Leo's Surf Shack

Hi all. Not quite my first post, but my first thread.

My son Leo is getting big enough that he's going to need something other than a crib. Especially since a friend of mine and his wife are expecting, and we'll be giving them his crib. What to do, what to do? Why, tiki/beach it up, of course!

Here's how his room currently looks:
This is the side of the room with the crib that's going away.

Going counterclockwise, this room has on the right the door, and the closet door on the left. My wife got some mural stencils, and we painted them when he was born.

Still CCW, this is the window. Pretty boring.

Last wall. The decorations are photos and stuff we got on out Hawaiian honeymoon.
It also has his changing table, which is an Ikea dresser. That'll be moving to the crib wall, and the bed will go there.

The new bed is an Ikea Kura. I'm not going to picture it here because you'll be seeing more of it. The key feature is that it can be a low bed, or you can turn it over and make it into a loft bed. Leo's sister has one. For some reason, they only make them in white now. Hers is blue. You can also buy a bit of a canopy for them. Hers is blue with white dots (stars). His is green.

So some modification is in order.

Firstly, I had a couple pieces of hardboard left over from some picture frame modifications I did. So I cut out 4 surfboard shapes. I'm in the process of painting them. They'll get carpet taped to the inside headboard of the bed. That has some crossbars, and I sized these to fit between them. Leo picked out the base colors, and I've been striping them as I have time.

More to come...

Raito, Try not to take this the wrong way, but there is nothing Tiki
or "Tiki Bar" about your post, That being said I am sure decorating with all the usual
Tiki accoutrements may not be very child safe :)

Since it is a child's room, you could always do Tiki stencils. I am not supporting this business, just sharing an example here. Best of luck with your project.

http://www.tcpglobal.com/airbrushdepot/mask10.aspx

Atomic Tiki Punk,
I've spent the last couple hours figuring out whether I'd respond to your post. I have decided to do so. I'll attempt to address your points.
First, I'm afraid that, yes, I seem to be taking your post the wrong way.
While I may not post often, I do read the site, and this sub forum regularly.
I often see the first post of a build topic looking very similar to mine in that the space as it currently exists is shown. So I began mine in the same manner. Some of those first posts show a completely bare room.
As to there being nothing "tiki-bar" about the post, I'll direct your attention to the description of this sub-forum. I believe this qualifies as "other". As far as scale, the room may not be large, but neither are some of the others shown here.
Or perhaps the trouble is with the current beachy theme. While the surf board may not be the most common decoration here, they are far from unused. The same can be said of the mural. And the photos, though those are of Hawaiian flora.

In short, I'm unable to fathom how my post differs from so many others as to be inappropriate. Some of the topics here seem to go no further than "I got a bar and put up a shelf". Some appear to never get off the ground.

It's rather disappointing to attempt to contribute and be told immediately that my efforts are not appropriate to the venue.

Here's another idea for a kid's room...

http://allthingstiki.com/information-tiki-bedroom-furniture/

[ Edited by: JOHN-O 2014-01-28 21:41 ]

VampiressRN,

Thanks for the information.

On 2014-01-28 19:49, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:
Raito, Try not to take this the wrong way, but there is nothing Tiki
or "Tiki Bar" about your post, That being said I am sure decorating with all the usual
Tiki accoutrements may not be very child safe :)

Oh, how droll....

See what I did there?

On 2014-01-28 21:37, raito wrote:
Atomic Tiki Punk,
I've spent the last couple hours figuring out whether I'd respond to your post. I have decided to do so. I'll attempt to address your points.
First, I'm afraid that, yes, I seem to be taking your post the wrong way.
While I may not post often, I do read the site, and this sub forum regularly.
I often see the first post of a build topic looking very similar to mine in that the space as it currently exists is shown. So I began mine in the same manner. Some of those first posts show a completely bare room.
As to there being nothing "tiki-bar" about the post, I'll direct your attention to the description of this sub-forum. I believe this qualifies as "other". As far as scale, the room may not be large, but neither are some of the others shown here.
Or perhaps the trouble is with the current beachy theme. While the surf board may not be the most common decoration here, they are far from unused. The same can be said of the mural. And the photos, though those are of Hawaiian flora.

