Suggestions needed

So, a California Tiki Tour, and Tiki Oasis 2012 have lit a fire under my ass to finish the Aku Aku Room by my 30th birthday on September 4th. Well, at least have it most of the way there. I've got about 20 boxes of mugs and wall hangings to unpack. There's no photos yet, so I'll try to paint you a pretty picture.

The walls are green wood paneling. This is the hardest part to picture. They're wood paneling, with a transparent green finish. Very jungle, very apropos. I need to get a photo up. They'll mostly be covered, but they'll still be somewhat visible.

As you walk into the room, directly across from you is a secluded seating area, next to the window. Right now I have teak wooden blinds. I need something to tart up that window.

From the ceiling, you see a pufferfish and rum barrel or two among the 30-some glass fishing floats of all sizes, some providing the light for the room, along with a broken crate lamp, strewn about fishing nets.

In the far corner is a waterfall. It springs forth from an old rum barrel, pours over some long forgotten tikis, through a shell or two, and into a small pond. Above that is a shutter that leads to the jungle outside.

The room is 14x14. There is 2ft of hardwood around the room. It's a dark, deep red oak. The center of the room is currently plywood. It's approx 10x10.

The bar is up in the air at the moment, but it's looking like it's going to be a half round supported by a tiki that looks awfully similar to the one Bob is carving with the chainsaw in the BOT.

The walls will be littered with hundreds of mugs, a giant leopard print shield with two spears behind it that I made while gimped, and with the help of TC, way back in 2005.

So there are a lot of things up in the air right now, and I had planned on doing an Armstrong Imperial Tile inlay of a giant Moai, as the bar is named the Aku Aku Room, but that's going to have to get scrapped to be able to make a drink by the 4th. Oh, I should mention that the bar top has swizzles and menus from all the places I've been, or the places that no longer are that I wish I could go. Matchbooks too. Anyway, I'm going to quick, dirty, cheap, and easy route. I'm going to make a giant print, glue it to the floor, and polyurethane over it.

The question of the hour is.....what do I do!? Do I make it look like a giant tapa cloth, do I use the map from the front/back of BOT? Any and all suggestions are welcome. If I go with one of them, I will happily send two sets of tiki necklaces and matching earrings to the person who made that suggestion. Moai and a Marq. Handmade. Well, hand...cast.

Mahalo to you all in advance, and a debt of gratitude to everyone I met on my trip.

Perhaps make it look like a old wood plank floor, like a ship, with broken thru spots showing ocean underwater shots..

Idea of printing out the floor is wild.. How expensive is that gonna be?

Also how durable is it going to be? You don't want to spend time and money and then just replace it in a year. The Moai tile floor is a cool idea. The color goes all the way through those commercial tiles, it would last forever. Home tiki bars are never finished, don't let an arbitrary "finish date" compromise your dream. If you need to have it ready by a party date you can always do something quick and temporary (that won't prevent tile from sticking later) Sounds like you have enough decor that no one will notice that the floor isn't awesome yet. Plus, it gives your friends something new to oogle over at next year's party :D

Just my 2 cents

Love the idea of the tile mosaic floor. That is a real great idea, but it sounds like you have a lot to do in a couple weeks. Perhaps you could do a quick and easy peel-n-stick slate floor in the middle of the room and that would be easy to remove and replace later with the mosaic.

This is why I love this place, everybody is awesome.

So it's not tile like ceramic tile, it's Armstrong Imperial Excelon Tile. The stuff you'd see in a school or church. Vinyl composition.

I think I forgot to mention that part of the reason for scrapping the inlaid tile is that with the tiki bar and the dining area, a giant inlay will get lost, and look cluttered. Did I forget to mention the dining area? It's a 3x8 hand made bamboo table that was shipped over during the Korean War with matching chairs and a glass table top. So you'll be able to see the floor through the table top, but a giant Moai just doesn't strike me as a good idea anymore.

