Rich Young - Architect

'The short coconut leaf'

4,687 SF Residence with detached garage
6 bedrooms, 6 baths

Featured in:
Ilbagno August 2003

  Developer Doug Posely and his wife Donna, an interior decorator, quickly recognized their requirements for this spec house by having previously owned two thriving bed & breakfast businesses, both in houses designed by Rich Young. Capitalizing on accents from Donna's Balinese import company, this residence produces a foreign atmosphere within the context of a tropical Maui home. Top-to-bottom, architectural details are enhanced by the owner's trade. Outside, hand-cut diamond-shaped ironwood shingles top the steep pitched roof: Rain caught in copper gutters drains along brass chains to underground collection sites. Inside natural materials continue the theme. Throughout the house, baseboards, doors, and trim, are all Balinese in origin: Delicately carved antique doors and trims frame the Great Room entry, while four 12' high doors open to the pool. Walls and columns in hand carved woods reflect the natural rattan woven ceiling with teak battens. Travertine tiles cover the floor, and hand-woven area rugs imitate sea grass mats.

    Six bedrooms, each with a different theme, were designed to honor the owner's wishes to create a turnkey residence with bed & breakfast capabilities. Bath No. 1 has a hand carved solid travertine bath tub and sink: the bathtub and outdoor shower waters flow from a bamboo spout, and the handles, too, are made of bamboo. In the second bathroom hand made sliding wood doors open to an outdoor shower lined with fine small pebbles, water pours from Inca-style face mounted atop a split-tile wall. In bed/bath No. 3, a cathedral ceiling hovers over niches that form the headboard of a platform bed, and intricately inlaid mother of pearl doors mark the exterior lanai. Water flows into the tub through a spout hidden behind marble tiles and cubbyhole niches set in 1" glass tiles. Another bedroom features a crushed mother of pearl imbedded resin sink and tub, with clear lacquer counter. Themes in the other bedrooms are similar.

    A small kitchen finishes the business proposition. It contains a six burner Viking stove with a stainless steel-pillowed rear wall to catch splashes, a copper hood with craftsman-style handles marking the corners, black granite counters, bronze outlet covers, glass-faced laminated cabinets, and a wood floor. Top-to-bottom, this spec house was collaboration between architect and owner with the lifestyle of future occupants at heart.