Bali Meets Japan in This Harmonious Hawai‘i Island Home
Get a look inside the stunning Kohala Coast property and its serene, impeccably restored Zen garden.
Photo: Courtesy of Nicole Franzen, Philpotts Interiors
When undertaking a renovation, it’s best to start with good bones—core elements that have held up well over time. In the case of Mauna Kea Muse, a grand 1979 home on the Kohala Coast, recently reimagined by architect Paige Wilburn and interior designer Marion Philpotts-Miller, those bones included a rare find—an enchanting Japanese Zen garden that the team restored to its former glory.
Originally commissioned by a German baron for his mistress, a member of Thai royalty, the home is constructed as a Balinese pod house, featuring pavilions that wrap around and offer views of the garden space. Adorned with hand-painted sakura wallpaper and glowing silk lanterns, the teahouse-like dining room is perched above the garden’s glassy koi pond replete with water lilies.
“When you close the doors, it’s like you’re sitting inside of a jewel box,” Wilburn says. From the onyx-clad kitchen, replete with patinaed copper finishes, one can take in the garden’s woolly mondo grass, rounded natal plum hedges and strawberry guava trees, trimmed bonsai-style. Even the primary bath’s jade-trimmed soaking tub offers glimpses of its flowering mock orange and Hong Kong orchid trees.
Save for the newly designed kitchens and bathrooms, “it was basically a restoration project,” Philpotts-Miller explains. Traverse the enchanting, tree-lined entry bridge and you’re immediately met with one of the Mauna Kea Muse’s most striking original features—its scaled roof. “It’s folded like dragon skin,” Wilburn says. “The way it moves across the roofline is just spectacular.” Decades-worth of brown paint was stripped back to reveal the shingles’ natural beauty, a process repeated for home’s front door and the rows of ‘ōhi‘a posts flanking its breezeways.
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Décor-wise, Philpotts-Miller balanced old and new by juxtaposing the home’s modern elements with exquisite antiquities. Richly textured wall coverings, light fixtures and furnishings play nicely against its clean lines, while bold Asian motifs and works by local artists, such as Yvonne Cheng, further accentuate its cross-cultural aesthetic.
philpotts.net, @philpottsinteriors
