Tag Archives: bill westenhaver

Amazing Bar with Frederick Weinberg Stools

Posted on April 19, 2015 by Hepcats Haven

As usual, I was cruising Craigslist and came across this set last night. I noticed it had been on Craigslist for a couple days, and I thought I would just check to see if they still had it.

I assumed since it had been on there for two days that someone would have snatched it. We got a call this morning from the owner who stated she still had it. We jumped in the car and shot on over.

The thing that drew us to this bar are the cut outs in the front. The owner said it used to have colored plexiglass that was lit from behind. She said it was amazing when it was lit.

This bar will need a 100 point restoration. Since the Formica is chipped, I plan to redo the formica in black. That will go better with the animal print vinyl instead of the faux marble top.

I also plan to replace the silverfish finish on the foot rest area with black formica.

I might have to reinforce the bottom as well.

The shelf is at an angle so the alcohol labels can face up towards you, cool idea!

This bar has this cool little ornament on the front with a small chain draped across the front.

I am pretty sure these are Frederick Weinberg from what I could research online.

These stools don’t match the bar very well with the animal pattern they have on them now. I will try to find a similar cheetah pattern to recover the seats in.

This bar and stool set is now my next project. I am excited to see how it turns out. We have a bar in our living room that will be put into the shop since we snagged this one.

We try to upgrade our collection as we go along. This bar will make someone very happy, I am sure. It has served us well. Below are the bars we have owned over the years.

This swanky diamond bar was so cool with it’s two tier top. It had such an atomic feel to it. This is now sold.

This bar is the ultra rare Expando bar. We sold it recently to a lady in L.A. She was so pleased to get it.

We sold this 1963 Tropical Sun Company tiki bar at our grand opening, it sold in less than an hour!

This Art Deco bar was fantastic! It reminded us of an early jukebox because of how the front corners lighted up when the door was opened. This is now sold.

This wrap round bamboo bar didn’t last long in our booth. It has such cool simplicity too it.

This aqua bar was so awesome. We drove all the way to Fresno to get it. Now it is in someones home being enjoyed!

This is just a swanky 70’s bar. It’s now sold.

This tiki bar has already sold. We think it might have been a Paul Frankl, but we could not substantiate it’s pedigree.

This Tiki bar is currently in the process of being restored and will be in our shop sometime soon.

Here is the grand server that we still own and use today!

This is the first bar we ever bought and restored. We purchased this one in the early 2000’s (sorry for quality of picture).

Of course our beloved and rare Witco Tahiti Bar that we will be buried with, ha ha. We think a bar is a necessary piece to have in a home for entertaining. We think society needs more reasons to socialize with neighbors and friends, and what a better way to do it than sipping a drink at your own bar.

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Posted in Frederick Weinberg, Restorations and tagged 1950's bar stools, 1950's stools, 1960's bar, 1960's bar stools, 1960's barstools, 1960's stools, 50's bar, 50's stools, 60's bar, 60's stools, 70's bar, A.H. Stock, a.h. stock manufacturing company - grand server boomerang table/bar, AH Stock, ah stock manufacturing co: grand server, AH Stock Manufacturing Company, AH Stock Manufacturing Corporation, aloha, am stock grand server, AM Stock Manufacturing Company, AM Stock Manufacturing Corp., AM Stock Manufacturing Corporation, atomic bamboo, atomic bar, atomic bar restoration, atomic bar revamp, atomic bar stools, atomic barstools, atomic diamond bar, atomic formica bar, atomic rattan, atomic revamp, atomic stools, atomic tiki, Bamboo, bamboo bar, bamboo tiki bar, bar, bar restoration, bar revamp, bar stools, barstools, bill westenhaver, boomerang coffee table, boomerang shaped, carved tiki, carved wood, carved wood bar, Dee Manufacturing Corp, Dee Manufacturing Corporation, Dee Mfg Corp, Dee Mfg Corporation, diamond bar, formica bar, grand server, grand server bar, grand server by ah stock, grand server by am stock, grand server coffee table, grand server stock, grand server table, grand server table and bar, grand servers table, grande server table and bar, grandserver, Hawaiian Bar, hide a bar, hula, kidney coffee table, kidney shaped, kitch tiki, kitsch bar, kitsch bar restoration, kitsch rattan, kitsch revamp, kitsch tiki, kitschy bar, kitschy tiki, mcm bamboo, mcm bar restoration, mcm bar revamp, mcm formica bar, mcm rattan, mid century bamboo, mid century bar, mid century bar restoration, mid century bar revamp, mid century bar stools, mid century barstools, mid century diamond bar, mid century formica bar, mid century rattan, mid century stools, mid century tiki, mid century tiki bar, midcentury bamboo, midcentury bar, midcentury bar restoration, midcentury bar revamp, midcentury barstools, midcentury diamond bar, midcentury formica bar, midcentury rattan, midcentury stools, midcentury tiki, rattan bar, rattan tiki bar, retro bamboo, retro bar, retro bar restoration, retro bar revamp, retro bar stools, retro barstools, retro diamond bar, retro formica bar, retro rattan, retro revamp, retro stock grand server, retro stools, retro tiki, retro tiki bar, stock grand server, stock manufacturing grand server, stools, tahiti bar, tiki, Tiki bar, tiki barware, tiki culture, tiki furniture, tiki god, tiki style, Tropical Sun Co, Tropical Sun Company, vintage bamboo, vintage bar, vintage bar restoration, vintage bar revamp, vintage bar stools, vintage barstools, vintage diamond bar, vintage formica bar, vintage grand server, vintage rattan, vintage revamp, vintage stools, vintage tiki, vintage tiki bar, Western International Trading Company, William Westenhaver, witco, witco bar, witco corporation, Witco Decor, Witco Furniture, witco tahiti bar, witco tiki. Bookmark the permalink.

