Kāneʻohe, Oʻahu The Challenge The home came to us as a dated, chopped-up four-bedroom that lived smaller than its footprint — a warren of closed rooms, low sightlines, and finishes long past their moment. The brief was a complete transformation: a whole-home renovation taken to a premium, move-in-ready finish, meant to stand as the reference project for how our studio approaches a flip — not patching what was there, but resolving the floor plan itself. Our Approach We don't r

One of the first questions on a major project is whether to renovate the home you have or build new. Both are big numbers in Kailua. A new-build whole home generally starts around $500,000 and rises with size and finish, while a gut renovation of an existing home can start around $350,000. Cost is only part of the decision. Here is how we think it through. When renovation makes sense If the existing structure is sound, the layout mostly works, and you like where the home sits

Bayview Haven, Kāneʻohe — the walls came down, and now the light goes straight through to the garden. Everyone thinks a great renovation is about finishes. New countertops, a trendy tile, better fixtures — swap them in and call it transformed. We think that is backwards. Across our projects in Kailua, Lanikai, Kaneohe, and Waimanalo, the finishes were rarely the problem. The floorplan was the problem: walls everywhere, low ceilings, no light. You can put the most beautiful ma

The finished Lanikai guest house — three bedrooms, two baths, and a garage designed into 800 square feet. Everyone on the Windward side seems to be asking the same question right now: can we add an ADU or Ohana unit to our lot? The more useful question is how do you design one that actually lives well on a real Kailua or Lanikai lot — the small, sloped, flood-aware, salt-exposed lots that make the Windward side so beautiful and so demanding. We have designed exactly these, in

A bathroom is smaller than a kitchen but rarely cheap, because it packs plumbing, waterproofing, tile, and fixtures into a tight space. In Kailua a bathroom renovation typically starts around $45,000 and climbs from there with size and finish. Here is what drives it. Waterproofing is not where you save In a humid, coastal climate, what is behind the tile matters as much as the tile. Proper waterproofing and ventilation are what keep a beautiful bathroom from becoming a mold p

The kitchen is usually the most expensive room in a renovation, and one big range does not really answer the question. In Kailua we think in tiers. A budget kitchen runs $50,000 to $75,000: everything stays where it is, with budget-friendly finishes. Mid-range starts around $100,000, and it is the sweet spot: a dream-kitchen look with durable materials, keeping the layout or making minor changes, while passing on the Sub-Zero, the real marble, and the handmade cabinetry. Luxu

The hardest part of a renovation is rarely any single trade. It is the coordination. The tile cannot go in until the waterproofing passes, which cannot happen until the plumbing is roughed, which depends on a fixture that is still on a barge. Miss one handoff and the whole schedule slips. Here is how we manage a Kailua project so those handoffs are our problem, not yours. One plan everyone builds from Before any demolition, we design the space and document it in detail: layou

Lake-front home designed from concept to final staging with Lanikai Homes Most Kailua homeowners start a renovation by looking for a contractor. For a simple repair, that is the right move. But for a high-end whole-home, kitchen, or bath project, hiring a contractor first usually means you quietly become the designer, the project manager, and the referee on every decision. Here is the real difference between hiring a contractor and working with a design-led team, and when eac

Sunset view at Portlock in Hawaii Kai off the deck of an ocean-front estate. If there's one part of a Kailua renovation that surprises homeowners, it's permitting. It's slower than people expect, it's where projects quietly lose time, and on the windward side it comes with local wrinkles — shoreline setbacks and coastal rules — that the mainland simply doesn't have. We're Lanikai Homes, a Kailua interior design and renovation firm, and navigating the City and County of Honolu

Designing a home in Kailua with Lanikai Homes

What a home renovation really costs in Kailua in 2026 — by scope, room, and finish level — from a firm that builds here.

Designing a home in Kailua with Lanikai Homes

A Kailua renovation before and after tells you more than any portfolio shot ever can. In this walkthrough, we want to show how we approach a whole-home remodel here on the windward side — what we keep, what we change, and why those decisions hold up once the family is actually living in the house. The project featured here is the "Kailua Modern," at 425b Kawailoa Rd., in Kailua. It features 900 sq ft across 2 stories and has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, and the photos below sh

Hiring an interior designer in Kailua is a different conversation than hiring one on the mainland, and we get asked the same questions enough that it's worth answering them in one place. We're a Kailua-based design-led renovation studio, so we sit on both sides of the table: we design the space and we coordinate the independent licensed contractors who build it. In this post we'll walk through what to expect from working with us, including the process, the typical costs, and

Design-build in Hawaii doesn't always cost less than the traditional design-bid-build route, but the way it saves money is different from what most homeowners expect. We run both kinds of projects, so this is less a sales pitch and more a straight comparison of where design-build actually pays off here on the island, where the traditional path can be the better choice, and what the real trade-offs look like once permits, materials, and labor are all priced in. What Design-Bui