Easy PVC Pipe Tiki Bar For Your Luau Party {tutorial}

I just love a Tiki Bar.  I think they are so much fun and create the perfect ambiance for a Luau party. Here’s how you can make your own home tiki bar complete with pictured instructions and tips and tricks along the way.

Since I was in a rush and graduation blur with my first son, I decided to throw together a home Tiki Bar made out of PVC pipe.  If I can make something festive and functional ~ I am in!  The Tiki bar was such a fun focal point for the party which was held in our church gym.

Tiki Bar Using PVC Pipe

A couple years ago I co-hosted a Luau graduation party Davis and the church youth who were all graduating.  As I was pulling out the PVC pipe to re-make the tiki hut bar to turn it into a carnival theme…  I realized that I hadn’t posted about this amazing party that we threw.

Shame on me!  {slapping wrist}  With all of the emotion of having my first child graduate, making everything to host his party really was a blessing in disguise.  So without further ado here’s the DIY tiki hut that I made for a graduation party.  We put it next to the buffet table.

I honestly can’t remember what was under it.  {snicker} The photographer we hired didn’t get a final shot of it and that night was such a blur.  A wonderfully, fun blur.

How to Make a Tiki Bar using PVC Pipe

I love how the tiki hut bar turned out.  It was such an easy thing to throw together and I used what I already had.  I only had to buy a few of the PVC elbow connectors and grass skirts to make this work.

Yep, I already had the totems and pool noodles.  Obviously, you can decorate the Tiki hut anyway you want.  Since my PVC was well used I opted to cover it with pool noodles to give the church gym more color and vibrancy.

Tiki Bar Design Ideas I Used

I based my design on Sue’s DIY Tiki Bar tutorial to create this homemade Tiki bar out of pvc pipe, cardboard, and grass skirts.

Sue’s a genius and used most of what she already had on hand to make her Tiki bar.  Sue used some of her scrap wood, $1 store hula skirts, and some bamboo and painted it a fun color pink.

I also loved Melanie and Lou’s DIY Tiki Bar with pineapple donuts. {so creative} Sadly Melanie took down her blog and so I can no longer link to it.

Since I already had a bunch of PVC pipe and I’m not as comfortable using wood, I created my Tiki Bar out of PCV pipe as I already had a bunch on hand.

Step 1: Gather your supplies.

Here are the supplies that you will need to make this DIY tiki hut:

• six $1 Store child hula skirts
• cardboard
• PVC
• clear packing tape

Optional Supplies:

• Paint
• Decorations

Shopping Tip:  Even though I only needed six hula skirts, I did have to go to a few dollar stores to find them.  My advice is to buy them in April or when they first hit the stores as they were really hard to find in May.

Step 2: Cut the PVC pipes.

Screenshot this picture so you can use it at Home Depot or Lowes when you are ordering your pvc pipe.  I’ve added the sizes and the quantity that you’ll need in one place hoping that would make things easier for you.  {knuckle bumps}

Cut the PVC pipe to create the tiki bar in these sizes:

• three cut 41″
• two cut 24″
• eight cut 18″

Buy these PVC elbow fitting connectors: {see picture}

• eight = equal tee 3 way {T shape}
• four = 45 degree angle
• two = 3/8 x 3/8 x 1/4 fitting with PF Inner

I decided on these sizes because it’s what I already had at home.  It also wanted it to fit on our portable craft table that I have.  So you can tweak these sizes to what works best for your situation.

Step 3: Assemble PVC pipes.

In my opinion, the easiest way to start assembling the pvc pipe is to make one side then the other side and then connect them together with your three long pieces.  I’ve added the sizes to the image above so you can see how I connected them together to make one side.

How to connect the pvc pipe:

1. Connect the right side of the tiki bar
2. Connect the left side of the tiki bar
3. Assemble the last three long pieces to connect it all together

Connecting Tip: When you are first assembling the pipe, don’t press it together too hard.  This way if you make a mistake you can easily pull it out.  Believe me that pipe can stick!  So don’t make it any harder on yourself than you need to.  {wink}  You can always tighten the pipe when it is all done and assembled.

Step 4: Make tiki hut roof.

Add cardboard.  This is easier than I’ve made it look.  The trick is to lay out your cardboard and make sure it’s the right size.

I used an amazon box I had in the trash.  Like I said, super simple.  I clearly didn’t over-think this part.  I used the natural folds in the box and used clear packing tape to secure it to the front and back.

As you can see from the picture, I overlapped the front carboard piece to the back so it had something easier to secure it to.

Add grass skirt to the tiki hut roof.  I used four child hula skirts however, if you make the tiki bar longer than four feet then you may need more.

Grass Skirt Tip:  Before you start, size the tiki hut roof to the hula shirts.  You don’t want to have too few grass skirts or your roof too big.  So just make sure your design will work before you make any permanent changes.

Add a second layer of hula shirts completing the tiki hut roof.  I used clear packing tape to secure them into place.

This is what it looked like before I decorated the tiki bar.  I don’t have a picture of it but I did add two more grass skirts to the back of the tiki hut so it looked awesome from the front and back.

Step 5: Decorate tiki bar.

Decorate your DIY tiki hut any way you’d like.  You can leave the PVC pipes white, spray paint them, or cover them with crepe paper or pool noodles like I did.

We really were in a rush and this came together in a few minutes.  So feel free to leave your links in the comments if you post your version!  We would all love to see more ideas and ways to use and decorate it.

Step 6: Clamp to table.

My husband already had these large claps that we used to secure the tiki bar to the portable craft table I have.  If there will be little kids around, I would highly suggest that you find a way to properly secure it.  {yep, I’m always looking out for ya girl}

We didn’t have any issues of it coming off the table or tipping over.  {that I know of}

Here’s a close up view of the clamp in case it isn’t obvious or clear as what to do.  I was just going to use duct tape but my man is a clamp connoisseur.  Ok that doesn’t make sense but he has a LOT of clamps.  {bwaahaa!}

I hope this tutorial has been helpful and answered any questions you may have on how to make a tiki hut bar for your luau or fun event.  Whoohoo!!

There were so many cool Tiki Bar and Buffet ideas that I found.  Here’s a quick screenshot of the inspiration I used.  I figured it might help you too.  {wink}

6 Feet Tiki Bar for a Long Table

If you want to make the Tiki bar longer to fit a larger buffet table, then cut the 3 long pieces to your preferred length.  Just be aware that you’ll need to add more infrastructure to be able to hold the roof.

{image credit}

Tip: If you make the tiki bar hut longer than four feet then do not use cardboard which will weight the roof down.  Instead tape {or tie} the hula skirts to the pvc pipe so it’s lightweight just like Sue did in her tutorial using bamboo.

If you’re interested, you can see all of our luau party details complete with DIY Hawaiian party decorations.  It was such a fun night.

Bonus: Click the link above, as I’ve included a pdf file of my planning sheets in an effort to help you save time in planning your luau party.

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