Story by Lara McGlashan | Photography by Travis Rowan
It’s a picture-perfect day in Mākena, with a crisp, Disney-blue sky. The swirl of trade winds whisks away the heat as I drive through the gated entry to an intimate housing complex. I park and walk down a tunnel of tall Hawaiian ginger to the home’s front door; the verdant green leaves wave me in, and heavy red flowers nod hello.
Designer Tim Tattersall and the homeowner greet me in the entryway. Just inside, I see the standout architectural feature of the main floor: a 25-foot-high steel staircase around which the home was created. The gently curling center column reaches toward the domed ceiling like a flame, and wide treads splay outward — a deconstructed daisy.
“The previous owner was a big Star Trek fan,” explains Tattersall. “The staircase was inspired by the series, as well as the three niches in the upstairs atrium — the nooks you’d stand in to be ‘beamed’ to a planet’s surface.”
As we move into the open-plan living area, Tattersall explains the concept behind his design. “I wanted to curate a modern space for an art collector in a home that was otherwise cold,” he says.
And in this he succeeded: large propeller-like fans spin beneath a rich wooden ceiling which caps the entire front room and the patio just outside. In the direct center of the space, a 10-foot table crafted from a single live-edge slab of monkeypod waits for diners.