In short, I'm unable to fathom how my post differs from so many others as to be inappropriate. Some of the topics here seem to go no further than "I got a bar and put up a shelf". Some appear to never get off the ground.

It's rather disappointing to attempt to contribute and be told immediately that my efforts are not appropriate to the venue.

See! that's why I said not to take it the wrong way
but I was pointing out the obvious (A child's room with no Tiki theme in the Home Tiki Bar thread)
you made no mention at all if your planning on doing so though? and you are right many people
do post pictures of a bare wall or shelf stating the start of some big project and never return to update it
that is very frustrating to the reader to be sure.

But I did in no way say "don't post here" or "this is inappropriate", you really are being incredibly defensive
now just to point out this thread has no sub forum topic as "Other" did you mean
the "Creating Tiki/Other Crafts "thread as that may be where you intended to post.

But to date all you have posted is a Beach Themed Child's room in the "Home Tiki Bar" thread
can you guess the two things wrong with that?

you are not a newbie to this site, so you should know this already.
I was not attacking you & was hoping to refocus you on the subject matter of this thread & no more.

Jefe don't you have anything better to do then follow me around TC and try to start a fight?

[ Edited by: Atomic Tiki Punk 2014-01-28 23:12 ]

It did occur to me that a little mini "Tiki Bar" that doubles as a changing table
would be cool indeed & bring your project closer to the topic.
what do you think?

Funny, I don't feel defensive. As I said, I debated with myself even replying. I did so to address a post in a topic I started. Perhaps my indications that there is more work to be done in the room were too mild. I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree with you're assertion that you did not say the post was inappropriate. How else ought one take the phrase "there is nothing Tiki..."?

As for your assertion that there is no Sub-forum as 'Other', I'll quote: "...as well as other larger scale tiki transformations..." (bold mine). This would seem to imply two things. The first is that this is the correct sub forum for projects for spaces rather than single objects. The second is that a bar is not necessary. As you can see, it's no accident that I chose this sub-forum for the topic.

I presume that the two things wrong with my post are 'beach-themed' and 'child's room'. I still can't see anything wrong with either. As I pointed out, the definition of this sub-forum allows for spaces other than bars. As for beach-themed, as I pointed out in my first reply, every design element I've called out (the mural and its subject, the photos, even the surfboards) have been used in many of the projects here.

And as for the Other Crafts sub-forum, if 'beach-themed' is insufficiently Tiki, posting there would have been as inappropriate as posting here. For example, though the description of that sub-forum specifically includes painting, I'd hardly post a tutorial on painting spaceships there (unless it was a Tiki spaceship, but you catch my meaning).

But at least we do agree on two points. It's a shame when a project with potential goes unfinished (or at least undocumented). And El Jefe's reply was less than useful. If he's trying to defend me, that's nice, but unneccessary. If it's something between you guys, I'd rather not be involved.

Back to the subject at hand, being that it's a child's room, certainly I'll be designing differently than I would for an adult-only space. It's also rather small, and boys need their open area. Hence, the mural with a palm tree rather than an actual palm tree, for example.

Raito,

Thank you for posting pictures of your project. Its always fun to see what other people are doing. Surfboards are often used in decorating ideas. I look forward to seeing more of your work. Making a child's room fun makes for a happy family. I like ATPs idea of turning a piece of furniture into something that uses the design work you might see on the front of a tiki bar.

I don't think this has been bumped up for awhile but this is one of Bamboo Ben's projects. Its a bedroom not a bar.

http://tiki.unkrich.com/tiki_hideaway/index.html

JOHN-O and MaukaHale,

Those are very nice rooms.

This thread may not be 'tiki' yet but there's a the key bit: potential.

