How to Create a Home You Love

There’s no shortage of design inspiration to spruce up our homes. Social media is filled with streams of immaculately appointed interiors, trendy makeovers and experts espousing what’s in and out. But spaces need to speak to us, invite us in. The four homes featured here are certainly artful and stylish, but they also exude warmth, coziness and joy—personal sanctuaries that celebrate the unique stories of those who call them home.

Keep Friends and Family Close

Surround Yourself with Your Passions

Let the Story Unfold

Create a Personal Sanctuary

Keep Friends and Family Close

Jordan Higa and Noa Emberson

PAUOA VALLEY

“My family is from this valley—my grandma’s house and generations beyond that live down the street, so it feels like home,” Jordan Higa says of the 1950s Pauoa house she and Noa Emberson acquired in 2021. The couple fell in love with the charming plantation-style home the moment they spotted the living room’s original wood windows that not only spill in light, but frame large swaths of lush mountainside. The light was important as Higa and Emberson are both artists—graphic designer-illustrators who create from home. Their works are sprinkled through the abode, adding island imagery, abstract forms and lively hues to the walls.

The couple used color as a foundation for each room’s design. “Our kitchen is gold and yellows, the bathroom is blue, the living room is greens and yellows,” Higa says. Though originally a bit thrown by the kitchen’s dated brick-red linoleum countertops, the couple came to adore them and leaned into the retro vibe by adding ochre and white checkerboard floor tiles.

Cherishing the past is a theme echoed throughout the dwelling. Each space is filled with items that remind them of friends and family, including travel tokens, thrifted treasures and pieces lovingly passed down through generations. “The kitchen has a world theme,” Emberson says, pointing out its large pull-down map, originally from a Kaimukī elementary school, that was gifted by a friend. Fishing-themed folk art from Nova Scotia, where Emberson’s mom lives, mingles with trinkets his dad brought back from Peru.

In the living room, the pair turned the base of a Noguchi-style coffee table school bus yellow with the help of Higa’s father, a painter and lifelong collector himself. In fact, much of the home’s furniture and décor—including its 1979 Brothers Cazimero concert poster, old-school radio and curio cabinet refinished with crackle paint—are culled from his stash. Beloved pieces by fellow creatives, including Emberson’s mom, round out the mix.

Purposely, nothing is too precious. The aim, they say, is to create a space that’s comforting and storied that juxtaposes whimsy with an artful eye. “I really love that we have a fun mix of art and items done by our friends or from family members,” Higa says. “We love my dad’s old radio, we love the record player and Noa’s dad’s surfboard. Those are all super meaningful pieces that bring in a lot of good energy and memories.”

Let the Story Unfold

Jacqueline Davey and Ian Eichelberger

PACIFIC HEIGHTS

Perched high above the city on the Pacific Heights hillside, the airy, light-filled living room of Jacqueline Davey and Ian Eichelberger’s 1967 home has all the feel of an atrium nestled among the treetops. Back in 2017, the couple viewed the two-story Charles Ty Sutton-designed abode on a whim and found themselves smitten with the room’s soaring 16-foot ceilings, walls of glass and distinctly midcentury lines.

“I was in awe of the space—the light and the trees, being surrounded by foliage and birds,” Davey says. “It felt grand.” The home’s thoughtful design details especially spoke to Eichelberger, a general contractor and woodworker. “The glass goes right up to the corners and the ceiling—those kinds of things you can’t really do anymore,” he says. “Every day, I cannot believe that I actually get to live here,” Davey says. “It’s a pretty magical spot.”

The couple have long been fans of the midcentury modern aesthetic. “We used to be obsessed with estate sales,” Davey says. A creative director, Davey has an eye for special pieces. “I’ve always loved old things that have a past,” she says. The living room’s vintage Cado shelving unit and table lamps were discovered at the estate sale of a former Bishop Museum director. “We’re also obsessed with chair design—it’s a problem,” Eichelberger says with a laugh. “We probably have more than 20.” The room’s tufted wrap-around couch and tulip-style coffee table are flanked by a 1928 LC4 lounger trimmed in spotted pony hair and a turn-of-the-century ladder-back chair inherited from Eichelberger’s grandmother.

The duo also enjoy bringing long-forgotten historic pieces back to life. “Jacqueline got this at a Kāhala garage sale for five bucks,” Eichelberger says of the dining room’s 1949 Hans Wegner wishbone chair, which they had restored. And Davey restrung the patio’s bronze Walter Lamb lounge chair herself.

In the recently remodeled kitchen, which features gorgeous walnut cabinetry built by Eichelberger, the couple punctuated the windows with avocado green pendant lights made by ceramicist Isami Enomoto, who often did work for artist Jean Charlot. And the paper lantern chandelier over the island, they cobbled together from individual lamps collected over the years.

“Everything in our house is very lived-in and has a story,” Davey says. “I love being surrounded by things that I think are aesthetically pleasing. I think that there’s value in being surrounded by beautiful things that you really love and treasure.”