When most mainlanders think of Oahu, HI, Waikiki's crowded beaches and Diamond Head's expansive estates are often the first images that come to mind. However, the 600-sq.-mile island's windward side, on its northeast shore, is a throwback to Hawaii's early-20th-century roots. An old-style beach town, Kailua mostly consists of modest primary residences that help the small coastal town retain an authentic Hawaiian vibe.

Constructed in the 1930s, this home is one of the area's original houses and has remained in the same family for generations. While it has been renovated and expanded over the years, its most recent update centered on the kitchen to accommodate the homeowners' ever-expanding family.

"What drives kitchen design in Hawaii is a lot of multi-generations living together," explained designer Rick Cowan, of local firm Archipelago, refined island interiors. "With the high cost of living, often the grown children will move into the family home and expand it to suit their needs. And with a large family, the kitchen always becomes the main gathering space." Such was the case with this family who wanted a larger kitchen with modern accents that blended into their 4,000-sq.-ft. plantation-style home.

The wife, whose family had remodeled several homes on the mainland, knew some of the elements she wanted in her new kitchen but was unsure about how to put it all together. "Some clients come in and say, 'you design, I'll follow,' but she came in with a real idea of what she wanted," said Cowan, who, along with his associate J.R. Ludlow, oversaw the four-month-long project. "She cooks a lot, so she knew the exact appliances she wanted. She was also adamant on incorporating a lot of green elements." These include cork flooring and two types of countertops: one made of wood harvested from sustained forests and the other formed of recycled glass and concrete.

Building around the wife's appliance choices, which included a 48-in.-wide refrigerator and a commercial-style range and ovens, Cowan and Ludlow designed an open-plan kitchen that would give the wife ample room to entertain and cook. To acquire more space, the designers pushed a wall back 6 ft. to make room for the fridge and stacked ovens. With the added space, they also increased the size of the center island, which includes another one of the wife's ideas: a faucet operated by a foot pedal. "It's something she saw at the dentist's office," Cowan said. "When you're cooking and your hands are dirty, it's hard to turn on the faucet to wash them. But with the foot pedal, you can preset the temperature and turn it on with your foot. It's one of my favorite elements in the kitchen and something I would definitely use in another project."

More than a cooking space, the 430-sq.-ft. kitchen also functions as a casual dining room. Next to the island, the design team placed a lowered table and chairs. "The wife's brother is disabled, so she wanted a table that he could easily roll his wheelchair up to," Cowan said. "The look of the lowered table also helps give dimension to the space by breaking up the heights, making each level distinct for its own function." The height of the range was also lowered to accommodate the wife's shorter stature. "A standard 36-in.-high range can be tall—especially when you add in the height of a large pot—so we brought it down to 34 in."

To hold the wife's extensive collection of cookbooks, the designers created a library/office space adjacent to the refrigerator. A sleek, built-in desk was made from the same materials as the recycled glass countertops and a tamboured door was installed to quickly hide a mess when company comes over. Beyond the desk area, a hallway leads to the laundry room and a back door provides convenient access to the nearby beach. Adjacent to the desk is a floor-to-ceiling linen closet to store bedding, kitchen towels and rags, as well as towels for the beach.

While the wife had modern ideas of incorporating green elements into the kitchen, when it came to aesthetics, she was hesitant to do anything that would look overtly contemporary in her otherwise traditional-style home. Blending traditional elements, such as Shaker-style cabinetry and turned posts at the sink and island, with the more contemporary-looking appliances and hood, the kitchen looks current but not trendy.

"She would have hated it if we couldn't incorporate the plantation theme into the kitchen," noted Cowan. "But, in the end we were able to achieve a happy balance between a space that honors the home's heritage without looking dated or stuck in a specific era."

By Lauren Barrett

SOURCES

Designers: Rick Cowan and J.R. Ludlow—
Archipelago, refined island interiors, Honolulu;
www.archipelagohawaii.com

Manufacturers
Cabinetry: Studio Becker
Ventilation hood: Cheng Products
Pedal valve: Pedal Valves Inc.
Range and ovens: Wolf
Refrigerator: Sub-Zero
Dishwasher: Fisher & Paykel
Faucets: Grohe
Sinks: Franke
Countertops: IceStone; Spekva
Tile: Crossville

Photography: © Augie Salbosa





The most contemporary piece in the kitchen, the Okean 60TB hood, designed by Cheng Products, is made from 16-gauge stainless steel with a textured, hand-burnished ribbon finish. The piece is designed for use with in-line or remote blower applications.






To respond to the client’s request for environmentally friendly products, Cowan and Ludlow chose IceStone countertops in Jade Snow. Free of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and made from recycled glass and concrete, IceStone is durable, heat-resistant and can be dyed to match almost any color. Because they are nonporous, the vibrant color will not fade.







For a splash of color, Crossville’s Brilliante Glass tiles in topaz, emerald, pewter and serpentine pave the kitchen’s backsplash. The series offers 3-in. x 3-in. accent tiles, 1-in. x 6-in. liner bars and 2-in. x 8-in. crystal mosaic borders. In addition to the colors used in this project, Brilliante Glass comes in 13 other colors.





The kitchen gets its unique character from a blend of two styles of complementary cabinetry. From Studio Becker’s Collection E (European), Cowan chose the Roma door style in dark cherry and the Castello door style in vanilla. Both were designed in Italy and manufactured in Germany.





An avid chef, the wife hand-picked Wolf’s 30-in., built-in single oven even before the remodel began. Featuring the company’s dual convection system, the unit offers 10 cooking modes for ultimate convenience, a rotating glass touch-control panel and a cobalt blue porcelain oven interior. The oven comes in classic stainless as well as platinum and carbon stainless finishes.