Page 4 - Hawaii Island MidWeek - April 28, 2021

4 HAWAI‘I ISLAND MIDWEEK APRIL 28, 2021
HAWAI‘I ISLAND MIDWEEK COVER STORY
Tune in as do-it-yourselfer Sachi Lord, pictured with husband Mike, brings a positive touch to the interior design world during One Room Challenge, a biannual renovation competition whose new season is just around the corner.
STORY BY NICOLE MONTON
PHOTOS BY LAWRENCE TABUDLO
Words like “adapt” and “pivot” were com- mon in the vernacular of 2020, and while many took these terms to heart and adjust- ed to the proverbial “new normal,” there were others who took a chance at creating brand-new destinies outside of their comfort zones.
home’s interior. Since buying their house about a year ago — also right around the time of the pandemic’s start — she and Mike have been slowly fixing it up and transforming its spaces into much-loved areas, bring- ing life into a home that once had a story of its own.
“We love helping people with their renovation and design projects,” says Sachi
Lord. “One thing that we try to provide our clients with are custom, individualized solutions.”
For one such project, Lord hid a TV in a half-wall, allowing it to be out of sight
when not in use. “Aesthetically, the room is much more
pleasing as the layout of the furniture isn’t defined by the TV,” she explains.
She recently custom-built a desk on
wheels that could be converted to an enter- tainment center when the home office is no longer needed.
“The thing that makes us the most excited is when people are happy with their
home, and they can see themselves creating memories there.”
Such was the case for Sachi Lord, a nurse anesthetist at Kaiser Permanente. While hunkering down in her North Shore abode with husband Mike and young son Luca during 2020’s stay-at-home orders, she launched Sachi Lord Design Co. in the heat of summer.
“Once I started doing these projects around the house, working with power tools and getting cre- ative with different tiles and paints and finishes, I was hooked,” Lord admits. “That sparked the idea that if I can create a space for myself that I love and other people love, I feel like I have the ability to help other people love their spaces as well.
“Everyone in Hawai‘i and the nation were looking to make their homes feel more inviting,” shares the 2007 Hanalani Schools graduate. “We were spending so much of our time here, and looking for ways to turn closets into offices and homework stations, multifunc- tional stations.
“I get excited coming home, and I want other people to have that, too.”
“I realized there’s this side of me that was unful- filled, this creative side,” she adds.
And, in the latter half of 2020, people began to no- tice the inviting spaces Lord was creating, including notable companies like Better Home and Gardens, which selected her as one of 20 featured designers (and the first from Hawai‘i) for the upcoming One Room Challenge.
Lord found herself stuck indoors with no social plans and a lot of time on her hands looking at her
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