But the more I see of your new home, I see such a wonderful space. Logan must love having all that floor space to run around on!

I wanna double that WOW!! Really nice job!! I hope to someday create something similar..

Keep the pics coming, your living my tiki dream..

Aloha

Very nice tiki room.
But that fireplace is the BEST!!!!

Your house should be in Atomic Ranch magazine.

Your house is AMAZING and the attention to detail is fantastic! Not done yet? You've already done an awesome job- I can't wait to see what else you'll do!