Tiki Room Tour

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Hepcats Haven

Hello all, Mel and I thought it was time to show you our TIKI room. As with anything in our home things are never finished, so let this just be a tour of its current state.

Though not everything in this room is tiki, it all seems to work.

We collect random TIKI items. Our goal is to make this room as diverse as possible.

This room has a lot of windows so I had to get creative with how to hang art. These Carlo watercolors look great in front of the chartreuse curtains.

Here are a couple of the pieces I painted.

As you may notice, the floors are concrete. It originally had vintage asbestos tiles. Unfortunately, numerous tiles were missing or damaged, so we decide to remove them all. We haven’t decided what we’re going to do with the floor yet.

We hope you enjoyed this tour. I am sure it will change and evolve as time goes on. Later, we plan on showcasing the rest of the house, stay tuned.

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Posted in The Makin's Of Our Pad and tagged 50's bar, 60's bar, 70's bar, aloha, atomic bamboo, atomic bar, atomic rattan, atomic tiki, Bamboo, bamboo tiki bar, bill westenhaver, carved tiki, carved wood, carved wood bar, Hawaiian Bar, hula, jungle room, jungleroom, kitch tiki, kitsch bar, kitsch rattan, kitsch tiki, kitschy bar, kitschy tiki, mcm bamboo, mcm rattan, mid century bamboo, mid century bar, mid century rattan, mid century tiki, mid century tiki bar, midcentury bamboo, midcentury rattan, midcentury tiki, rattan tiki bar, retro bamboo, retro bar, retro rattan, retro tiki, retro tiki bar, tahiti bar, tiki, Tiki bar, tiki culture, tiki furniture, tiki god, Tiki Room, tiki style, tikiroom, vintage bamboo, vintage bar, vintage rattan, vintage tiki, vintage tiki bar, Western International Trading Company, William Westenhaver, witco, witco bar, witco corporation, Witco Decor, Witco Furniture, witco tahiti bar, witco tiki. Bookmark the permalink.

Witco End Table Restoration

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Hepcats Haven

Mel and I purchased this table a while back from our friends over at M.A.R.K. Vintage. This table was well used and I decided to freshen it up!

The front lower corner had a couple of pieces that broke off that I glued back into place. Those are the piece in the foreground.

As you can see, the top is well worn….that will soon be remedied!

I started sanding the top with a low grit sand paper so I could get rid of the years of build up and expose the beautiful wood grain underneath.

This is one of my favorite things about restoring wood pieces. I love how the grain comes back to life when sanded.

The sides of the tabletop had a couple of places where the veneer had chipped off. Here is how I fixed it…

you can use this repair process on all veneer pieces. The issue you will run into is finding wood that will match the existing wood grain and color. Matching the color can be achieved with stain but there are no guarantees.

With damage like this, the first thing you need is to chisel the damaged area square.

Next you need to try and craft a piece of wood roughly the same thickness and as close as possible to the same measurements. You want it tight so the repair will be a seamless as possible.

Next place a light amount of glue on both surfaces. If you cut the piece right it will have to tap it into place, like I said it should be tight.

Once it is in place cut off the excess.

This is roughly how it should look.

Next, apply some glue on the surface area of the repair.

While the glue is wet you will want to sand the repair area. The sanding will produce dust and friction/heat making a paste that will fill in any gaps around the inserted piece of wood.

Those are some good looking toes!

As you can see, the base is worn and dried out from years of sitting.

I decided I would apply a darker stain to the base to help hide any damage sustained over the years. After I made the repairs to the top, I sanded it all down one more time and stained it with a light stain. After all this was done I sprayed both pieces with numerous coats of polyurethane.

SHAZAAAAMMM!

Since I didn’t have exotic wood for that repair I had to hide the repair by imitating wood grain on the side of the table top. This hides my repair. I think it turned out great.

With the base being darker than the top it makes the top stand out. I am very pleased with how this turned out.

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Posted in Restorations, The Makin's Of Our Pad and tagged bill westenhaver, carved tiki, carved wood, carved wood bar, hula, kitch tiki, tiki, tiki culture, tiki furniture, tiki god, Western International Trading Company, William Westenhaver, witco, witco corporation, Witco Decor, Witco Furniture, witco tahiti bar, witco tiki. Bookmark the permalink.

Tahiti Witco Bar Restoration

Posted on August 25, 2014 by Hepcats Haven

Here is the original ad of the Witco Tahiti bar. This bar is out of sight and is one of the most ornate bars produced by Witco that I have ever seen.

Mel and I came across this bar while searching Craigslist. I thought it might be Witco so we shot down and nabbed it.

The bars finish was really dry and the varnish on top was missing in some spots and peeling off on others.

Mel and I decided to try to recapture the original finish of the bar top by using Famowood Glaze Coat Gloss Polyurethane. This stuff is great, it is equal to 80 coats of varnish but can be pretty messy.

Here you can see one of the stools is stained and polyurethane applied while the other is in as found condition. I used Minwax Golden Oak as the color stain I thought best matched the original finish.

Here are the stools all done. We plan to have the cushions recovered in zebra pattern fabric by B&T Upholstery.

Here is the top refinished. We didn’t do too bad considering it was our first time using a glaze coat. I plan to also get a piece of glass cut to make sure the top doesn’t get messed up from use.