The Ties that Build
Imagine you have a brand new lot perched on a scenic hill high above Kane‘ohe Bay. How would you build your ideal home? Would you design from the top-down, with your living spaces and front door at the top of the ridge overlooking the bay—or from the bottom-up, with a low entrance that opens to a beautiful house above you? Do you create open spaces to take advantage of the trade winds? Or perhaps you would prefer a slightly more secluded structure, considering there’s a curving road that wraps around the property. Most importantly: Is there a way for you to have it all? To make this Kane‘ohe Bay house your dream home, with a little bit of everything combined in an elegant modern design that still fits in seamlessly with the idyllic community around it?
This may sound like a lot, but it helps if you’ve already got a keen eye for design and you’re working with a great team of architects and construction pros. Luckily, Darlene Blakeney has both. And as the mother of two boys, she was looking for a family home that could offer separate spaces for her to unwind after work, for her kids to comfortably hang out and grow up safely, and to entertain friends and family. “I wanted a light, airy house that could take advantage of the views with a media room downstairs for the kids and space for guests,” says Blakeney. “Plus a deck where I might have a glass of wine in the evening when the sun is going down and morning lattes on the weekends!”
To bring her home to life, Blakeney connected with the team at Geoffrey Lewis Architect, which designed a floorplan that placed the living room, dining room, kitchen and even the garage on the top floor, with the entire house arranged in a way to offer views of Kane‘ohe Bay and the Ko‘olaus — while limiting how much of inside the house can be seen from the road to maximize privacy. Yule Hanson of Hanson Construction laid the foundation and helped advise on electrical and plumbing. The kitchen became a central space in the home for both Blakeney, who loves to cook, and her sons, where they could do their homework on the kitchen island (“My sisters say the island is so huge, it’s actually a continent,” Blakeney laughs,) after school. “A lot of older houses have a European design where the kitchen was separated. Nowadays, the kitchen is a public space and people like to hang around and have a casual experience,” says architect Geoffrey Lewis. “When we work on a house, our process begins with understanding what our clients’ goals are. With Darlene, having gathering places for the whole family, like this open kitchen, was important.”
Throughout the home, Blakeney filled the rooms with original works of art that have a personal significance; Kailua artist Brenda Cablayan painted a view from the Neoclassical foyer of Kumu Kahua Theatre (Blakeney previously worked nearby on Merchant Street for many years) and Rabbit Island off Waimanalo. Meanwhile, two colorful abstract paintings by local artist and educator Lauren Okano — who teaches art at Hanahau‘oli, where Blakeney’s children attended elementary school — greet visitors who step through the main entrance. Artist Marley Van Peebles, Blakeney’s nephew, created a sprawling mural of the family, representing Blakeney as a coconut tree, her sons as two playful fish, and their dad (who is from Arizona) as a saguaro cactus. “This image captures all sorts of things in our lives, including our dogs, the Hanahau‘oli logo, soccer balls, skiing… There’s a bull in the image too, because my family had a ranch on the North Shore when I was growing up.”
Sustainability was also another critical component for Lewis and Blakeney. The interior floors have a wood veneer that’s only an eighth of an inch, which still offers the same quality look and feel of hardwood but is engineered to use less than the traditional three-quarters of an inch of wood that traditional homes have. The exterior walls feature “wood” siding made of Resysta, a manufactured mixture of rice husks, mineral oil and salt that requires less maintenance than wood and which also doesn’t suffer from oxidation or color change. In lieu of quarried stone, Lewis’ team employed porcelain tiles that have a clean, natural look.
Outside, the landscaping is designed to use less water than traditional yards. While above, the home’s shed roofs are equipped with photovoltaic panels that absorb sunlight during the day and charge batteries that help power the home at night or in the event of an outage. “It’s what they call ‘passive sustainability.’ For example, taking advantage of trade winds so you can cross-ventilate the house without running the AC 24/7 or orienting the house so that you’re able to utilize natural sunlight without having to turn on lamps. These are little design elements that make the house run well and operate more sustainably,” says Lewis.
“My sense of style developed over a long period of time. I’d say it’s a blend of mid-century modern, modern, and minimalist,” says Blakeney. “Nothing always matches 100%, but whether it relates to my kids or my history living and growing up in Hawai‘i, everything in this home has that personal connection.”