Home Back yard build under the wisteria

[kanaloa]

@kanaloa any new pics of your roof/light project? I have been following this thread.

Found some bird-feeder adjustable chains, hung the rack off of the pergola, and played with lighting. A little dark on the left, but that's where my pufferfish lamp is supposed to go so I have a slightly smaller one here in its place to see if the placement looks good. The pufferfish lamp's plug is polarized so it can't daisy chain off of the other lights... I guess I'll run a separate extension cord through the pergola just for the puffer.

Anyway, update photos as promised. I welcome any criticism or suggestions!






The coconut lights are something I picked up off of Amazon years ago. The mini fishing float string is one I picked up 50% at Hobby Lobby at the end of the Christmas season. The coconut lights' cord came nicely shrouded in a heavy rope. To improve the float lights, I wound jute for two hours this morning to shroud the traditional green Christmas tree light cord.

 

[TikiFlamingo]

Nice ... !

 

[kanaloa]

A small post on quick project I tackled this weekend. This one is an exercise in things going totally wrong, but in a way I think I can work with. I have had this old handmade utility chest/crate that my dad and I built 20 some years ago. We initially painted it with some grey leftover house paint 20 some years ago. I wanted to strip it, then char, wire-brush it, and apply tung oil. But rubbing alcohol didn't work and neither did mineral spirits. So I tried torching it and working w/ a paint scraper, but it didn't bubble up as I expected. It was definitely either oil or acrylic so I dunno why none of my stripping attempts worked. As I torched it, the whole surface developed a light gray color, almost pinkish at dusk, and with some spots where very tiny bubbles in the paint did emerge.

Frustrated, I walked away and returned... and realized I kind of liked the effect anyway. Maybe I'm fooling myself, but I think it ended up with a decent distressed look, partially with a worm-eaten salvaged wood look combined with the look of wood that's been laying out in salt and sand for a while. So I did some light wirebrushing to add some scuffs and to clean up some of the areas that did char.





With space-savings in mind, while indoors, this chest is big enough to store my hanging lights, associated bags of batteries, some bar tools, and bigger decorations. When the bar is set up, I'll have it sit it on the ground just next to my bar where it will help disguise my soft-sided cooler where I keep extra ice, juices, and mixes. So it'll kill many birds with one stone: (1) storage that I can quickly bring out with 80% of what I use out back, (2) an extra piece of decoration to set a tiki bar mood, (3) hide the otherwise non-tiki Arctic cooler, and most importantly (4) stop the wife from complaining about the old chest. "You never use what's in there, either find a use or please get rid of this." Mission accomplished!

Also when digging up lighting and seeing what'll fit in here, I found my two hanging LED fishing floats which I will hang off of the bamboo rack to give it a little more Polynesian Resort-like effect.

I wouldn't mind darkening it a bit, so I'm open to all suggestions.

 

[TikiFlamingo]

I've put used coffee grounds in a damp Handi-Wipe (they're thin and porous) and used it on a few projects of mine. It's subtle, so you can control the effect better. And it smells like breakfast!

 

[kanaloa]

Thanks for the tip! I will try that since I would like to have a brown tone.

As for the inside, I'm pretty stoked about my "party in a box." And there's room to spare.

 

[Kahikina]

It looks great as is. I like the aged look. I made a few "fake" crates and stenciled them. I guess I started going with a "Trader Sam" version of my Tiki bar subconsciously.

 

[kanaloa]

I've wanted a classic tapa cloth lamp for a while. The only ones I've ever found were far too expensive.

(1) I am frugal, and (2) my whole bar is built around a requirement to be quickly and easily stored, put up, then put back in storage all within a single evening so a traditional wired lamp doesn't appeal to me. And the two electrical outlets I have available on the lanai are already claimed by my light strings and the pufferfish lamp.

From my bar build, I had extra tapa cloths, scrap lauhala belting, extra bamboo... so I figured I would purchase 2 embroidery hoops for $1.68 each and start to measure and cut...



add a battery operated camping lamp ($11 for a set of 4)...



found the led too cool and bright, so I dug up a yellow cotton fabric face mask that's been sitting in a drawer for 14 months, use it to wrap around the light, using the elastic ear loops to keep it secure, and a little bamboo sawing, scissors work, and hot gluing, and a couple hours later, voila:





Portable and Affordable Tapa Cloth Lamp Prototype 1. All with less than $10 of materials.

A rapid prototype. I already know what to do better for Prototype 2.

 

[Tangaroa]

I love the lamp! It looks great!

 

[Toilet-Duck]

I love the lamp! It looks great!

I second that! Lamp looks awesome! The price you paid is amazing too.

 

[Mr.Chicken]

Excellent price point for the lamps. I need about 6 of those things.

 

[kanaloa]

Excellent price point for the lamps. I need about 6 of those things.

Ha. My daughter told me I should sell some on Etsy which could be kind of fun especially since my brother also sometimes makes Hawaiian crafts and weapons for fun. Probably won't happen given my schedule and my general lack of craftsmanship.

I do think that there's a ripe (but probably pretty small) market in the US for reasonably-priced classical tiki/tropical decor. I assume I'm not the only one who looks for stuff, but nopes the heck away after seeing the price.

I did find a great British design shop that also has a tiki decor store, and for a handful of things they sell, their prices even with the international shipping charges are way, way lower than comparable items I've seen on eBay. With lamps and fishtrap shades, especially. Like ~ $64 (including shipping from the UK to the US) for a nice fishtrap versus >$100 when one pops up on eBay.

 

[TikiFlamingo]

And the name of that British design shop is ... ?

 

[kanaloa]

And the name of that British design shop is ... ?

LOL. Sorry about that: https://littlegrassshack.co.uk

The medium fishtrap is the one I'm looking at, as well as a couple of their seconds mugs.

Their design shop did a bunch of themed restaurants in the UK, including the Mahiki which was made famous because the prince hung out there. William always seemed like the more staid, boring British one of the two, but I guess he likes tiki bars.

 

[kanaloa]

We had our first major gathering. As expected, I wish the bartop itself was bigger. But overall, the bar worked out well and the shelves and bottle storage were perfect.

Almost everything all together as we set up for the party:



And at the end of the night:

 

[Kahikina]

That did turn out great! I really like the night shot, shows off the lights. I’ve also got one of those little Bluetooth speaker tiki torches, although I just use it for the lighting. I’ve never pushed any audio through it. And speaking of which… I’m assuming you had some exotica playing at your party? Hope your guests appreciated the work you did. Looks really nice!

 

[kanaloa]

Our guests appreciated it and were happy that our tiki bar parties are back. The Trader Sams mai tai recipe was a hit, so much so that I kept pointing out that there were 7 other cocktails on my menu.

As for my background music - Heavy on the Surfmen for the exotica part and the Maile Seranaders for the slack key / string band component. Also a few mellow songs from Keola & Kapono, Raiatea Helm, as well as Hapa that blend in well.

Closing time / "time for everybody to go home" music? That's when I switched over to my Polynesian language thrash and metal playlist.