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The Kona Luanii, Denver, CO |
ZuluMagoo
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 26, 2002
Posts: 482
From: Denver, CO
|  Posted: 2005-08-10 12:51 pm Permalink
Name:The Kona Luanii
Type:home-bar
Street:
City:Denver
State:CO
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:
Status:operational
Description:
I have started construction of my home bar and have decided to call it the Kona Luanii. It is named after a fictitious sailing ship that traveled around the United States to tiki bars and delivered tikis, drinks, bric brak, etc. I have written the back story for the bar that will help bring out the overall theme. The story will be posted in the bar on some type of sign for visitors to read and understand what this whole place is about. Here is a preview of the raw sign design.
Obviously the text can't be read, so here's the story:
The Wreck of the ‘KONA LUANII’
Trader, Beachcomber, Mixologist, Man of Adventure. Singapore Sal was all that and more.
In the tradition of his famous mentors, Ernest Beaumont-Gantt, Victor Bergeron and Stephen Crane, Sal sailed the ‘KONA LUANII’ to some of the United States’ most exotic outposts transporting tropical libations, exotic Tiki Gods and beachcombed wares.
From the shores of Palm Springs to the ragged reefs of Columbus, he sailed to the most elaborate Tiki Temples to have ever existed, including excursions to Anaheim, Las Vegas, Ft. Lauderdale, Phoenix, Detroit and ports beyond.
March 1968. During a trading expedition from her home port of Bali Hai on Shelter Island to the Tiki Kai in Denver, Colorado, the KONA LUANII was lost in a snow storm along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The wreck was salvaged in 1987 and the goods and trinkets now reside here in the personal collection of ZuluMagoo, a contemporary Polynesian Pop preservationist.
Aloha & Welcome Aboard !
I think this story will tie together all of the elements that will be found in the bar. It will have a heavy nautical/shipwreck element in addition to a tiki/South Seas environment. I have started working on some of the other decor and will post pics and progress report as things progress.
My wife has graciously allowed me to redo our entire finished basement as I see fit (woo hoo!). We already have a bar down built down there, so most of this project is decor. However, with a three year old daughter and a four month old daughter at home, my spare time is few and far between. I'm afraid this project may move a little slower that I would like.
[ This Message was edited by: zulumagoo 2007-06-11 14:55 ]
[ This Message was edited by: ZuluMagoo 2009-04-29 20:18 ]
[ This Message was edited by: ZuluMagoo 2009-12-29 22:48 ]
[ This Message was edited by: zulumagoo 2010-03-08 10:47 ]
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Rum Numb Davey
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jul 17, 2005
Posts: 204
From: Phoenix, AZ
| Posted: 2005-08-10 2:49 pm Permalink
Good stuff, ZuluMagoo..for know all I get is a couple of bookshelves and my micro bar. Once we relocate from condo to home watch out!
_________________
Just finished a bottle of Havana Club Anejo 3 Anos, which was excellantly suited for many rum cocktails!
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ZuluMagoo
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 26, 2002
Posts: 482
From: Denver, CO
| Posted: 2005-08-11 10:28 am Permalink
Here is some of the 'cargo' decor that I made using the Dollar Store tikis discussed a while back. In fact, I stopped in the Dollar Store last week and I still found a few of these guys laying around.
Using some paint stir sticks from Walmart (free)
a Sharpie (I tried paint, but the pen was easier)
and a 99 cent stencil sheet
Some tomato crates I found at a garage sale (25 cents each)
Dollar Store Tikis ($1 each)
and some packing (1.29 bag)
I ended up with a batch of salvaged cargo tikis that were on their way to exotic destinations.
This set only ended up costing me only about $14 total.
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ZuluMagoo
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 26, 2002
Posts: 482
From: Denver, CO
| Posted: 2005-08-11 10:41 am Permalink
The Kona Luanii is a real place. It is an apartment complex in Anaheim, CA (Tour item #10 for those of you who have my Tiki Tour of Southern California Guide Book). This complex is only two blocks away from my grandparents house where I spent my summers growing up. That was the inspiration for the name of my bar/ship. Plus I think the font on the complex typifies Polynesian Pop culture beautifully.
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ted tiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Oct 11, 2004
Posts: 197
From: minneapolis
| Posted: 2005-08-12 1:12 pm Permalink
Cool stuff. Great idea with the theme and story. I am in similar territories as I have just started my downstairs room. Mine will take years I'm afraid though.
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ZuluMagoo
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 26, 2002
Posts: 482
From: Denver, CO
| Posted: 2006-07-21 9:14 pm Permalink
I have finally started working on the Kona Launii. But first I have a little cleaing to do.
There is a basement in there somewhere.
Just have to find it.
Now that our 15 month old is finally starting to out grow some of this baby stuff we have been saving from our first daughter, we can finally start getting rid of some of this crap. Absolutely amazing how much baby 'stuff' we have.
Have finally moved enought stuff I can start painting the wall and the ceiling.
The far half of the main room (beyond the stairs) will stay non-tiki for the kids for a few more years. The other half is all mine.
Getting up some ceiling paint.
And the stairway down from the kitchen.
Starting with some brown for background.
A half and half wall along the back.
The top half gets orange.
The last white wall gets a dark honey gold color (hard to see in pic), but gets covered with thach anyway. It is just a background color so white does not show through.
Starting to thach the back half and half wall. Again, the brown bottom half is just so white will not show through.
Attaching with a staple gun and trimming around the baseboards.
