I am so excited to reveal our laundry room and pantry renovation! Home projects can be an investment, but when it’s an upgrade that will make your home functional and more convenient, it’s so worth it. Over the years, we’ve done a few upgrades to our home, like our kitchen renovation and what we call our “special room.” Storage has been a big thing for us for a long time—there just never seems to be enough! And although the thought of upgrading to a bigger house is intriguing, we love the location we are in and can’t imagine ever leaving. We recently went through a fun upgrade and I’m telling you, it’s a life changer. Here is our pantry and laundry room renovation recap!

Laundry Room Renovation Recap

Our laundry room had hardly any storage, except for a rack and a small closet that we couldn’t figure out how to maximize.

It was cramped, and things just kinda piled up since they didn’t have a place.

And I couldn’t stand the storage and how unorganized it looked. Everything was constantly falling over and it was always hard to find things when we did shove them into a bin.

Our idea was to knock down the closet and second archway leading into the laundry room, and build cabinets all along the wall. We’d stack the washer and dryer for more shelf space. Hampers would be built into the bottom cabinets to save space and provide more standing room. The finishing touch was to have a rod to hang clothes from, which was a must.

And the finished product was better than we could have imagined!

Our laundry room is right off the kitchen and we matched the design with the same cabinets, hardware, countertop and backsplash so it feels really cohesive. Plus I love my backsplash so much. I am always so happy with it when I look at it. It’s called Bedrosians Cloe White tile and I love how the different shades of white a gray add some texture to the wall. So pretty!

The extra space is absolutely incredible. I still have a few drawers and cabinets that are empty. It’s a very exciting feeling when you get to figure out the purpose of a drawer or cabinet.

And my favorite feature, is the pantry shelves inside the cabinets. We finally have an overflow pantry! (Can I get my Costco membership now please?!)

Before & After

Pantry Renovation Recap

Our pantry has been a despised part of our house for a while. It’s small and cramped, dark and so hard to organize.

The folding door blocked the entry way, along with these pillars that seemed to have no purpose except to make the entry way tinier for the sheer inconvenionce of it all.

We had an idea for a DIY project I found on Pinterest. It was a great idea, that inspired how our pantry ended up getting completed. The idea was to remove the folding door, and repurpose it as a full door with hinges, that you can add racks to the back of. Seemed really simple, but our contractor said it sounded like it could get complicated and suggested we purchase a door instead and have them install it. And that sounded like an even better idea. Especially because we had zero tools for this endeavor. The door I found from Lowes was far more beautiful than one we could have created, and it matches the cabinets in our kitchen.

And although this seemed like an easy switch, it was a lot more involved that we thought. We had to remove the walls that blocked the entry, expanding the access to the shelves, replace the flooring, create a door frame, attach the door and handles.

But the amount of space we gained is life changing! We can actually find things in our pantry now. Since it is wider, we can see into it better and it’s so much prettier!

This part of the project was definitely an add on to our larger laundry room project, and caused a few headaches… like when we ran out of flooring and found out it was discontinued, but we made it work and we could not be happier!

It’s so amazing to find new ways to maximize your space when there is not much to work with. We are so happy with the transformation!

Before & After

The post Home Upgrade: Our Laundry Room and Pantry Renovation Recap appeared first on Jane Erica.

We are preparing for the incoming hurricane right now here in Florida, just like the rest of the state which is in a state of an emergency. The wind has been picking up, it’s been very rainy and we have two kids home from school for the next three days.

Today wasn’t so bad and the kids played outside while Brett and I did as much work as we could. We had to make a last minute stop at Lowe’s to pick up some items we needed as it was the only thing opened. Publix and Target were both closed up around 2pm so that employees could prepare and hunker down for the storm that is supposed to hit tonight around 3 AM.

We did make sure to take the kids with us for one last visit to the gym before things close up for a few days. We’re going to have to get creative over the next few days to get out workouts in!

The news has been on in our house all day, which is great to see what’s going on, but it’s also the watching and waiting in anticipation that makes it so unnerving. One of the things we are preparing for is power outages so have the generator and extension cords ready to go. Fans, flashlights and batteries are also stocked! We typically do lose power in the storms like this so we are expecting that to happen and unfortunately it might happen while we’re sleeping this evening. Fun!

I hope everyone is feeling as prepared as they can be and staying safe as this storm gets closer to impact. Hunkerdown everyone and stay safe!

The post Preparing for Hurricane Ian appeared first on Jane Erica.

Affordable Fall Decor

Now that our kitchen reno is complete, our kitchen table was begging for a season centerpiece and I wanted to incorporate something festive for fall that we can use for Thanksgiving as well, since we host at our place. I’m all about affordability, especially for seasonal decor so I was having fun shopping and finding some really nice and affordable items that I liked.

