Josh Papuzza made faux bamboo out of PVC pipes, a trick he learned on the Tiki Central website, which has forums on building home tiki bars.

When Josh and Rachel Papuzza moved from a one-bedroom apartment to a two-bedroom house in Ventura, Calif., two years ago, they were excited to finally have a two-car garage. Not for their cars, but so Mr. Papuzza could create a home for his hundreds of tiki mugs, Polynesian carvings and puffer-fish lamps—and so Mrs. Papuzza, 41, could decorate her new home without any evidence of that distinctive décor.

“Once we made that deal, I fulfilled my vision,” says Mr. Papuzza, 40, a bartender at a Ventura, Calif., bar called VenTiki Lounge & Lanai. The garage is now a full blown tiki bar that seats 20 people, finished last year for about $30,000.

Home tiki bars are getting more lavish. Thatched and bamboo clad, and often found in basements, garages and backyards, these throwbacks from the late 1940s and 1950s became popular when returning GIs re-created what they had seen in the Pacific.

How to Make Your Own Tiki Bar One family’s garage project What was a two-car garage is now a tiki bar that seats 20 people. Ethan Pines for The Wall Street Journal The exterior of the garage in back of the Papuzzas’ house. Ethan Pines for The Wall Street Journal Josh and Rachel Papuzza in the hot tub at the tiki bar Mr. Papuzza created in their garage in Ventura, Calif. Ethan Pines for The Wall Street Journal Mr. Papuzza spent about $30,000 on the tiki bar, where he displays his collection of tiki mugs. Ethan Pines for The Wall Street Journal Mr. Papuzza made faux bamboo out of PVC pipes, a trick he learned on the Tiki Central website. Ethan Pines for The Wall Street Journal Some of Mr. Papuzza’s 300 tiki mugs are vintage, worth thousands of dollars. Ethan Pines for The Wall Street Journal Mr. Papuzza, 40, a bartender at a Ventura bar called VenTiki Lounge & Lanai, drew inspiration for his home bar from blogs such as Tiki with Ray, which posts photos of home tiki-bar projects, and studied the vendor booths at the Tiki Oasis convention in San Diego. Ethan Pines for The Wall Street Journal For Mr. Papuzza, the tiki obsession started when his grandparents took him to Hawaii in the early 1980s, where he drank Shirley Temples with mini-umbrellas and observed the local culture. Ethan Pines for The Wall Street Journal The palapa ceiling is made of woven fronds, and puffer-fish lights from Oceanic Arts in Whittier, Calif. Ethan Pines for The Wall Street Journal The tiki bar’s hot tub cost about $5,000. Ethan Pines for The Wall Street Journal The routing encircling the tiki bar has ‘tapa cloth’ forms, often found on fabrics, carved into it. Ethan Pines for The Wall Street Journal Tiki bars tend to have nautical themes, including ship wheels and ropes. Ethan Pines for The Wall Street Journal

“It was a place where you could loosen your tie,” says Martin Cate, founder of San Francisco tiki bar Smuggler’s Cove. Their popularity has continued to varying degrees. The current resurgence stems in part from a similar urge to escape modern-day anxieties, he surmises.

For his garage bar, Mr. Papuzza enlisted help from friends, whom he refers to in tiki terms as ohana, a word from Hawaiian for “family.” One friend drew the design plans, another did woodwork and a third put in the plumbing, all in exchange for “plenty of rum and the chance to be part of a really cool project,” says Mr. Papuzza.


To keep costs in check, the plumbing is rigged through a hose that runs through some holes in the wall, with the water draining into buckets that need emptying at the end of the night. Instead of real bamboo, which can get moldy and attracts bamboo beetles, Mr. Papuzza made faux bamboo out of PVC pipes, a trick he learned on the Tiki Central website, which has forums on building home tiki bars.

He also drew inspiration from blogs such as Tiki with Ray, which posts photos of home tiki-bar projects, and studied the vendor booths at the Tiki Oasis convention in San Diego.

About 1,982 homes currently for sale in the U.S. have the words ‘tiki bar’ in their listing description, according to real estate listings website Zillow. Photo: Ethan Pines for The Wall Street Journal

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Real-estate agents say Polynesia-theme home bars are still a rarity, but they have been seeing more in recent years. About 1,982 homes currently for sale in the U.S. have the words “tiki bar” in their listing description, according to real-estate listings website Zillow.

“It’s been a crazy year,” says Kevin Dunn, whose Tiki Kev, based in Chalfont, Pa., sells pre-made tiki bar kits and builds home tiki bars. In the past four months, he says, he has installed 11 custom bars, including one in Myrtle Beach, S.C., for $16,000 with a thatched roofand two swings.


When her father started selling weaving palms in 1986, there were few other home tiki-bar makers, says Margorie Guerrero, owner of the San Diego-based company Tropical Shade Imports. Now she has dozens of competitors and makes about two tiki huts a day, for as much as $11,500 apiece.

Some of Mr. Papuzza’s 300 tiki mugs are vintage, worth thousands of dollars. Photo: Ethan Pines for The Wall Street Journal

Tiki-Mania Tiki conventions across the country are attracting thousands of visitors who buy tiki paraphernalia, take hula lessons and learn to make Mai Tais and select music. In San Diego , some 4,000 people attended the five-day Tiki Oasis in August, an event that started with 75 people in 2001. The hotel that was reserved sold out in four minutes and tickets were gone in 24 hours, organizers say.

, some 4,000 people attended the five-day Tiki Oasis in August, an event that started with 75 people in 2001. The hotel that was reserved sold out in four minutes and tickets were gone in 24 hours, organizers say. In Portland, Ore., about 650 people attended this year’s Tiki Con, which includes a home tour of houses with tiki bars. That festival sold out in minutes, leading its organizers to decide to expand capacity next year to 1,000 people—a 500% increase since 2013.

about 650 people attended this year’s Tiki Con, which includes a home tour of houses with tiki bars. That festival sold out in minutes, leading its organizers to decide to expand capacity next year to 1,000 people—a 500% increase since 2013. In Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., the Huklilau, a tiki festival that drew 800 attendees this year, is planning a pop-up version in London this fall.

For Mr. Papuzza, the tiki obsession started when his grandparents took him to Hawaii in the early 1980s, where he drank Shirley Temples with mini umbrellas and observed the local culture. He began buying tiki mugs, amassing a collection worth about $30,000 that includes rare vintage models.

His first tiki bar was a makeshift assortment of shelves and carvings in his 1,000-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment. When his then girlfriend, now wife, was pregnant with their son Hunter, they bought a 1,500-square-foot house and started packing up.

That’s when Mrs. Papuzza panicked. She had no idea just how many tiki-related items her husband owned until she saw how many boxes they filled. She negotiated to let Mr. Papuzza have the garage and won control over the house, which she decorated in Midcentury Modern contemporary, with a black and teal kitchen.


The grand opening for Mr. Papuzza’s bar—which he named Tapu (‘Forbidden’ in Tahitian) Tiki—drew 110 tikiphiles, spilling from the garage out into the yard.

The opening was Mrs. Papuzza’s idea, otherwise, she says, the project might still be going on. “I had no idea it would be as big and elaborate as it is,” she says. “At least it wasn’t in the house.”

Write to Nancy Keates at nancy.keates@wsj.com