Tiki Hut Shelving

I have been wanting to build a Tiki hut in my backyard for some time now and this summer I started work on the hut. I needed some shelving for glasses and mugs for the hut but looking on-line I could never really find anything that I liked. So, I found some ideas and made my own shelving.

I had acquired a very large pallet which had 1 by 4 inch wood planks and I wanted to repurpose this wood into something great. So, I used several planks from the pallet to create this shelving unit for the Hut.

Hot Glue gun

Bamboo

hole punch

scissors

Wood Pallet

propane torch

rotozip or router

Drill and drill bits

circular saw

staple gun

wood glue

wood screws

Screw driver

Detail the size and shape that you would like the shelving to be. I wanted three shelves. I had seen an example that I used to style my design.

I had a rough draft and then added more detail to my drawing.

I knew I was going to use bamboo to make a shelf edge detail on each shelf and I also wanted to have a "V" shaped roof.

I knew my longest piece of wood that I was able to salvage from the pallet, so I kept that in mind during the design.

I used my circular saw to cut all of the shelving and made the measurements for the angles for the two side pieces.

Adding the details to the wood sections that will be the backside of the shelf, I made a template to draw on the spears and shield. I also used a template for the dot detail.

Using a template allowed for equal spacing and a more uniformed repeatable design.

I used card stock from a box of granola bars.

I used a Rotozip (or a hand held router) tool to carve into the wood the drawn designs from the previous step. Go slow and use care not to let the tool get away from the drawn markings.

For the dots I just used a drill with a 1/4 inch bit.

For the edge of the shelves I stacked them together and used a clamp to hold all the wood boards together and used a circular saw and made parallel passes with the saw depth at only 1/4 of an inch deep on all of the edges. This will make the cross hatch quickly and random for the edges of the shelf. See the drawing for an example.

With extreme safety and care in mind, I used a metal fire pit to protect from a fire, I torched each piece of wood with a propane torch. This gives the wood a darker more rustic look and makes all of the carvings and details stand out.

For each shelf I made sure to do all of the edges and the top and bottom of each shelf.

I predrilled pilot holes into each shelf and then screwed in the back support.Each joint I also used wood glue to help in the support of each self section.

I cut the length of the bamboo to match the shelves. I only put bamboo on the edge of the shelves not the roof.

I added a decretive cloth strip using a staple gun to secure it to the edge of the wood on both sides of the back support..

If your Tiki shelf is going to sit outside all the time in the weather, I would recommend putting a polyurethane coat to protect the wood. Mine will be used outside only when I am having a Luau and guest will be coming over to enjoy the Tiki Hut.

I left the sign off the shelf as I will put it in a more prominent location in the hut.

Thank you for checking out my build!

UPDATE: I finally found some really nice flower print fabric to finish the middle section of the shelf. I used my staple gun and tacked it to the back of the wood supports and shelf. I think it really finishes the design well.

Happy making.