Photography by Daniel Baralt

"Maui is more than just a place we live --it's living Aloha."

So says James Doran III and the Doran family, along with their team of talented designers at Exclusively Yours, The Maui Home Design Center. The company and its sister retail firm, Ceramic Tile Plus, provide design services from consultation to installation--and they also supply an impressive range of materials and finishes--to homeowners, interior designers, and builders across the Hawaiian Islands. Prestigious clients and partners include Stanford Carr Development and Shari Saiki Designs.

But what makes Exclusively Yours so...exclusive? The answer can be summed up in a single word: pampering. Every homeowner who walks in the door enjoys the same lavish personal attention.

Imagine this: a single design consultant is assigned to each client. In a series of one-on-one conferences, the consultant takes the client through each step of the design process from initial brainstorming to fruition. In between, the designer works closely with the client, creating a file of all the products that he or she is interested in, specifying the model or finish, and ordering the item as well as overseeing installation.

The ultimate goal, of course, is to create environments that distinctively express each client's taste and lifestyle, and to ensure that the client's vision is nurtured from conception to completion. But the short-term goal is sheer "feel-good-ism," and why not? Exclusively Yours goes out of its way to smother the client in personal attention, holding the client's hand if need be, in order to make the design process itself a fun, rewarding--even nurturing--experience.

In addition to being personal, the Exclusively Yours team is also highly knowledgeable. Or as James Doran III modestly understates it: "We have a talented group." The consultants team boasts more than 30 years' combined design experience. Design personnel are well-grounded in their disciplines, having received training from such prestigious sources as the National Kitchen and Bath Association and American Society of Interior Designers.

In fact, the breadth of background that EY project designers bring to the table can be surprising. How many designers can say "I recently built my own island home from the ground up"? Jennifer K. Mondello-Phillips, AKBD, can. She's an EY associated designer, born and raised on Maui, who grew up working with her father in the construction industry. Her work with EY includes project development, large custom homes, studio apartments, and outdoor kitchens. She's also a member of the NKBA.

Or take Simona Conley, who has family on Maui. Starting as an intern, she originally came to Exclusively Yours from the mainland. But she remained on the island and became a project designer with the company. "The quality of the staff and products that Exclusively Yours offers made my decision easy," she smiles.

Current major projects on EY's drawing board include the Hokulani Golf Villas, a 152 home project at Elleair Maui Golf Club in Kihei. Another high-profile project is the 38 home Kanani Wailea development. Beyond Maui, the company often specifies finishes for developments on the neighbor islands as well. Currently underway are the Kehalani subdivisions in Wailuku on Maui and The Fairway Golf Villas on the Big Island.

Exclusively Yours opened on Maui in 2004, and another EY facility is slated to roll out on O'ahu next year. But the Doran family are hardly Johnny-come-lately's to Island style. Their first Hawaiian business venture, the ceramic tile store, opened on Maui some 30 years ago. Before that, the family business traces its legacy back to Massachusetts in the 1920s. Today, James Doran III and sister Ellie are proud to continue in the footsteps of previous generations, and to uphold the family tradition of quality, ultra-personal service, and community support.

Business savvy also appears to be part of the Doran family heritage. Building a design center on the foundation of a huge materials retailer, certainly offers strong strategic advantages. At any given time, Ceramic Tile Plus stocks approximately 1.3 million square feet of stone and tile, including 1,900 slabs of granite available in more than 90 colors. CTP is the largest fabricator and installer on Maui, installing as many as five kitchen projects every day. Drawing from this vast stock, Exclusively Yours specifies finishes such as granite, tile, stone and wood for small and large projects alike. The hot trend on the islands is stone, stone and more stone, EY designers report. Natural looking products such as granite, travertine, porcelain tile flooring and glass tiling are in demand for single condo units and large developments alike.

As if CTP's endless inventory were not sufficient unto itself, the Exclusively Yours team is always searching for exquisite new products unavailable anywhere else. EY imports from Bali, China, Italy, Spain, and other trendy sources around the globe. "With so many more product options available today, whether you are talking about cabinetry, tile, stone, glass or any other finishes, the researching of these new, high quality products has to be a daily occurrence by our staff at Exclusively Yours," says Doran.

Behind the scenes, the company's eight decades of experience in shipping, warehousing, installation, and customer service ensure that EY's wonderful designs and materials receive the timely, efficient (and cost-competitive) logistical support they deserve. After all, as Doran points out: "If we run out of a tile, we can't drive across the state line to get it."

EY's cutting-edge logistics support is matched by its state-of-the-art design technology. Exclusively Yours cabinet designers use CAD Custom Design software or 20-20 Cabinet Design software to draw cabinetry layouts so that clients may see their vision on the computer and on paper. EY stone fabricators utilize CNC machines and hi-tech polishing technology to create the highly-polished or natural finishes of the stone countertops, just one more way the EY endeavors to bring its clients the very latest and the very best.

When a company prides itself on rolling out the red carpet for anyone and everyone, perhaps it is not literally "exclusive" in the formal, dictionary sense of that term. "Inclusively Yours"--with exclusively personal service--might be more like it. Either way, the Doran family likes to say that Exclusively Yours offers "Everything you need...more than you imagine."

A cheeky slogan? Not at all. In this case, just a simple statement of fact.