oris Duke’s estate was never truly completed. When her longtime friend Johnny Gomez was asked what year Shangri La had been finished, he laughingly replied, “Never was finished, never. There was no such word as finished.” Shangri La continued to evolve over the years as Duke energetically and creatively designed and redesigned her Honolulu home whenever she acquired new objects for her collection.

Living and Mihrab Rooms

The original appearance of the Living Room was suggested by Moroccan designer Rene Martin, who, in 1937, painted watercolors to show the architectural features he would create for it. Doris Duke largely followed Martin’s design, but as with all work she commissioned, Duke modified aspects to suit her own aesthetic taste.

In the 1940s, she purchased several works of art for the Living Room at the Hearst sales in New York City. Her purchases prompted renovations in the Living Room not long after the original installation. In the space of a few years the look of the Living Room changed several times as Duke experimented with different arrangements of her new collection.

The renovations in the Living Room led to changes in the Mihrab Room as well. Objects, such as a collection of 100 luster star and cross tiles, were moved from the Living Room to the Mihrab Room to complement several luster tiles she purchased in 1940 from the dealer Hagop Kevorkian, including the Veramin mihrab.

Damascus Room

During travels in the Middle East in the early 1950s, Duke purchased an 18th-century Syrian interior. She decided to install the interior in a room that had served as the only guestroom in the main house. The room was completely transformed. Carved, painted, and gilded wood panels now cover the walls and ceiling of the room, which she re-named the “Damascus Room.”

Dining Room

In the 1960s, when Duke was in her 50s, she transformed her Dining Room - which was originally Hawaiian in inspiration - into a space inspired by Islamic traditions. Saltwater aquariums, a glass fishing ball and rope chandelier, and a shell collection were replaced with a tile panel, an Indian-export Baccarat chandelier and Iranian ceramics. Textiles now draped the ceiling and walls creating a tent-like effect. Duke not only transformed rooms, but also objects in the rooms. Four metal Indian bed-legs, for example, were attached to a large piece of wood to form a dining table. When guests ate at this table, they sat very low to the floor on poufs.

Syrian Room

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Doris Duke transformed yet another area of the house to accommodate a second Syrian interior she acquired, which came to be known as the "Turkish and Baby Turkish Rooms." 

Like all the transformations, Duke was intimately involved in designing the new appearance of the space. She had the existing foundation excavated to permit a step down into the room, so that the floor was sunken slightly from the adjacent Central Courtyard. The dirt from the excavation was piled up along the east wall to make a base for the large marble platform that would be used as the main seating area.

Following the structural renovations, marble flooring and a fountain were set down. Most of the floor panels were designed and cut by Duke and the Shangri La house staff. The last elements installed were the wooden wall panels and ceilings. The lavender frames, not originally part of the interior, were retouched and regilded as needed, and Duke herself took an active part in some of this restoration work. Estate employee Jin de Silva remembers how Duke and her artisans would sit around a table in the Central Courtyard, working in an assembly-line manner and consulting one another about their respective tasks.

When the interiors were in place, ceramics, glass, metalwork, and other objects were brought from around Shangri La to the Syrian Room for display in the niches.