After finishing college, but before settling down to a 9-to-5 life, Kelsi Vande Velden hit the road with her best friend on an epic road trip. For three months, they traveled the country going to music festivals, national parks and stopping at every dive bar and curious antique store along the way. Towards the end of their trip, they stopped at a hole-in-the-wall antique store in Northern California where Kelsi found an antique compass sundial pocket watch. She couldn’t walk out of the store without it. When she returned home, she added leather straps, a buckle off an old purse and wore it as a watch. She got compliments everywhere she went and she even tried to recreate the watch, but every other antique compass sundial that she tried drilling into broke. She decided that the watch would be a one-off for her and continued in her interior design career.
Fast-forward three years, and Kelsi meets her now-boyfriend Garrett outside a concert. They start a long-distance relationship – he lived in Chicago and Kelsi lived in Green Bay, Wisconsin. After nine months, they realized that the 3.5-hour drive wasn’t going to work longterm. They decided to move to Maui – a place neither of them had ever been. They quit their jobs, sold everything they owned and moved with two backpacks to Maui. First, they lived in a hostel until they found a little shack. It was pretty much a glorified camping spot with an outdoor shower, an outhouse, a hot plate and two backpacks of stuff. They couple stayed in the shack for two and a half years and Kelsi decided to give her compass sundial watch idea another try. She worked on creating Pandeia for a year and a half from her jungle studio (with no cell reception and poor internet service) before launching the company. Now the watch is sold all over the world and is her full-time job, and the couple moved above their little shack on a cliff overlooking the ocean. The rental apartment has two covered patios where the couple spends most of their time. Their nightly routine involves lounging in their hammocks, drinks in hand, watching the sun set over the ocean. Kelsi says that it never really seems to get old. -Amy
Image above: “This is the lower outdoor patio that divides our secluded backyard from the French doors leading into our bedroom,” Kelsi says. “I love this area because it’s like a living room outside. It’s a great place for people to gather when we have parties. From this area, you are sheltered from the rain, but can still see the stars.”
Image above: “This is a shot of the area I spend the most time in, the upper patio. This is where I tend to work. The table is an antique. It is nothing short of amazing with its leather top and nailhead trim around the edges. I added two slipcovered chairs (so they are easy to clean) and two antiqued brass task lamps for late night sessions. The shell chandelier offers a seaside Maui vibe that keeps me inspired while I am hard at work making Pandeia sundial watches.”
See more of this Maui home after the jump!
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via Design*Sponge http://ift.tt/1tWwNqy From Amy Azzarito
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