HANALEI — Bouchons Hanalei Restaurant and Sushi Bar in the Ching Young Village has new a facelift from Avant Palette, a custom wall finish, mural and painting company.
Avant Palette owner Margarette Johannes said the job was an ongoing collaboration using innovation and imagination to give an old place a new look.
“What started with an accent wall behind the sushi bar turned into a faux finishing project of the restaurant,” Johannes said. “It is a contemporary finish with a fresh, glistening look.”
Edward Sclafani, owner of Bouchons Hanalei, said it was important to preserve murals and elements of the previous restaurants, Zelo’s Beach House and Sushi Blues. He brought in Johannes to create a finish that brings out the Bouchons Hanalei personality.
The bright atmosphere matched an avant-garde sushi and Pacific American menu, he said. It also reflects the atmosphere of the North Shore location, he added.
“Instead of the artwork on the walls, the walls themselves are artwork,” Sclafani said.
Sclafani was looking to wallpaper the sushi wall with a Japanese forest but couldn’t find something he liked. He was referred to Johannes as someone who could create a look from scratch.
The two decided on a “mystic” green color and Johannes added her own touch with hand-made embossed decorative plaster leaves. The result is most apparent in the evening under the lights.
“This works well with a very open restaurant in a Hanalei setting,” said Sclafani. “It shows how colors can affect mood.”
From there it was incremental steps to side walls and doors around the sushi bar, he said.
Then he asked Johannes to do a little work on edges and beams that were black and brown.
“That color selection was perfect for the entire restaurant and not just the accent wall,” Johannes said.
A unique company
Avant Palette provides a range of treatments, faux finishes, murals, Venetian plasters and specialized textures. The enterprising Johannes started the business as a teenager more than 15 years ago and now operates worldwide out of three base locations in Kalaheo, San Diego and Vail, Colo.
“I share a desire with the owners to enhance their surroundings with artistic beauty,” she said.
Other Kaua‘i projects include many of the large hotels, and residential work for Catherine Steinmann, Simon Potts, Roberta Haas and Elizabeth Freeman.
She once refinished a Frank Lloyd Wright designed-residence on O‘ahu. Her Mainland work includes the homes of celebrities and professional athletes as well as well-known public buildings.
Raised in Bergen, Norway, Johannes mentored with master artists in Europe and apprenticed under other artists in college. She has a masters degree in fine arts from the University of California, San Diego.
She said growing up in Europe gave her an opportunity to see firsthand how finishes were used in residential and commercial spaces over the ages. Her innovations with designers of the present offer contemporary finishes based on age-old techniques.
“I could see in the castles and different chalets and palaces how they are using decorative finishes and that inspires me and my company now,” she said.
The faux finishes bring out a look of marble, grain or a textured look of with decorative plasters.
She also does concrete stains, gilded walls and copper patinas.
“We can do anything that is a decorative finish,” she said. “It can be on the walls, ceilings and floors.”
There are similarities of technique and material, but practicing multiple talents and techniques brings innovation to each job, she said. This is helpful when bidding on the range of residential, commercial and government work.
“I always like to produce a one-of-a-kind piece, effect or finish,” she said.
Murals are another specialty of her company, and they can range from realistic and impressionistic to stylized — or a collaboration of all three, Johannes said. She works with five muralists who possess their own styles.
Five years ago, Johannes earned for her business a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, Accredited Professional (LEED AP) rating. The national certification covers use of green materials and local labor.
“In doing so, you are reducing the footprint for travel and the energy it takes on that level,” she said. “That is being LEED conscious.”
LEED friendly materials include natural plasters with content and diatomaceous earth, which allows the walls to filter the breathable air, she said.
Business skills
Johannes said she wanted to work in art since she was 5 years old. Her passion was tempered with additional schooling and family experience in finance, business and marketing.
“As a teenager I saw that faux finishes were a little bit more commercial, but that it would be more lucrative than canvas art,” she said.
Looking back, Johannes said she is fortunate for that, adding that she believes universities should require business, marketing and sales classes or internships. Too many students are lost once they get their degree, she said.
“I really think it should be a prerequisite for anybody before they graduate,” said Johannes. “I could have just studied art, but I wouldn’t know how to market myself.”
Other skills are behavioral, she said. This includes working and collaborating with others, negotiating, brainstorming and presenting a project from beginning to end with the client, she added.
“Working with a client and selling them on a project requires you to present a concept, where it’s coming from, and why it works with what the client is trying to accomplish,” she said.
There are growing pains and every project is different, she said. For the client, the project is very personal, and you must work through barriers to understanding one another and how to move the idea forward.
A clear contract is the next step. It must clearly define the work and the budget process, she said.
If the customer doesn’t agree with something along the way, the contract will spell it out. If the job was done accordingly, then the client is ordering extra work. If it was not, then the work is changed accordingly, she said.
“There have been a couple of bumps along the way but the contract is what keeps is running smooth from beginning to end and preserves the friendships,” she said. “I don’t leave a job until the customer is satisfied.”
Johannes’ business is certified as a woman- or minority-owned business. A federal registry assists this disadvantaged sector, but her record of projects completed on time and within budget is also noted.
An entrepreneur needs to stay motivated and constantly excited about their company, she said. To avoid burnout, she recommends finding a balance between business and pleasure.
“You need to put 40 hours a week in somehow,” she said. “If you’re not out on a job, then what are you doing to forward your company and keep that pipeline flowing? That is huge.”
Business is cyclical, meaning it is slow or busy during certain times of year, she said.
That requires balancing the budget and finances for the entire year, taking into account certifications, licensing, insurance, bonding and the overhead of various clients.
The commercial certifications brought a lot of work during the recent downturn. She also praises SCORE “Mentors to America’s Small Business” for providing low-cost classes and counseling from retired, successful businesspeople.
“I am always thinking about how to keep that pipeline flowing no matter what,” she said.
She maintains a weekly and monthly to-do list that reminds her to review contract bids, work on the website (avant-palette.com), and network with contractors, designers and homeowners.
“You need to go about that like a religion and that is tough as an entrepreneur,” she said. “You really have to kick yourself to keep it going.”
