Kathy Reimers was rushing through Hilo International Airport when she did a double take. Something was different.

"It looked a lot more like a living room than an airport. It had the feeling of an old kama'aina home," said Reimers, executive director of Hawai'i Services for the Deaf.

Unlike just about all other airports in America with their ubiquitous uncomfortably hard plastic, black sling chairs set on aluminum tubes, Hilo might be the one place in the country where it's actually pleasant to wait for a delayed flight.

Credit a Department of Transportation engineer who dared to be different.

"It was a big risk," said Gene Matsushige, a DOT project manager who convinced his bosses that installing 1940s-style Hawaiian furniture would be both popular and economical, too. "We didn't know how it would work out."

Matsushige needn't have worried. The project is proving popular with residents and tourists alike and ended up saving the department tens of thousands of dollars.

The furniture, one of the last parts of an $11 million improvement program at the airport in the past two years, was built of solid acacia wood and cushions covered in floral print patterns by Honolulu's Hawaiian Furniture and Lamp Co. Total cost: $137,000 for 36 sofas, 72 lounge chairs, 36 coffee tables and 72 end tables.

Normally, each row of three industrial-looking chairs found in Any Airport USA costs about $6,000, said Matsushige, who works on airport projects across the state for DOT. In Hilo, the price of each sitting area — a sofa, two chairs, two end tables and a coffee table — worked out to about $3,000, he said.

But it's the old-fashioned look and feel of the furniture and settings in small, family-type groups that's getting everyone's attention, Matsushige said.

"It's the type of furniture that everyone still has in their home in Hilo. Or at least in their mother's house," Matsushige said. "We wanted to do something that gave visitors a little sense of Hilo to take home."

Even more, the project was designed for Hilo residents, said Chauncey Wong Yuen, DOT's Hawai'i airports district manager.

"It's a little bit of a retro gift that recalls a proud time in their history, and they really appreciate it," said Wong Yuen, who grew up in Hilo. "Generally, this is something that goes in the upstairs government offices or at the state Capitol, but this time it's the public that's getting the benefit of something special."

Reimers, who travels to Hilo about once a month on business, said that even before the furniture showed up she started noticing improvements at the airport, which hadn't had any major renovations since it opened in 1974.

"At first it was just little things like fresh flowers in the lobby. Then, with the furniture, it started to look a little more like what you think Hilo should look like," she said. "It's local style."

That's just the feeling officials were aiming for, Wong Yuen said.

"We wanted to re-create a time in Hilo in the 1950s or early 1960s when families would still sit around the living room and talk to another. It's gratifying now to see them doing that as they wait to start their trip," he said.

Matsushige said the changes were possible in Hilo because the lower-level lobby isn't heavily used as a waiting area; instead, many departing passengers proceed immediately to the upstairs gates. That means the wear and tear on the new wooden flooring, carpeting and furnishings will not be too tough.

Just to be sure, though, airline and security officials have taken a protective attitude toward the new furnishings.

"They'll come up and ask someone to take their feet off the tables, if need be," Matsushige said.

While local-style furnishings might not take the nation's airports by storm, there is a possibility that they could be used in other Neighbor Island airports, he said.

"Now that we know it works, we can go try it in other places," he said. "I don't see any reason why our airports can't be nice and comfortable."

Reach Mike Leidemann at mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.