Tiki transporter....Beam me up !!!!

Just wondering if other folks are taken away by their home bars. I mean really escape to the urban jungle ? My home bar { The hukilau Lounge) is in my basement, cut off from the outside world. No change of seasons no day or night just the atmosphere I have made to escape. I have one rule in the lounge, no talk of the days troubles, oh and no TV, never had one down there and never will. When I have guest over I won't let them down to the lounge until the mood is set. Exotica playing low. Mood lighting down low. This mix with a good cocktail with exotic garnish will make a January blizzard disappear. It's a whole other world until it's time for the guest to leave and the "clean up" lights come on and kill the whole illusion. Just wondering how others feel about there home bars and if escapism has become a lost art or you may have mastered the art. Just thought I'd through the question out there. Thanks.

"Anyone who has ever seen them is thereafter haunted as if by a feverish dream" Karl Woermann

[ Edited by: uncle trav 2008-09-28 17:00 ]

Well I agree with you. My little cabana is where I can go and escape from all the crap I deal with during the day. I don't care if its just me alone by myself relaxing and just chilling out. It's cozy, quite, warm and very relaxing. My daily work is very stressful and I can at least dream I'm on some deserted Island somewhere. I'll make my self a nice drink get my reading materials, play some tunes am I'm out. Escapism is exactly why I made the cabana/tiki bar, so I would have my own little piece of paradise. :D Dave and I both love it. And when its filled with friends it's great.

"escapism"... Exactly! It's a big part of the whole tiki thing, I think. It's what the early tropic bars were about and it's what many of us are doing now.

I must've caught it from my dad.
He turned basically most of the basement of the house into a bar, dedicated to his favorite beer - Old Style (the Canadian one, first produced by Sicks and then Molson, before the name change from OS to Pilsner).
He spent a hell of a lotta time building the thing over the years with ephemera and knick-knacks covering everything, and everyone who visited was impressed and couldn't help themselves from all the eye-candy covering the walls and pointing out weird stuff or memories from the past.
The years I lived at home I couldn't really get why he spent that much time on it, but yeah - after years of doing others' bidding being a wage-slave, paying bills and coming home wired yet exhausted - oh, I get it now.

Currently revamping the entire bar & the area around it, so that's a job in itself. However, it's a FUN one and I actually look forward to the work; just building it, tearing something apart to make it better, adding stuff - all an escape in itself. Hopefully I can get to the point where I can 'disappear' into it when it's all done (well, ya know what I mean - they're never really done).

I completely understand the desire to set the mood and escape.

Because my Tiki lounge is also the kitchen and bedroom wrapped up in a small camping trailer, the whole idea is to escape metaphorically and physically onto the road.

I escape in it and into it.

It is the favorite place for guests who visit to stay the night, they like the cozy and quirky atmosphere.

I was glad I built it that way in hindsight.

Because we have been renting for so many years, any tiki lounge built would have to be dismantled when and if we moved.

Since we are buying a house this week that doesn't have space for an extra room devoted to Tiki, it is nice to know that for the next month while we move in and the dust settles as we adjust to our new home--the rolling Tiki-Lander will be there to relax in, all ready to go and ready for chilling out or a solid nap after a long day of moving.

Exactly, that's why we did the cabana thing. This is our first and last house, I think and actually not having the TB in the house works well. That's not to say I don't have a bar in the house. :lol: But the house in an 1850's farm house and it's filled with more OLD items than Tiki items. Oh well, that would mean we would have to change everything. Nope, no can do.. Love the antiques, because I'm one myself.

Keep It PUMPIN

Go to work in AM my whole desk is a Tiki/Hawaiian
theme. Pumpin out the exotica/lounge music for 8 hours.

Come home go to my Tiki room out back & the vibe continues.

With the way things are going today we need ESCAPEISM!!!

Thortiki

For me it has always been about escapism. That feeling I always get at Disneyland where you reach suspension of disbelief. It keeps me young feeling when I can imagine I'm away from all the ratrace sh*t that's going on around me. When you go to someones home bar and truly feel like you're not in civilization they have achieved the best atmosphere. Escape and enjoy!
Cheers.

