Three kids, a Jack Russell terrier named Pono and the usual suspects of sand, spilled food and suntan lotion.

The case was straightforward enough for interior designer Jamie Jackson, of Pacific Home. “My main objective was to make a livable home for an active, beach family,” she says. “To have beauty, but not be stuffy. To reflect the historical roots of this house, but also say there’s a young family living in it. To have color and fun, but not with furniture or fabrics you have to worry about.”

The 1930s cottage, re-outfitted to accommodate a growing young family, has an organic, flowing openness to its Diamondhead surroundings.

The homeowner, who grew up in the home next door along this same strip of beach, got her dream interior. But, then, she knew she would all along. “When I walked into Pacific Home, I loved everything in the store,” she says. “I feel it introduces a niche of furniture that hadn’t existed in Honolulu: casual, beachy, contemporary living with traditional roots. It was one-stop shopping.”

The connection with Jackson was, likewise, instantaneous. “We didn’t have to spend so much start-up time getting to know each other or putting together a concept,” the homeowner adds. “Jamie is redefining contemporary Hawaiian design; she’s forging a new way. And I’ve lived with rattan and loud aloha prints my whole life; I was ready for the next thing in beach décor.”

Jamie Jackson’s interior design has an indoor/outdoor focus, with washable slipcovers on the furniture and a coffee table that was hand-picked for board games.

Jackson started at the scene of the design. The property is located near Blackpoint at the base of Diamond Head, right on the water. The home itself is a classic, Island-style cottage built in the 1930s. At water’s edge, below a small treehouse, is a favorite hangout of Irma, one of only 13 Hawaiian monk seals that live in Oahu’s waters.

“The property is just priceless, and this house is extraordinary,” Jackson says. “That set a certain tone for the furnishings, because you have to pay attention to the bones of the structure, and I wanted them to reflect a sense of place.”

Greens, blues and browns predominate. The contemporary setting maintains a beachy feel. ALOHA letters literally spell out the home's casual, friendly vibe.

With a keen eye for the practical, Jackson outfitted her design around the homeowner’s routines and needs. “Her family is the most important thing in her life,” Jackson says. “They spend a lot of time in the living room, playing board games. It really is a living room, the heart of a house that is being lived in 24/7.”

So, Jackson and the homeowner spent a lot of time finding just the right coffee table for playing those board games—and storing them underneath. They chose slipcovered furniture and indoor/outdoor fabrics from Pacific Home that can be easily taken off and washed. Jackson even designed a matching dog blanket for Pono. The traditional pedestal tables add symmetry to the home’s classic lines, but more important, they have drawers to fill with pencils and crayons. “It’s comfortable living, totally durable and looks fabulous,” she says.

One request by the homeowner was to get her kids—who are used to eating at the kitchen counter—to start sitting down for family dinners. To make the dining room equally inviting, Jackson chose Pacific Home pieces that are light enough to move around, such as cloth cubes, and a durable area rug. “It’s recycled plastic by Chilewich, with the look of a straw woven mat,” she says.

Contemporary Hawaiian

Drawing on her career in the arts, from fashion to film to interior design, Jackson is intrigued with evolving Hawaii design. “What was done in the past was beautiful and fun, but it’s 2007. At Pacific Home, we’re finding new fabrics that live and breathe and have their story to tell,” she says.

Looking out of this cottage, she saw lots of greens, blues and browns. “So, those were the colors we brought in here. We didn’t try to add anything you don’t see outside. The palette is pleasing; we’re just framing it,” she says.

She opted to forego typical block Hawaiian prints, in favor of fabrics by designer Wendy Tsuji, who designed a limu lei print specifically about growing up here in Hawaii. “Kids used to play with the seaweed around their necks,” Jackson says of the Perennial Outdoor Fabrics product, available at Pacific Home. The kapa triangle print is Polynesian and spiritual. The window shades are made from Galbraith & Paul hand-blocked linens of white orchids. “All of these images bring a sense of where we live—in a subtle way,” she says.

The big club chairs are by Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, an exclusive line at Pacific Home. “This kind of contemporary isn’t necessarily beachy, so we beached it up with the fabric: a fun kind of beach towel stripe,” the homeowner says. “The rug is less formal, more casual. The potter’s lamp and gourd-shaped lamp bring the soft shapes found in nature. All the shells in that great bowl are from our beach.”

Indoor/outdoor living is a shared focus among Jackson and the homeowner. “We live in this most gorgeous place,” the homeowner says. “We should be able to flow seamlessly in our lives from inside to outside.”

Limu prints, a potter-shaped lamp and pedestal tables create a Hawaiian feel—in a subtle way.

“[The homeowner’s lifestyle] is right here on the beach, in this historic Hawaii home, with her family,” Jackson says. “So really, my whole interior design—the fabrics, the pieces of furniture, the porcelain sea urchin and angel fish, the ALOHA letters—is about bringing in the soothing outside. With fun and elegance. That’s what we’re trying to do at Pacific Home.”