Blue Tile Lounge interview

A while back we had a Shot of the Week taken in a living room bowl known as the Blue Tile Lounge. It’s located in Charleston South Carolina, which is my new favorite part o f the country, even though I haven’t been there in about 20 years. I dunno, it seems like something is brewing down there. If you’re not moving to Oregon to skate, consider South Carolina. Steve Aycock, the photographer, put together a short interview with the proprietors, which I’m liberally sprinkling with his photos.

Photos and Interview: Steve Aycock.

Hey Bob, Jon, sup ?

Sup man? Diggin on the Blue Tile Lounge…

(EDITOR”S NOTE: Before Steve gets in over his head channeling Juice… Let’s introduce Bob and Jon.)

Bob Hart

Jon Home

Q: I know that one of the first things people want to know when they see the photos of this place… is where is this ?

A: About 20 mins from Hanks (the legendary Hanger Bowl) place, here in Chucktown. (Charleston, SC)

Q: By most peoples standards having a bowl in the house would be a stretch, but you guys went much futher than that. WTF prompted you to build this thing ?

A: It started out with just a couple of quarters on the porch outside, but that didn’t work out because the porch floor has a slant too it. We cleared out some space and moved the ramps inside.

Q. Jon didn’t live here back then did he?

A: No, but he was into it.

Q: So you moved some ramps inside, when did the wall come out, how did you make that decision?

A: We had a ramp in each of the two rooms at first and we were going to put a mogul in the doorway, but before we got too far with that idea, Jon had already drawn up plans for what we could do if the wall was removed.

Q: What you guys built is pretty phenomonal. I was here taking pics at the first shin-dig, the bowl was here but there wasn’t any paint… how did that come about?

A: Bob mentioned that it would be cool to do a mural… just a random idea, we were already planning a party, thought about how cool it could be and the next thing I knew we were painting.

Q: How long did it take?

A: Over nights and weekends, about 2 months to build and two more weeks for paint.

Q: @ Jon, Bob said you drew up some plans, how much of it was seat of the pants and how much was really drawn out, I mean, did you scale things up on paper first?

A: I drew some stuff that I thought was pretty tight, but once we really started building we had to make some changes to allow for more flatbottom and some deck space.

Some things had to be worked with… for instance we kinda knew the fireplace was gonna have to be a hip and we were going to need access in and out of the house and our rooms.

We weren’t sure how to make all that happen at first, but it turns out, the animal chin style pullout section was the way to go.

Q: The cieling is right there… has anyone banged there head?

A: The clearance from the deck to the cieling is 6 ft. I haven’t seen anyone hit their head but we did have someone try to ride some of the art on the wall that he thought was real. Twice.

On a side note there is some kind of a bet going on with the chandalier like lights.

Q: So do you think you’re gonna get your deposit back?

A: No one gets their deposit back, we’re ahead of the game.

Bob Hart and Jon Horne built and are current residents of and at the Blue Tile Lounge. Charleston South Carolina

Thanks to Steve Aycock for the photos and interview. You can see more photos from this set and another one on Flickr.