It is all about the ability to forget where you are. Create an environment that establishes a sense of peace, familiarity, individualism, comfort and warmth. For me, I love our Moai Lanai, which still is under construction, or depending on if a storm is coming, deconstruction and our backyard. It's lush, tropical, inviting. Makes me feel happy and sane. But it's also a part of my every day life, something I see and experience each day, swaying palms, crystal blue water (when the salt system is working right in the pool). The tropical places I've been lucky enough to visit, well, they look like my backyard. So for me, my escapism happens in my living room. I grew up here in the area, and I know the Florida "style" white furniture, soft pastels etc. I went against the grain and created an early 20th century Library theme in my living room. Complete with over stuffed leather furniture, dark heavy wood desk, an electric fireplace, cozy lighting, mismatched thick rugs and lots and lots of books, small knick knacks, small paintings etc. You might see a similar room in an old Florida home, but not in my neighborhood these days. So I escape there. It can be 99 degrees with 100 percent humidity, I shut the blinds, turn on a couple small lights, hit the button of the instant fireplace and snuggle down with a book wearing sweats (air conditioner on high of course) and I'm gone, I'm there, I'm not here. Point is, doesn't matter what it's like outside, only what I feel when I'm in that room or how that room makes me feel really matters. That's not to say even though I love the library that Tiki and all it's glory aren't escapism for me either, it's just that for some reason even with a Witco Outrigger over my couch in my family room, I truly escape to another place when I'm in the library. Thanks for the great post Uncle Trav, it's a fun topic and I enjoyed reading everyones thoughts.

That's an ideal, but our bar is more realistic. Sure, when we want the "escape pod" we do it. But, on Saturday when we're gonna watch the game, we will have the TV on in the bar and watch and drink beer.

The problem is, if you constrain the use of the bar to only when you are going to have that exact escape experience, you'll find yourself under-using the bar.

We look for more ways to get out there, not less. And after a stressful day, we can have a nice escapist Happy Hour out there or, when we are entertaining, we can do it there and play 80s music if that's what we want to hear, and drink beer. We just don't limit the space to a very precise event. When we want that, we do the Quiet Tiki Bar perfectly. But, we can pull the tapa cloth aside and fire up the TV and watch the news after work while enjoying a Margarita and discussing the day like we always do. We can do that in the bar as well as the kitchen or living room.

And some people really love the Tiki Bar and are not the Quiet Tiki Bar type. That is not their personality. You can't force it on them. No use saying "sshhhhh! You're in a quiet Tiki Bar." They just enjoy it as they do.

It is a bar first, and a Tiki Bar second. We don't discriminate, too much...

What? Not a single photo of these shrines to Tiki escapism? :o
Come on guys are there no digital cameras allowed in the bars either? :wink:

Good question about the pics.

I was trying to relay the feeling or sense of the moment that the pictures fail to convey.

It doesn't matter how they look nor that the space must be perfect and only be used to achieve that satisfying escapism forsaking other shenanigans, just that it can open the door to "someplace else" when called upon to do so.

Search for Tiki trailer luvliness to see my mobile-mini-lounge.

On 2008-10-02 18:13, coruscate wrote:
Good question about the pics.

I was trying to relay the feeling or sense of the moment that the pictures fail to convey.

It doesn't matter how they look nor that the space must be perfect and only be used to achieve that satisfying escapism forsaking other shenanigans, just that it can open the door to "someplace else" when called upon to do so.

Search for Tiki trailer luvliness to see my mobile-mini-lounge.

Yep, yep. There are plenty-o threads with pictures of home bars.

As it happens, it is my office, not at my home, where I have created a bit of tiki paradise. One of the responsibilities I take at my restaurant company is decor, so it's not surprising that I would have my office done up in a "theme". It does surprise people though, because our restaurants are themed Mexican, so they assume my office to be filled with artifacts from Mexico and it sure ain't.

With my mug collection, rattan furniture, bamboo, tiki carvings, Witco, Shag, ukuleles, soft lighting, exotica music, a good amount of rum... not a bad office if I do say so myself.

[ Edited by: Bongo Bungalow 2008-10-03 03:21 ]

On 2008-10-03 03:19, Bongo Bungalow wrote:
With my mug collection, rattan furniture, bamboo, tiki carvings, Witco, Shag, ukuleles, soft lighting, exotica music, a good amount of rum... not a bad office if I do say so myself.

Well, you can't just go saying something enticing like that without posting pictures! Since this thread isn't the place, let's see some over in Locating. C'mon, make us jealous! (I say as I stare at my white office walls...)

If I could pull off a Tiki bar, I would use it SERIOUSLY for escape. And it would not go under used...I'm afraid it would get over used instead.