As far as it's durability, I stole the idea from Big Fun Toys in Cleveland, Ohio. They have old board games on the floor and it looks awesome. They've been down for a long, long time. Two years ago I did a similar floor for a broad I was seeing. It was old children's books from the 1960s. Learned my lesson with paper that you should coat it in white glue to prevent the poly from penetrating the paper and changing the color. Well, not so much learned my lesson as turned out to be right.

Anyway, you can put down paper of any kind, use high build polyurethane, at least 2-3 coats, and it'll last a long, long time. And like any floor that has polyurethane, sand it down every 3-5 years and put on another coat, which is a lot easier than it sounds.

As far as where I'm getting it printed, I have access to large format printers. It would be VERY expensive to have it down otherwise. Though still cheaper than the VCT, actually. I also may be able to have it done by a vinyl wrap company. The ones that do cars, buildings, et cetera. They have a HUGE printer, and aren't nearly as expensive as you'd think.

Glad you are motivated...nothing like an event or an upcoming gathering at your pad to encourage projects. I am not a builder or a Tiki expert, so my minimal idea is purely decorative in nature and not offended if you throw it out with the bathwater...LOL

The teak wooden blinds sound good. You could do an internal fabric awning framed with bamboo and using some nice tropical fabric. Maybe use the same fabric on your seating (such as bar stools, etc.)

Looking forward to seeing your pictures. Best of luck with your project.

A good suggestion! Thanks Vampress.

Since you're going to have a table smack in the middle of your floor I'd have something that has an overall pattern to it so the table in the middle doesn't really detract from the pattern. If you had a giant Moai in the middle and a table sitting on him it would detract from the floor design. I don't have the BOT but i think a map is very in keeping with your room as it is described. The only other thing that came to mind was a bamboo looking floor.

Whatever you decide please take pictures & share! And a happy early birthday. Nothing motivates like inviting people over does it??

:)

Hale, since your printed floor is known to be durable you can go hog wild. You can make a floor to be practically anything you want, how cool! Show us what you end up doing with that.

you know mike, you just gave me a REAAAAAALY good idea....

Hale, I'm a little concerned that the term "hog wild" gave you a great idea. LOL I can't wait to see what you come up with. LOTS of pics please.

• Dale

Maybe that "hog wild" is referring to the pit in the middle of the room for smoking the pig.

A fire roasting pit in the tiki bar.....hmmm.
Fortunately/Unfortunately, I have a wahnini that shoots me down when my ideas get too hair brained.
Still sorting it out. Routing trim right now!

Personally I like wild and busy colorful crazy ass designs... so if I could do the polyurethane thing I would find a bunch of Aloha shirt cloth and use that actual cloth with the polyurethane over it. And then if you REALLY want to get nuts... if you have the ability cut "trenches" in the floor all the way around the edges where it meets the wall and put lighting down in there, above the trenches have plexiglass pieces with the same (or maybe a different complimentary cloth) laid over it with polyurethane. Or do the same with paper that has tapa designs... either way the result is a glowing "lantern" effect.

I could also see using actual or faux tapa paper prints with polyurethane over it.

Or if you really want to drive guests to insane distraction, get a large amount of various old Hawaii postcards (probably scanned and printed...real postcards would be nutso expensive) and "tile" the overall colors in such a way that they form a tiki face, like how people do that with photos. Or you could do that also with tiki matchbook cover prints (that would be my preference since I collect them). Of course you may have guests scrambling around on the floor going crazy before they even touch a Mai Tai. :wink:

Tiger: Fantastic ideas. Currently taking them under consideration. I have loads of vintage Hawaiian shirts, and fabric. I do have the ability to route out the floor and light it. Also taking under consideration. I like the ideas! My kinda nutso!!!

Anyone have any ideas what the black rocks are that were used on the side of buildings in the 1960s? Often with white stucco or plaster in between? There's quite a few examples in the BOT. I can site a page number when I get home if you'd like.

i always figured they were a lava rock, but I could certainly be wrong.

Oh, and happy belated birthday. Hope you had a great day yesterday.

• Dale

Thank you!