"We love the pool and the covered exterior deck off the master bedroom," says contractor Fred Ryll. "Trigg designed a great home for outdoor living and entertaining."

The second-floor, covered lanai offers a breezy place for relaxing.

Talk about a dream job.When contractor Fred Ryll set out to build this Princeville, Kauai, home in 2005, he quickly realized he had it made. “The lot was in such a great location. It was beauty while building,” he says. “I’d go to work and watch the shearwaters, the golfers and the cruise ships go by and be surrounded by mountains and waterfalls.”
Situated on the Princeville Makai golf course and surrounded by ocean and mountain views, the home serves as a prime spot for relaxation. Thanks to careful material selection and a talented and experienced architectural, interior design and building team, the home reflects its surroundings.

Ryll Construction and architect Alwyn Trigg-Smith were the first to team up for the project. “This was our second design with Trigg-Smith, and we’ve had him design two more houses since,” says Ryll. “He’s a gifted architect with a great sense of space and light.”

The team had a vision for the home: “We wanted it to be a spacious, relaxing, no-stress environment,” Ryll says.

Dark wood tones contrast with cream-colored limestone floors for a dramatic, yet subdued feel in the kitchen.

First, architectural challenges needed to be addressed. The lot is shaped like a necktie, with five boundary lines instead of the traditional four—not the most functional building shape. To boot, “the setbacks were significant, which really cut down on the usable area, and the street boundary was very narrow,” says Ryll.

Trigg-Smith had to design a home that would feel open and inviting, despite its situation on a long, confining lot. The home also needed to maximize the views while maintaining separation, both in look and feel, from the nearby highway.

Custom-designed pineapple tiles from Bella Pietra accent the backsplash just above the sink.

The solution? A uniquely shaped home, full of right angles (Trigg-Smith calls them jogs) with high ceilings, an abundance of windows and large pocket doors to draw in light and air flow. “Trigg has a great sense of air flow, which is critical in this climate,” says Ryll. “Though we installed air conditioning, it is rarely used.”

To address the vistas, Trigg-Smith and the team at Ryll Construction created a second-floor living area, with an adjoining lanai that allows views of the surrounding landscape and ocean beyond. “The layout is actually extremely logical,” says Trigg-Smith. “The double volume of the house [two stories] is pushed to the back of the lot to give a garden view.” The indoor/outdoor space features a 24-foot Fleetwood pocket-door system that can be closed if highway noise becomes an issue.

Picture perfect: The view from the living room looks almost unreal.

When it came to the look of the home, Ryll says, “We wanted to blend the best of the Hawaii plantation style with contemporary Asian influences.” The team enlisted interior designer Barbara Cameron, ASID, of Yochi Interiors in Lihue, to consult throughout the process. “We chose a palette of ebony-stained cabinets and dark-framed windows with merbau louvers, doors and trim imported from Indonesia,” says Ryll. The wood louvers are a great architectural element when seen from the exterior.

Waking up poolside: A downstairs bedroom connects to the outdoors. A sharply angled "jog" in the corner of the room is camouflaged by two windows, placed at a right angle.

To give the space an elegant island feel, Ryll Construction partner Debra Ryll chose 18” x 18” limestone flooring in golden beach, from Bella Pietra. “It goes with a number of color palettes, so you can run it through rooms that have different design elements and different color schemes,” says Bella Pietra president Layla Dedrick. “The stone is a uniting factor throughout the house.”

“The tile is also a wonderful choice for an island-home feeling because it looks like sand,” she continues. “It has a beachy, casual, elegant feel. It feels high-end without putting you off.”

Cream-colored tile and jalousied windows create an open, spa-like feel in the bathroom.

Debra also chose Tommy Bahama ceiling fans for the living room as well as a copper CableRail barrier for the adjoining exterior lanai. Trigg-Smith suggested the copper color to complement oil-rubbed bronze hardware found in the interior of the home.

In the kitchen, Debra chose Juperana mahogany countertops. A limestone backsplash accented with square bronze tiles (custom-designed with a pineapple motif by Bella Pietra) provides a great contrast. “Aside from giving it an island feel, the pineapple is an international symbol of hospitality,” says Dedrick. When it came to choosing appliances, “we were tired of stainless, so we chose black glass instead,” Debra says. Amber-color pendant lights add a great color pop, crowning the entire area. “The space is warm and inviting,” says Dedrick. “You can tell it’s meant to be a gathering place.”

Plantation-style accents showcase island living at its best.

Even with its challenging footprint, the home has enough room to house family, friends and out-of-town guests. Two master suites, another full-size bedroom and a bunk room for the kids ensure comfort and privacy. There’s also a private pool with additional views of the golf course and ocean beyond. All in all, it’s a wonderful place for indoor/outdoor living and entertaining—so wonderful, in fact, it was difficult for the contractor to part with the project. “This was a home we definitely didn’t want to part with,” says Ryll.