CREEPY COVE or GRUESOME GROTTO or…?

Winter is setting in here at my new home on Whidbey Island in Washington. It’s dark, it’s cold, it’s threatening to snow. The holidays are coming, I have several sets of visitors coming over the next several weeks and I am still trying to unpack from my move. (It’s getting there…) But instead of thinking about Christmas, buying presents, decorating, etc., my mind has been focused on the strange, lone room on the lowest floor of the house. It is calling to me…

As the only room down there (aside from the garage), it’s not a very practical bedroom. You have to go up to the main floor to use a bathroom and up to the second floor to bathe. The room is a big, cold nothing right now, filled with boxes of my junk (mostly tiki signs, wall masks, and other tiki decor I have gathered and others have given me—and a ton o’ tiki mugs from years of collecting) and some of my mother’s stuff she had stored in the house before I moved in. But I am becoming more and more obsessed with this room. This room is going to be my home tiki bar in the very near future.

The Creepy Cove, perhaps? (I can see Penn Cove from my house.) The Gruesome Grotto? (That does have a nice ring to it.) I’ve been trying to think up names for what I hope ends up as a creepy tiki bar. (Creepy Tiki has already been used, as has Freaky Tiki, which I wanted to borrow from an old SCOOBY DOO episode. Drat!) I also thought Groovy Grotto…but where’s the scare in that? The Cavern of Cocktails (or just Cocktail Cavern), perhaps? Six Feet Under? Little Tiki Bar of Horror? Tiki Underground? Paradise Pit? Horror Hideaway?

Despite the lack of a name (It will come eventually), I have been busy buying stuff to make a home version of a Pacific paradise in the Pacific Northwest. (Although it may not be tropical, at least I’m on an island…) Instead of a sky’s-the-limit budget of hundreds of thousands of dollars, I’ve got about $1.95. Neither Bamboo Ben, Notch Gonzalez, or Tiki Diablo will be designing my build out. (Although I do have a Tiki Diablo bar set and stools that he made for Home Depot a few years back. Some assembly still required.) This is strictly on me with friends and family kicking in to help.

One of my first purchases for this project was a corner shelving unit to hold some mugs–as well as other assorted odds and ends. This was a pickup at a Habitat for Humanity store. Originally priced at $45, my mom (who happened to be with me that day) talked the clerk into only charging $30…and then got a 10% senior discount on top of it. (Go Mom!) At first, I thought it might need to be painted or possibly have some bamboo glued to it. But in it’s own worn way, I think it looks rather perfect.

Habitat for Humanity had already been (and will continue to be) a great, bargain shop for this project. When up visiting the island before the move, I picked up these two bamboo tables. I also scored up this nifty candle holder. It looks jungle-y. Instead of a candle, maybe I’ll place a skull on it?

A visiting friend, Erich, used to be a space planner for the government. On his own, he set about designing the layout of my proposed tiki lounge, coming up with several viable options.

One of Erich’s suggestions was having some wainscotting around the perimeter of the bar, with a strip of halved bamboo separating the top half of the wall from the bottom. This got me to thinking of Habitat for Humanity again. I had noticed some old wood-looking laminate there. On a trip back, I found they did carry it…for $74.99 a case (which was about 6-8 strips). Yikes! That would cost a small fortune. But then I noticed a small pile of laminate that had been donated at only $15 a pack. There were only 15 packs, which would be enough for the wainscotting–plus a little extra “just in case.” SOLD!

For part of the walls above the wainscotting, I’ve ordered some woven matting. I’ve also been searching for some cheap tapa cloth for other wall areas–but have not found any yet.

I’ve been going to town, getting way ahead of myself in this endeavor. I’ve already been buying picture frames, glass floats, and even a bamboo mat of some sort (that I have no idea what I’ll do with). I even picked up an old trunk to possibly use as a table.

We are nowhere near the decorating phase, but I have already gotten some old fisherman netting to drape about somewhere. It arrived today.

But according to those who know better, before anything else I need to get my lighting together so an electrician can do the necessary wiring. That’s super…but in order to plan lighting I need to find lighting. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find tiki bar lamps? I’ve looked in thrift stores. I’ve searched eBay and etsy. I’ve Googled it, but find very little, if anything, that I want or use. So that is the immediate challenge–finding lights. I do have two small hanging puffer fish lamps I got from eBay a while back (tucked away somewhere in a box in the as-yet-unnamed tiki room). But that’s it.

And once I get the lighting work done, saffits (for the fake hut-like areas) built and thatched then I can worry about the walls and seating. (Anyone know where I can find a corner booth?)

After the tiki room is complete, I hope to expand outward. I envision a jungle-like excursion going down the stairs to the bar, with (plastic or nylon) vines and plants hanging down and some of my more jungle/beach-themed framed movie posters along the walls in the mix. Maybe, down the road if I had more money, I’d make it as cave-like as possible, too.

At the base of the stairs, there is a small hallway that leads to the garage. Directly under the stairs there is this little nook area. I hope to make that an extension of the bar as well. Since I want a spooky tiki bar, I’m hoping to set up my vintage A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET pinball machine as well as possibly more seating.

It has a long ways to go, but I’m hoping that some form of a home bar will take shape by this coming summer. While I still don’t have a name I’ve settled on for sure yet, for the moment I seem to be siding towards the Gruesome Grotto. Whatever it becomes, I am really looking forward to this adventure in home barring.

Check back for progress if you’d like. Hopefully I can transform a bit of my island into an ideal of an island paradise.

Thank you for visiting. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please feel free to leave them below.

CHEERS!