This Honolulu kitchen is especially friendly

Sunset, Nov, 1988

The bright and inviting core of this Honolulu house is an airy kitchen around which all social activities seem to orbit. Family and friends can gather in four distinct seating and eating areas that radiate out from the 10- by 16-foot space.

At its open, north-facing end, there's a curving countertop for informal meals or kibitzing with the cook. Offset to the northwest side is a family area with comfortable chairs, a television, and a fireplace. Outside, to the west, lies a generous covered porch for meals and informal entertaining. To the south is a small but dressy dining room. And east of the kitchen, a hall and window wall open on an atrium garden.

Centered beneath the spine of the house, the 16 1/2-foot-tall kitchen has rows of openable clerestory windows running its length. These windows help vent built-up heat and keep a gentle flow of air moving through the house a good idea in Hawaii's humid climate. They also provide bright, diffused light during the day, so even though the kitchen is surrounded by interior rooms and the covered porch, it seems bright and spacious. From it, owners Marjorie and Robert Wilson get daylight and views in three directions: toward the porch, overthe dining room table to the living room and French doors beyond, and to the sunny atrium garden.

White walls, laminate-faced cabinets, light-colored tiled counters, and bleached wood floors all help reflect light throughout the kitchen.

Tall walls rise on three sides, while the fourth has a 36-inch-high counter that divides it from the seating area and a work center built into the back wall. A down-venting cooktop is recessed 4 inches below the gently curved snack counter.

Although the kitchen and most of the surrounding spaces have an informal feeling, formal detailing sets off the small dining area as a distinctive "room" in the otherwise open plan of the living room. Designed to appear like a pavilion within the shell of a larger house, it uses columns and half-columns to establish its corners and support arched openings to the living room, kitchen, and hall.

To the rear and at one side of the 2,500square-foot, one-story house are three bedrooms and two baths. The house was designed by David Knox of Zephyr Architectural Partnership.