Paisley Umbrella's Bachelor Pad Tiki Bar

I've always wanted to post. I found a Tiki Farm bar on craigslist for $75 in Summer '09, brought it home, realized I was a bachelor, so I might as well have a tiki bar. It fit my interests anyway since I'm into mid century modern design. Also, having a grad degree in anthropology, it seemed somewhat sarcastic to have a fascination for an American craze based on seeing others as "exotic" and "primitive", so the journey began. I had a little bit of guidance and tons of enthusiasm, advice, and encouragement from my awesome friend (and yours) Formikahini. I started only wanting vintage mugs. None of that new stuff except for mugs from the great and long missed local dive, Oceans 11. I started to like the Tiki Farm stuff, started collecting more, found a great mid century lamp on ebay for really cheap bought swizzle sticks, straws, scorpion and volcano bowls, you name it. The first shot is what I had as of October:

I also had a shelf purchased in December of '09, but still was running out of room, which all include for all you fellow tiki addicts to look at:

So I'm out of room! I posted on Tiki Central trying to find another shelf, got the hookup to Joe Tatar at Modern HQ via Bamboo Ben, and got an estimate of 600 not included the fabric or shipping. A friend said that I should try something different in order to avoid having my 650 square foot apartment look like Tiki Bar Warehouse. It took a few months and a lot of looking. Originally, I thought lining a wall with shallow shelves might work, but they would be like CD shelves, which aren't cheap in that size. Also, I'm not carpentry minded, so I'd make a mess if I tried to make anything. All that centering, cutting, cutting in a straight line, not for me. I have very little hand/eye coordination. However, I realized I could buy some narrow shelf units from Ikea, put some lights in them, and there we have it! I did that. They looked cool, but the looked like shelves I bought at Ikea and then put some lights in them. Besides, they were a little deep and either I could have a few mugs on each shelf for a nice display, or I could just use them as storage.

I needed to take another step so they actually looked tiki. Bamboo trim was a great idea! I found a bamboo farm in Austin, got pieces cut, and took them home. I found out the cuts for the shelves were too small, so I cut the longer pieces for the height and carefully drilled holes in them to nail into the shelves with finishing nails. Good results so far. At a friend's suggesting, I got wider pieces cut for the height. That worked out well. I cured the pieces, which one does by heating them with a heat gun or in my case, a creme brulee torch. The wax rises to the surface, and then one wipes it with a lint free cloth. The bamboo looks smoother and shinier, aside from having its own natural finish.

I also had a shelf mounted in the middle of the wall. I thought it would be a great idea to trim that too, so I got 2.75 width pieces for it. Now here's the tricky part. I wanted the trim on the shelf cut and fitted at an angle, just like on the Tiki Farm shelf. I went through trial and error with a Dremel, a miter with its own saw, and finally, a Japanese pull saw. The pull saw worked!

Only I needed an extra 7/8ths of an inch to make the trim for the sides fit perfectly and all the pieces were cut, so a 7/8in wedge at 45degrees was cut. Here were the results finished last week:

Something missing.

straw, grass, or bamboo matting for the back of the shelves, and something to light the middle shelf with. Back to Ikea. A 10 roll of woven grass, and a revamped set of changing color LED strip lights now with a hand controller. Voila!

Mug shots. We're all about the mugs.

In retrospect, strip lights in bottom front of the shelves with thicker bamboo trim to hide them would have been better, but the strip lights are 50 for a set of 4, and I have 15 shelves. Nix that for now. Also, the selective burning I did on the bamboo was a little silly, I think. One more thing. Duh, it's a tiki bar. Red lights!

I know it's not nearly as impressive as those of you who own houses and can devote whole rooms, basements, and outdoor areas to our shared obsession, but I thought submitting my own little tiki bachelor pad souped up bar might let you know that you can do a lot with a small space. I love the results and I love coming home to it. Of course, I'll run out of room for the mugs soon, but that's another photo essay. I also have a mid century cone fireplace that's converted into a tiki terrarium, but I'll save that for another time. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the story and the pics.

Mahalo,

Michael

[ Edited by: Paisleyumbrella 2011-02-08 21:39 ]

[ Edited by: paisleyumbrella 2011-02-11 07:39 ]

Tres swank Michael!

Keep in mind those of us with houses often have a Significant Other with veto power! GREAT job!

Great job! I love the shadows that are cast from the mugs on the middle shelf!

Great job. Michael!
It's been fun to watch the growth of your obsession (said as I cast stones from my glass house).
Can't wait to have a cocktail over there!
alice b

I so need to do this! Love the color changing LED uplights on the long middle shelf between the bookcases. Might be something worth trying in the months ahead when my Tiki mugs go on display. Where did you get those lights?

Good work! I too am curious about your lights.

The shelf lights are from ikea. Their named "Dioder". You can get them in either a set of four spots, like on the shelves, or a string of four, which is on the middle shelf. I think the string lights would look better on all the shelves, but that's a major investment since a set of four is 50 and there are 15 shelves. The newer version of the lights have a cool handheld controller to change colors, and they're all LED, so you can have them on without using up too much electricity. Thanks for the compliments!

On 2011-02-10 06:57, Paisleyumbrella wrote:
The shelf lights are from ikea. Their named "Dioder". You can get them in either a set of four spots, like on the shelves, or a string of four, which is on the middle shelf. I think the string lights would look better on all the shelves, but that's a major investment since a set of four is 50 and there are 15 shelves. The newer version of the lights have a cool handheld controller to change colors, and they're all LED, so you can have them on without using up too much electricity. Thanks for the compliments!

Thanks for the info! :) I just checked Ikea's web site and found the lights you mentioned. I see the four bars/strings connected to a transformer but there's no mention of a controller that changes color. :( Also, do you have to connect all four bars/strings to the transformer or just as many as you need? Thanks again!

Great lighting! (both blue and red).

CN

The dioder strips on the ikea site are only in white. They had the multicolor ones a few weeks ago, but the model was discontinued. The ones I have a new version. The older ones didn't have a handheld controller. I found out when I called them after not seeing the multicolored dioders on the store site when they were just there two days before. I called them and they said they had many of them left. At the store a day later, they said they were out, but when I bought the part number to the counter, they said they have a new version, gave me the part number, and I bought the new ones. You should try calling the nearest store to inquire. The transformers can have up to 4 or less plugged in to work. I have all the dioder strips connected to each other and then one cord in the transformer.

On 2011-02-10 18:18, Paisleyumbrella wrote:
The dioder strips on the ikea site are only in white. They had the multicolor ones a few weeks ago, but the model was discontinued. The ones I have a new version. The older ones didn't have a handheld controller. I found out when I called them after not seeing the multicolored dioders on the store site when they were just there two days before. I called them and they said they had many of them left. At the store a day later, they said they were out, but when I bought the part number to the counter, they said they have a new version, gave me the part number, and I bought the new ones. You should try calling the nearest store to inquire. The transformers can have up to 4 or less plugged in to work. I have all the dioder strips connected to each other and then one cord in the transformer.

Niiice! Thanks for the info. We'll see what my budget allows this Spring/Summer. I may just have to check out the Dioder lights in person at my semi-local IKEA. :wink:

Really like the photos. I wouldn't mind coming home to the same set up. Great job so far :)