RSS Feed

Tag Archives: vintage tiki

WITCO “Throne Chair”

As usual, Mel and I were cruising Craigslist and came across this fantastic WITCO throne chair! The seller was unaware that it was WITCO and just listed it as a throne chair. We shot over to Elk Grove, CA and with some haggling, we snagged it for $400 because she just wanted it gone! Once we loaded the chair in our truck we shot over to our upholsterer Custom Upholstery.

We are sooo excited to add this to our other pieces of WITCO.

It is is rough shape, but when the upholstery is done and I oil the hell out of it, it will look like new.

The armrests are so wide. This will make them great as a work surface for my laptop. I think we have a new blog chair!

There are a lot of cool tikis carved into this chair.

These two upper tiki heads are detachable.

The heads just mount on these studs.

We can’t wait to get this restored.

Finding the original tag when we flipped the chair over was an extra bonus!

Fiberglass Find!!!

Fiberglass Find!!!

This is the view of San Francisco seen from the fair.

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.

Batik Tiki Art…Vintage?

Batik Tiki Art…Vintage?

Mel and I came across this framed piece today at a local antique store.

I had been eyeballing it for some time.

I am not sure of its age but it almost has a whimsical Disney feel to it.

Each face is so annimated and colorful!


Unfortunately, I can not decifer the artists name!

Anybody familiar with this artist?


I think this will be a cool addition to our tiki room!

Paul T. Frankl set designed for Kane Kraft

Paul T. Frankl set designed for Kane Kraft

Mel and I picked this set up recently. Paul T. Frankl designed this set for Kane Kraft sometime in the late 40’s or early 50’s. I have always wanted a vintage bamboo dining set and this was the exact style I had in mind.

As you can see, the set was a little grubby from years of use. Most of the filth came off with cleaner, but the backs of the chairs had years of oil and grease built up on the surfaces. I cleaned them and resprayed them with polyurethane.

fullsizeoutput_2613

I have yet to clean this piece but that is all it should need.

We purchased this with plans to pick it up the following week. When we returned the store owner brought to our attention that there was a matching sideboard if we were interested! Yes please!

The top of this piece is fantastic!

So much storage, and we love those knobs.

The wood used appears to be solid Koa or Narra. The sideboard is solid and heavy. The grain of the wood glows like beams of sunlight in the sun.

I am currently on the hunt for appropriate fabric to recover the seats in.

Amazing Bar with Frederick Weinberg Stools

IMG_6966

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.

IMG_6964

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.

IMG_6958

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.

IMG_6961

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.

IMG_6972

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

IMG_6973

I might have to reinforce the bottom as well.

IMG_6971

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

IMG_6959

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

IMG_6957

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

IMG_6968

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.

IMG_6951

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.

IMG_6265

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.

IMG_3993

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.

IMG_6789

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.

IMG_5071

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

IMG_3960

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.

IMG_5531

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

IMG_5921

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

IMG_3671

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

IMG_3369

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

IMG_6899

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

img_1239

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

atomic_bar1

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

IMG_5437

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.

Tiki Room Tour

IMG_4205

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.

IMG_4199

IMG_4204

IMG_4202

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

IMG_4210

IMG_4211

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

 

IMG_4209

IMG_4227

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.

 

IMG_4228

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.

IMG_4225

IMG_4224

IMG_4214

IMG_4218

IMG_4217

IMG_4252

IMG_4207

IMG_4212

IMG_4232

IMG_4242

IMG_4243

IMG_4215

IMG_4263

IMG_4259

IMG_4258

IMG_4230

IMG_6517

IMG_4247

IMG_5434

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.

1950’s Bamboo Set

IMG_3713

Mel and I recently came across this really cool set on Craigslist and thought if we refinished it, the set would be one to go crazy over.

IMG_3714

Mel and I purchased the chair on the left about 2-3 weeks ago with the intention of reselling it in our shop. That all changed when we discovered a matching chair, couch and ottoman on Craigslist.

IMG_3716

The gentleman we purchased the set from said he had it for over 20 years.  Before that, his mother bought the set new. What a family heirloom!

IMG_3717

This set has these cool caps on the armrests that offer a cool bit of styling to the set.

IMG_3719

The corners of each piece have reinforced strapping.

IMG_3718The next thing to do is to start to look for new fabric to bring these back to life.  They need new strapping underneath, and I need to refinish the frames.  We look forward to their completion.

Retro Tiki Bar Upgrade

 

IMG_3369Last week sometime I drove out to the bay area to pick up this fantastic tiki bar! It has such great color and design. The gentleman I purchased it from said it was bought new by his father and was now his after his father passed. He hated to sell it but he had no room for it.

IMG_3374This thing is heavy as heck! What really caught our attention is how the formica is o the sides helping break up all the bamboo.

IMG_3371This bar is solid in construction. It tapers from narrow at the bottom to wider at the top.

IMG_3372This bar has a cutting board, drawer and a towel pole. There is plenty of room for storage too. This thing still needs to be cleaned up but it doesn’t need any kind of restoration.

IMG_3375The formica has a parquet style to it. I am debating if I will mount a tiki mask on the front of it. Now that we have this bar I think the tiki bar I restored previously will be sold in our store.

IMG_3368The best thing about this set is it has five stools and the upholstery is like new and they feel great to sit in.

%d bloggers like this: