Tiki Thatch: The First Step To Building A Tiki Bar

A tiki bar just isn't a tiki bar without that characteristic palm tree-looking tiki thatch covering every conceivable roof-like surface. Without tiki bar thatch, your "tiki bar" is just some bar that serves tropical drinks. If your home bar has is decorated with tiki masks and boasts a supply of tiki mugs in which to serve tropical drinks, but doesn't have thatch covering at least one surface, it looks jarring.

Browse our Tiki Thatch

For an outdoor tiki hut, thatch is even more necessary. With an indoor tiki-themed bar, you at least have the excuse that thatch roofs "aren't really necessary" indoors (although everyone will know you are just making excuses--tiki bars are about looks, not utility). With an outdoor tiki hut, you don't even have that sad excuse.

Covering The Subject Of Thatch

What is thatch? It is only the world's first building material. Straw, heather, and in the Polynesian islands, dried palm leaves, have been layered together and waterproofed to create warm, water-resistant, low-cost, sustainable roofs for thousands of years. People have been making thatched roofs since before they could write.

In the context of a tropical tiki bar, it's practical to use thatch to cover a sun umbrella or palapa (a type of roofed structure held up by four or more poles but without any walls, intended for giving shade). Thatch's great thermal insulation means that, not only will thatched-roof houses stay warm in winter, but people sitting under thatched palapas will stay cool in summer.

The Aesthetics of Thatch

Aside from its cost-effectiveness and its effectiveness at protection from the sun (possibly not as much of an issue, if you're trying to build a tiki bar at home), thatch has great aesthetic properties that make it indispensable to a tropical-themed place of leisure. A thatched roof looks casual and natural. People like the fact that a thatched roof is made out of the same material as things that actually grow in the earth. Why?

Is it because everyone actually cares so much about the environment all of a sudden? Maybe, but the real reason probably has more to do with the basic aesthetic principle of "things must match." People often express an urge to "get away from civilization" because of its perceived artificiality. Civilization clashes with what everyone really perceives to be the true nature of reality--which is, "nature," in the sense of forests and palm trees and plants.

We love nature, but we need civilization. Modern people feel that they are simply incapable of living in nature, without any of the "artificial" incursions of civilization--and they probably are right. Even farming is, to some extent, "artificial." However, when people see that boundary between nature and civilization blur just a little bit--as in the thatched roof of a tiki bar--they begin to relax just a little bit. It is the kind of good, relaxed feeling that makes one want to sit back with a tropical cocktail.

Commerically Available Tiki Thatch

For these reasons, thatched roofs have been an indispensable part of the tiki bar look since tiki bars first appeared. These days, if you want to build a tiki bar, you don't even have to thatch it yourself--you can buy rolls of tiki thatch buy the foot.