Tour a Serene Hawaiian Retreat on the Island of Kauai

Shay Zak, of the eponymous San Francisco–based firm Zak Architecture, follows just one unbreakable rule when it comes to designing a Hawaiian residence: The interior’s great room and the outdoor pool must be constructed next to one another. “In Hawaii, the skies are so beautiful…that a pool [can] reflect the atmosphere into the [interior],” he explains. “That adjacency is absolutely key.”

Therefore, before his first meeting with a pair of new clients on a hilly Kauai site, Zak decided to solve the potential conundrum of the great room and pool area layout. “The southern coastline of the island has some beautiful views of the ocean, but there are challenges for handling its slope,” the architect explains. In the end, the clients were impressed by the system of terraces Zak devised, and enthusiastically encouraged him to continue work on the concept. The result is a 4,070-square-foot, four-bedroom house that appears as a group of high-ceilinged pavilions organized around a stepped courtyard.

At this point in the process, Zak suggested that the husband and wife consider reaching out to interior designer Catherine Kwong of Catherine Kwong Design, with whom he had partnered on two Hawaiian houses previously. “Catherine’s fantastic. I love her New York sensibility,” he says of Kwong, who used to live in the Big Apple but currently works out of San Francisco.

“We had a connection right from the beginning,” Kwong recalls of her first client meeting. “They’re a really sweet family, and they knew very clearly that nothing should seem too precious in the home—that it would be somewhere you could go swimming and sit out on the patio, without being concerned about keeping things pristine.”

Kwong soon learned that the client’s vision also involved plenty of home cooking and social visits. The kitchen, which anchors the southern end of the great room, would therefore need to be durable. Ultimately, she decided to finish the cabinetry in bleached walnut, which features a particularly pretty wood grain, and to use quartzite countertops. “Although I am normally Team Natural Stone,” she explains, “this is not a show kitchen, and we thought that the quartzite would hold up to use. It also has a blue-grayish tint that works very well in the [interior].”

Another notable feature is the kitchen’s large, darkened bronze hood, which Kwong describes as a counterpoint to the great room’s scale. Fittingly, Kwong’s design direction “has everything to do with the architecture,” she says. Zak’s concept represents “a move away from a heavy, traditionally tropical interpretation…. Clients today want more serenity in their spaces, [and for interiors to function] almost like a backdrop,” she notes.

In turn, Kwong conceived a color palette of neutrals, which in part involved staining the yellow cedar walls to make them pale parchment in tone. She also furnished the space sparingly, prioritizing open circulation over vignettes. “In New York, my apartment was completely full of everything, so it’s a challenge to keep things restrained,” Kwong reflects with a laugh.

Zak confirms that in this home, potential clutter is far from view. On a recent visit with the delighted clients, “There was a certain calmness, even though the house and the site are fairly compact,” he explains. “The finished home has a hushed, jewel-box quality to it.” Indeed, it certainly does.