DO-IT-YOURSELF Ti Ki
A home bar builder shares how he created his own tropical paradise
When Chase Sampson and I first connected in 2019, the Eagle Rock-based production sound mixer for TV and Tiki aficionado had already spent more than six months working on his home bar. He found a 1950s bamboo bar on Craigslist, fashioned a faux thatch roof, covered the walls surrounding the bar with lauhala matting and added classic Tiki globe light fixtures. At that point, the bar was ready to welcome guests, but, Sampson acknowledged, “It's definitely going to be a work in progress for a long time.”
Four years later, Sampson has put a considerable amount of work into the bar he dubbed Coconut Canteen. “Six months into the pandemic, I was like, now it's done,” he says. But Sampson clarifies that everyone with a DIY home Tiki bar will tell you that “it's never really done.”
There's no shortage of Tiki bars in Southern California, but you might have a hankering to work your way through the classic cocktails in “The Grog Log” at home with friends. If that's the case, a Tiki bar might be the home improvement project for you. Know beforehand, though, that this isn't something you'll want to tackle over the course of a long weekend.
“Having a plan is really important,” says Sampson. “Even though it's very exciting to get a new thing that you want to hang on the wall — a cool new carving or something like that — and you want to see it up there, you have to be patient with it.”
Sampson's interest in Tiki began with a visit to Tiki-Ti, the tiny, mid20th century bar on Sunset Boulevard in Los Feliz, well over a decade ago. On a trip to Trader Sam's at the Disneyland Resort, he noticed the craftsmanship that goes into Tiki bars and thought he might want to build something for himself. But while Sampson has visited similar bars in various cities, his own plan for a home bar didn't resemble those of contemporary watering holes.
“I got really into the history side of it and scouring the Internet for old photos of the really original Tiki bars, like Don the Beachcomber that opened in the 1930s in Hollywood,” Sampson recalls. “I became obsessed with trying to find photos of this place. What was it like to go? What did the first Tiki bar ever look like inside?”
What Sampson noticed in vintage photos from Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic's was that the decor was “sparse” compared to the Tiki bars we know today.
“It wasn't so cluttered and crowded looking,” he says.
That was an aesthetic he appreciated and one that meshed well with his wife's own interest in art deco and the 1930s and '40s, which is reflected in their home decor.
“Imagine if you're watching a 1930s film noir and there's a scene where they're at a tropical bar drinking out of coconuts,” he says. “That's the vibe.”
Once you have a plan, Sampson suggests working in layers. “Put your lighting up and then cover it up. Same with the walls,” he advises. “If you have any power that you need to do, electrical stuff, start that first, then figure out how to cover it.”
Take your time and know that some steps in building your bar will take more time and require learning more skills than others. One of Sampson's biggest bar-related projects came during the pandemic, when he had more time to dedicate to the project.
His bar is in a sunroom that's part of an addition to the house and, behind it, is the bedroom window.
“I got these big Chinese breezeway jade tiles and created this window covering with that and bamboo so that it still allows light in, but you can't really see in it anymore,” he explains. To do that, Sampson needed new tools to drill perfect circles into the bamboo and had to learn how to work with the material without cracking or splintering it. “I made many mistakes during the project,” he says. But now, it's a focal point of the bar.
As for procuring materials, that can take resourcefulness and perhaps a bit of patience. Sampson surmises that building materials, like bamboo, might be harder to secure since the closure of Oceanic Arts, the Tiki superstore that existed in Whittier for 65 years.
Furnishings can be found secondhand, like the bamboo bar Sampson found on Craigslist or the rattan chair he acquired at an estate sale. Tiki events with vendors, like Exotikon, which took place in downtown Los Angeles in June, can be good for finding decorative items, he says.
It can be helpful to look toward those who have already built bars for advice. As Sampson worked on his, he turned to web forum Tiki Central and a now-defunct Facebook group for home Tiki bars, but notes that these days, there are people who post about their projects on Instagram. Since finishing his bar, Sampson has fielded questions from others working on similar projects.
“I get individual questions, which is great and makes me really happy because it means that people are building stuff,” he says. “I definitely reached out personally to a number of people during my build-out to get advice and suggestions on how to do things and hang things safely so that they don't break.”
It will take time and patience, but when you get to a point where your Tiki bar is functional, make some time to work on your favorite cocktails. Sampson's favorite is his spin on the Rum Barrel. “It's a bunch of rum, juice and spices. Everybody's is a little bit different,” he says. “I have my own propriety Rum Barrel called the Canteen Barrel that has 17 ingredients in it. That's my favorite one to make for people.”