Yesterdayland with tiki at its core
In deciding how to decorate a spare room in his 1,500-square-foot Los Feliz-area home, singer-actor Drake Bell remembered his boyhood bedroom — and went full-on tiki.
“It’s a reflection of my childhood room,” said Bell, 32. “I’ve always loved the whole Pan American, vintage, jet-setter era.”
Bell, who is currently recording new music and will tour the country through the next couple of months, fused together his love of themed decor, Disneyland and “the idea of soldiers coming back from the Second World War with all their souvenirs” to create a bright and cheerful room.
Bamboo covers the walls and ceiling, a thatched roof overhangs a bar, tropical floral prints adorn the couches, and wooden masks and old Hollywood pinup-girl prints decorate the walls.
Why is this your favorite room?
I love the [Enchanted] Tiki Room at Adventureland in Disneyland. It’s a really cool area of the park. I’m a huge Disney fan; I grew up near there. A lot of my house is inspired by different parts of Disneyland — the living room is like Fantasyland, the downstairs is Tomorrowland. I wanted this to be tiki.
It looks very pulled together.
I’ve collected a lot of this stuff over the years. Some pieces I bought from Oceanic Arts in Whittier. It’s very cool to shop there. They have all the tiki stuff, and some of the lamps in this room are exactly the same as Adventureland or at the Polynesian Village Resort.
How much did you do on your own?
My dad helped me with the bamboo and thatch work on the walls and ceiling.
I found a bamboo frame for the couch and then went to the garment district downtown and got this floral fabric and had the cushions made.
So no interior designer, then?
A decorator would come in here and go, “What in the world? We should do something more chic!”
How would you describe your tastes overall?
I’m very eclectic. I love themed anything, and anything that’s kitschy, retro and vintage. When I was a kid, I had a pompadour and wore a white leather jacket and tried to look like Danny Zuko. I think I was supposed to be in my 20s in the 1950s and not in the 2000s.
What are some of the unique pieces you have in here?
There’s a green ceramic statue of a girl that I’ve had since I was 15. It was in my bedroom growing up. I’ve moved around a lot, and I’m surprised it hasn’t broken yet. I have old trunks that are just there for aesthetic reasons. My friend
made me a guitar amplifier built inside an old briefcase we found at a thrift store. He cut a hole in it and put a speaker in it. I thought it would be cool to walk onto a stage handcuffed to a briefcase that’s actually an amp.
Do you spend a lot of time in here?
I write music in this room. And when my friends come over, I’ll put away the bar and put out a big screen and a projector, and we turn it into a mini movie theater. It’s a cool hang.
Any special memories?
The fact I got to build it with my dad. I’m on tour constantly, and he works seven days a week, so any excuse that we have to hang out together is dope.
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