Last weekend Mel and I decided to take a break from unpacking to attend the Alameda Point Antiques Faire. There have been very few times where we had such a successful haul as this faire. While cruising all the vendors we came across an amazing rhinoceros wall mount.
Don’t worry all you animal rights activists, this thing is made out of fiberglass! We purchased this from Bob & Bonnie of Alchemy Estate liquidations in spot M23.
They were so nice and just wanted to make sure it went to a good home. Our tiki room is quickly becoming a fiberglass game room!
We were so excited to get this. We missed out on a hippo a while back, so this makes up for it. We are on the hunt for more of these fiberglass wall mounts and hope to add more to the collection. We will share our other scores shortly.
Well, Mel and I have finally gotten back to normal after such a big event. The home tour was a lot of work, but well worth it. We had a fantastic turnout and we got to meet so many of our neighbors, followers of our blog, and made some new friends.
An event this large doesn’t happen by accident. It is through a lot of hard work and sacrifice of dedicated people. We’d like to thank the following folks for everything they put into making this such a successful event. First off, we would like to thank the SacMod team who put this all together and made the event run seamlessly. Thanks to the Sacramento Art Deco Society volunteers who helped manage the crowds during the tour. A special shout out to our friend Jon of SacMod, my Mom Shirl & Step-Father Dave for sticking with us the ENTIRE day! Finally, a huge thanks to the guests!
We were up early on tour day trying to make sure everything was perfect. We even tried to stage the front yard with vintage cement pink flamingos, atomic lawn furniture, and of course, Betty-Lou our 55′ Chevy Bel Air!
Mel & I even dressed up for the event. Shane: Vintage Paradise Found Pink Flamingo shirt. This is the same style shirt worn by Tom Selleck in Magnum PI. Mel: Pinup Girl Clothing Jersey Cap Sleeve Top and Best Frocks Forever – Circle Skirt in Midcentury Bubble
People started showing up right at 9am and they came in waves. Below is a video of the line that started to form outside our house.
Here’s a video of our living room. Volunteers from the Sacramento Art Deco Society even dressed in Art Deco period clothing, which complimented the tour nicely. This is Linda at our front door.
All the folks who toured our home were very respectful and so complimentary of our home and collection. We loved being around so many folks who appreciated the same things we do. We even received gifts from folks who wanted us to have items to add to our collection. We received a lamp, bathroom fish & bubbles, and tiki mugs. It was also great to find out that some of our blog followers made special trips just for the home tour. Some readers came out as far as Texas, Arizona, and Los Angeles. We want to extend a special thanks to those guests who traveled a great distance to see our home.
As promised, for folks who were unable to make the tour, we’re posting photos & videos of each room in our home. There is too much to include in just one post, so you’ll see separate posts for each room over the next few weeks. Let’s start with a video of the tiki room. Unfortunately, there isn’t any music (so we don’t infringe upon any copyright issues). Just imagine Martin Denny’s tropical music playing in the background.
Below are some shots of the room for a more detailed view.
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.
Mel and I were contacted by Bobbie at At Home Modern regarding these fantastic Carlo of Hollywood watercolors she purchased from auction house in New Jersey. I had seen pictures of these online before but had never seen them in person. They are soo cool with the black background.
Unfortunately, these had some mild condition issues. It appears dust and some light mildew had accumulated on the surface of the art. This happens when the back dust cover is torn or missing or when the paintings are stored in a humid area. If you recall, we had a set of bullfighters that had mold that penetrated the paintings. I had to do an extensive restoration of that pair. Luckily, the mold & dust on this set did not penetrate the art.
We were able to carefully remove the surface debris and they cleaned up great!
I refinished the frames of course.
These will look fantastic in our Tiki room.
Here is a sample of the Tiki Room so far. There is still a lot I want to do. So far so good.
The are reproductions of original postcards from Hawaii. I These have a matte finish so they will not fuse to the glass. I could have used originals but I taped the back of these cards to the top of the bar and that may ruin them.
Here is a simple way to “Retro” something up. You can do this to any furniture that has protective glass on top of it. You can do this with family pictures, postcards, fabric or any kind of memorabilia. The only thing I can warn you about is if the finish on the pictures you are putting under the glass is glossy it may fuse to the glass ruining your pictures. If they are glossy then you will have to place those clear rubber bumpers under the glass to keep air between the two surfaces.
Here is what I am starting with
With this process you need to make a dry run and see how you want to lay out the cards before you tape them down. I tried it a couple of different ways to find what looked best.
I love the imagery of these cards. They make you want to jump on a plane and fly to far off tropical places.
Mel and I think this simple little trick is great! If you have a beat up surface or a surface you do not care for then this should help. The glass was about $60 bucks and the postcards were about $35. It would have taken a lot more effort to re-Formica this and I honestly we do not think it would have looked better than it does now.
The only thing we are waiting on now are the cushions. They are over at B&T upholstery. I expect we will have them sometime next week. We can not wait to see this bar finished.
Mel and I saw this on Craigslist in Sacramento and thought it would help make the Tiki Room more secluded by separating it from our living room.
The woman Mel and I purchased this from worked in the Hawaiian travel industry and she said this was made specifically for one of the local hotels. When the hotel was renovated they acquired it. She said it is unique since it was produced just for the hotel. This thing is like 9 ft tall and almost 5 feet wide. This is a great addition to the room and really gives it a tropical feel.
As you can see, these are all diamond shaped forced perspective frames. The two on the outside are medium sized and the middle one is larger.
Mel and I came across this set a few days ago on the internet and thought they would look great in our Tiki Room. We have a lot of wall space to fill since we removed the diner and are converting everything over to Tiki in that room.
These are the three images. They are in great shape.
I was fortunate that the frames are in good shape and needed no restoring. On the back of the two smaller ones there appears to be an original price of $29 each and the large one was $50. I wish we could of got them for that price!
This is the large center one. I have never seen a diamond Carlo this large before.
Here is the left one…
And the right one.
Next to arrive are a large desert scene & an Asian scene. There was a dry spell for Carlos but it looks like that is long gone. We are always looking for new Carlos. Tomorrow, we go get glass cut for the top of the Tiki bar. The vintage Hawaiian tropical postcards arrived today, so it shouldn’t be too long before it is all done!
Hepcats Haven 