Having said that you will be needing at least one tiki, wall decal or otherwise! :wink:

I saved this photo on my 'mood board' a while ago, thought you might like it:

I think it's got a tiki lite / surfer vibe (without actually having a surf board in it)...

Well, please enlighten us on your proposed Tiki elements, if planned?
I am sure anyone else with a similar project in mind would like to see it
and good luck on the bedroom remodel.

I actually posted that picture earlier and then changed it to the hyperlink when I realized he wasn't looking for suggestions but rather just wanted to share his build-out. If you do want to add some child-safe Tiki's, Eric October (Tobunga) makes some really cool plush ones.

If this is screwing up your thread, I can remove the image...

Can't wait to see how things progress!

I know that a few people I am friends with that have kids have "tiki-fied" their bedrooms--mug collections around the top of the room in lieu of a wallpaper border for example, tiki printed bedding--you can find many designs on Spoonflower.com, etc..

I hope you keep posting :)

AdOrAdam,

Yes, the key is potential. As for including one or more tiki (don't worrya bout that), I have a theory of genres that's pretyt long but breaks down to the idea that it's not a single thing that defines a genre but a group of things. You can usually leave out any single item and still be within the genre, but the more you leave out the more you move away from that genre's center, until you reach the point where it's arguable whether something belongs or not. Add in genres that re-use the same elements, and that's where the arguments typically start.

But you might want to look at that picture again. I think there's a surfboard in it.

JOHN-O,

It's mot messing up the thread at all. Threads are like conversations. Someone else reading the thread for inspiration would want suggestions, as do I. Some of what I want to do I have planned out, but I'd take a good suggestion in a heartbeat.

And great minds think alike. But I was going to go with a stuffed Moai.

Atomic Tiki Punk,

No problem, though I was hoping to wait until I had more pictures. The bed part of the project in on a time limit, and having to make progress so I could post pictures ought to keep me moving. So far, I have these plans:

The Bed
This is a big thing that has to get done, as we're giving away the crib. The KURA bed is mostly square pine posts, and hardboard pices to fill in the non-structural parts. There's a panel along the side and foot. I'll be filling that in with bamboo (which I already have). The headboard portion rises up to where there's bars that sort of form a canopy when the bed is low, and the bed stands on them when the bed is high. There's 4 hardboard panels there, and those will get the surfboard shapes I showed. I'm still painting those, and his sister is helping. She's gotton good at pulling off masking tape. I very much like the routered/carved molding that a lot of people do for their projects. But I can't carve the bed posts, because I don't want to mess with the bed structurally. So instead I'll be making a bunch of woodburning tools from sheet steel and burning the patterns in. That will result on a dark on light pattern. I have a lot of steel and tools for working that, so it should go fairly quickly when I can get out to the garage. I'll also be welding some wire to the tools for handles. The trickier part will be to keep them flat. Not too hard, but requires working slightly more slowly that I might otherwise.

The bed has a tent canopy, too. It's like a little tent that covers 3/4 of the bed and snaps to the uppermost rails. His is green. I don't think a thatch/grass roof is good for him at his age. My alternative is to get some green plastic grass skirts and sew those to the canpoy to get that grassy feeling.

I'm not sure on the bedding. He'll be picking that out because he's the one who has to sleep under it.

I have a half-planned idea of taking some large white PVC pipe and some old LED lights I don't use and carving tiki into the pipe, puttng the lights in, and attaching that to the bottom bed rails. If I get it right, what you'll see when the lights are on in the dark are the lines I carved into the pipe. Might or might not work. I need to do some more research (and find where I put the lights). I may try for a tinted wash on the white.

His trash can is goiing to be his old diaper pail, as he's nearly potty trained (which also means that his changing table will just be his dresser). It's stainless steel and cylindrical. I plan to use some pinstriping tape to make it into a tiki. Sure, I could paint it like a palm log, but I know from extensive experience that trying to paint stainless is a waste of time. It'll be a bit modern looking, but still cool, as long as I don't mess it up.