Attaching the larger thach (stape gun) on the yellow wall.
That's what I have for now, but have finally started working it. This batch of pics encompassed a full weekend worth of work (Fri night thru Sun night) with my wife and kids out of town so I could work uninterupted. Another set of pics to follow with more progress.
Zulu
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Slacks Ferret
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Oct 02, 2003
Posts: 1318
From: Calgary
| Posted: 2006-07-21 9:46 pm Permalink
It's looking good so far. That's a nice space you have to work with. Was the bar already there when you moved in?
I love threads like this! Keep posting yr progress pics.
_________________
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ZuluMagoo
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 26, 2002
Posts: 482
From: Denver, CO
| Posted: 2006-07-21 10:28 pm Permalink
It is a dry bar and it was there when we moved in. The entire basement was already finished when we bought the house a year and a half ago. The fact that I don't have to do any carpentry work down there makes the transformation into my basement paradise orders of magnitude easier.
[ This Message was edited by: ZuluMagoo 2006-07-21 22:31 ]
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The Sperm Whale
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Aug 23, 2004
Posts: 1553
From: Lakewood California
| Posted: 2006-07-21 10:44 pm Permalink
That is really cool!!! I love progress pic's!!! Thank you for sharing and I hope to see more soon!!!
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Matt Reese
Tiki Socialite
Joined: May 09, 2005
Posts: 1182
From: San Diego
| Posted: 2006-08-06 8:36 pm Permalink
Well? Where are the new pics? I've got the jones.
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LavaLounger
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Dec 27, 2005
Posts: 81
From: The Great Plains of Kansas
| Posted: 2006-08-28 10:52 am Permalink
Quote:
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On 2005-08-11 10:28, ZuluMagoo wrote:
Here is some of the 'cargo' decor that I made using the Dollar Store tikis discussed a while back. In fact, I stopped in the Dollar Store last week and I still found a few of these guys laying around.
I ended up with a batch of salvaged cargo tikis that were on their way to exotic destinations.
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Hey! What a terrific idea Zulu!!! I may try that! When I saw those ugly horrible little tikis for a dollar each at the dollar store.....I bought them all. They've been snoozing in heap ever since. (I'm glad they finally stopped talking to me.)
Anyone else got any clever ideas of how to display them, other than nooses around their necks hanging from the ceiling?? I bought about 20.
LavaLounger
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ZuluMagoo
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 26, 2002
Posts: 482
From: Denver, CO
| Posted: 2006-08-31 10:18 pm Permalink
Work continues slowly but steady. I put some trimmed bamboo blinds along the front of the bar.
Then I started on a thach roof behind the bar itself. I mounted a few off-the-wall plant hangars near the top of the wall.
Drilled a hole thru the front of the hangar and screwed lightweight 1/2" x 1/2" square garden stakes into place.
I used a staple gun to attach the top of the thach to the wall and then also stapled the bottom to the garden stake.
Thach roof line complete.
I picked up my bamboo poles today. I'll start placing trim this long holiday weekend.
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ZuluMagoo
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 26, 2002
Posts: 482
From: Denver, CO
| Posted: 2006-09-05 1:18 pm Permalink
I started working with the bamboo trim last weekend. When I got all of the poles home, I remembered a tip that Bamboo Ben posted quite a while back about 'enchacing' the poles with a handheld propane torch. So I went down to the local Walmart and bought a $12 torch and started experimenting.
Here is a pole, half treated, half untreated.
Here you can clearly see the difference in the poles. I really liked the treated look, so I finished off all of my poles. Note - treating the poles requires a big time investment. It took nearly 18 man-hours to finish approximately 40 1" diameter poles (8' to 12' in length).
Several of the poles required that they be spilt to mount on the wall as trim. For the poles that were not already cracked, I cut the end with a handsaw and then pushed a machette down the length of the pole. Some of the nodes were quite strong, so I just wacked the machette 2 or 3 times with a hammer. Not all of the poles evenly split into halves. But when mounted on the wall, I couldn't tell the difference and it also made each pole a little more individual so they would not all look the same.
Mounting the split poles was very easy once I found a system. I pre-drilled a hole in the split pole to keep it from cracking, then using 2" drywall screws and a stud finder, I screwed the pole into place on the wall into the wooden studs. I only needed 2 to 3 screws for each pole to secure them in place.
Work continues with more trim then the ceiling poles.
[ This Message was edited by: zulumagoo 2006-09-05 19:48 ]
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ZuluMagoo
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 26, 2002
Posts: 482
From: Denver, CO
| Posted: 2006-09-15 10:31 am Permalink
Last week I took a break from the room treatments and did something else for a change. When Disney released Kevin and Jody's replica Enchanted Tiki Room Barker Bird, it inspired me. I loved the drummer, and purchased one, but wanted to come up with something of my own for the birds.
So I started with two feathered plastic parrots from Party City. There were in rough shape when I got them home. So I trimmed up the feathers and repainted their faces and their beaks.
Earlier this summer I found these two ratan plant hangars at a garage sale. If you turn them upside down, they make great bird perches.
Then using odd scraps of bamboo and seashells I came up with my own tiki room birds. But instead of naming them Jose, Fritz, etc., I named them in tribute to a couple of fellows responsible for the Poly Pop revival.
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Tiki Fink
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Feb 21, 2006
Posts: 392
From: Denver, CO
| Posted: 2006-09-15 12:24 pm Permalink
Lookin' good!!!!!!!
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