I'm thinking of getting some fish netting and putting floats along the top and putting that somewhere on a wall. This netting would be used for putting pictures on. You can stick the corners of the pictures through the netting. Knowing how his day care works, this will be a constantly changing display. It might go well in the corner between the window and the closet door.

I'll be leaving the mural, but moving the photos and souvenirs to another wall. I think I'll be making some sort of frames for the photos. The frameless look is a bit modern. Not sure if I'll do anything with the souvenirs other than hang them again.

I need to do something with the window wall. I can't say whether the stars will stay or go. I highly doubt that the shades will be replaced. That leaves the curtains. I'll probably come up with something. SandraDee, I'm pretty familiar with Spoonflower, though I tend to use Fabric On Demand myself. Maybe I'll whip up some graphics and have them printed for curtains.

Similarly, I doubt that the carpeting will change. He does have a rug, which you'll get a picture of soon. More surfboards, and both thechildren pretend they're surfing with it.

He has a small rolling bookshelf that used to be his mother's nightstand. I think I can tiki that up a bit with some matting, etc. If I get really ambitious, I may go for shells and such in resin on the top. But I haven't done anything like that in 40 years or so.

So it won't be a total renovation. Mostly just stuff going in the room and on the walls.

Granted, this might be a little late due to his age, but a nice tiki addition for a baby would be to put a "XXX" on "RUM" label on the bottle. I'm sure someone's done that before...... ?

Took sick with a fever last weekend. Didn't get much done. I did get a couple of the wood-burning tools done.

The wife told me that we're also giving away the diaper pail, so there goes the stainless steel tiki.

The net I ordered is pretty small. I'm still going to try to make it work.

I got a set of the float lights. The floats are OK (I wanted plastic because I didn't want glass ones in his room), but apparently all lights now come with massive green wires like they're all for Christmas trees or something. Fortunately, the floats come off. Unfortunately, I could have paid less for transparent plastic balls.

So not so good for the acquisitions or the progress. And I don't get much time during the week.

The bottle idea is hilarious. For someone else. I got in trouble for letting my daughter taste bourbon off my finger when she was 6 months. She liked it way too much. There couldn't have been more than half a drop, just enough to wet my finger, and it was evaporating furiously.

To expand on the idea, how's about a whole bar of nothing but baby stuff? That's kinda like what Atomic Tiki Punk suggested, isn't it? But I'm rather amused by the idea of a bar full of baby bottles of different varieties (lord knows they're colorful enough these days), sippy cups, containers of various topical medications, etc.

Got some work done so far today. Leo is out of the house with his mother. And since grandma is here, his sister isn't interested in me.

Here's the rug. The children love to pretend to surf on the surfboards:

Here's one of the rails for the bed. I'd gone online and searched for tapas cloth patterns, and sketched out some of the simpler ones. This is about as simple as it gets. So I used it as my experiment, and it's mostly going to be buried in the carpet anyway. You can see the woodburning tool mid-right of the picture.

Here's more of a close up of both the rail and the tool. A little steel and piece of wire. Yes, I used galvanized wire, but I did sand off the zinc for a half-inch or so before welding. And the weld looks awful because I used the flux-core wire feed on it, which has a very limited selection of settings. But it's fast, and all it has to do is keep the wire handle on the tool.

To do the burning, I put some random stuff on our counters so I could get the rail up off them and across the front of the stove. Put the tool in the flame of a burner and then onto the wood. RInse and repeat a bunch of times.

I'll be doing a lot more of the woodburning, but won't be posting pictures of all of that, now that you can see what I'm doing for the frame.

I really think this is a great carving as it meets so may needs. Just sharing, but think something like this would be a good fit for your room if you decide to add a real Tiki. I love your room, keep up the great work.

1. It's a Tiki
2. It's carved from a tree
3. Would be a happy design for a child
4. Has a beautiful tile top
5. Serves as a table to set things on when you are working with the baby
   

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Daves-Paradise-Tikis/122694041087097