Shop the Looks Below

[show_shopthepost_widget id=”4582638″]

It took a little but of trial and error to get the look that I wanted, but I think it came out really nice!

I am thinking about incorporating some burnt orange accents to the space to bring in that fall feeling.

Affordable Halloween Decor

Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year. I love the tradition of watching Hocus Pocus, visiting haunted houses and picking out our costumes. It is just so much fun! Decorating the house has been added to the list, and every year we add a little bit more. My favorite place to add Halloween decor is our piano in the front entrance. I just love how it’s the first thing you see when you walk in and it’s the perfect place to add a little Halloween shrine. Here are a few items I found that are pretty affordable and would work great on a piano.

Shop the Looks Below

[show_shopthepost_widget id=”4576392″]

Here is a look at our piano entry way this year. I’m loving how it came out!

It felt so fitting for the holiday as black and white, so had to share.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you are inspired to decorate for the season with these affordable fall and halloween decor ideas.

The post Affordable Fall & Halloween Decor appeared first on Jane Erica.

The biggest things for me that needed an upgrade was functionally, with better and smarter cabinets, and the need to bring some more light into the kitchen and house. We don’t get a lot of natural light so bringing in recessed lighting and choosing bright white cabinets made a huge difference.

SN Designs Orlando helped us with our entire project, from design to completion, using such amazing talent and vendors for all the materials. Shannon’s entire team was amazing to work with throughout every step of the process.

I love the addition of the floating wood shelf that Shannon added to the design. It really brings in more neutral tones to the whiteness of the kitchen, and I added more neutral throughout with accessories as well.

Also, some of the improvements included a beautiful, huge single basin sink, which I am in love with, and a fancy touch faucet, which Brett picked out. It’s so cool, especially for the chef that he is and always handling raw meat, because it has touch technology! We love it so much, but I have gone over to friends houses thinking their sink will turn on with a touch, and it’s funny. Ha!

One of my absolute favorite areas of the new kitchen, is the addition of cabinets on a far wall which helped extend the kitchen for more storage and to make it feel bigger.

I love how this all came together! It’s where the backsplash really shines too, and when we added the floating shelf at the last moment, it all really came together.

Another one of my favorite changes was knocking the two tier island down to one big island, and letting that gorgeous counter top stop the show. I love hanging out at the island now, serving the kids breakfast and dong homework while I’m in the kitchen.

The final upgrade we put in was these French doors leading out to the back patio.

We had a horrible broken slider that was so hard for us to open, the kids had a breakdown every time they tried to go outside. I love the clean look of this door and not having ugly blinds anymore. And the window blinds are inside the glass which is so cool, I love that we are able to completely open them for maximum light, and close to have privacy at night.

Brett and I, and the kids, are so happy with our kitchen transformation and if anyone is in the area looking for an amazing partner to start your kitchen journey with, check out Shannon at SN Designs Orlando Instagram for some of her amazing work. She really helped us get our dream kitchen within our budget, which we never, ever thought we could do.

And because everyone loves a good before and after, take a look at the slideshow below to see what a truly amazing job and transformation we had!

Before and After Slideshow

Thank you so much for joining me for my Kitchen Renovation Reveal! Let me know in the comments what your favorite part is, or what your own favorite kitchen renovation detail is! Would love to hear from you!

The post Kitchen Renovation Reveal with Before & After Pics! appeared first on Jane Erica.

I’ve never really been one to spend a lot of money on home decor, and never even knew what I liked or what style of home I wanted. I do know that I always like to find a good deal. And I have definitely learned that when I see something I love and put it in my home, no matter what my style is, it makes me happy when I see it—and that is what I want my entire home to feel like.

Finding Our First Home

Brett and I loved finding our cozy little house in 2012 in the heart of Winter Garden. It was the perfect size for our growing family (at the time I was pregnant with Rylee) and it was in golf cart range to the amazing Downtown Winter Garden. We didn’t have a golf cart at the time, but the dream of getting one some day was exciting!

The house needed a lot of work, but the location was amazing, we couldn’t pass it up. We decided the most important thing at the time was to update the kitchen and bathrooms, which we did right away, updating the configuration of the bathrooms in a way that made more sense for us. And making some small aesthetic changes in the kitchen like painting the unfinished cabinets and adding hardware and a backsplash.

The updates then made a world of difference for our family and we loved it! Fast forward eight years, and we realized that our kitchen was just not functional! We had barely any storage and the cabinets were so small that even the storage we had couldn’t fit everything properly. We had to tilt our plates to get them through the bar in the middle of the cabinets! And the drawers eventually started to fall apart, it was a struggle to get them out. It wasn’t even about looks anymore that we wanted a change, it was starting to make us miserable! We never imagined even considering being able to do the overhaul that we really needed to make it more functional for our family.

Deciding to Renovate in 2020

Then 2020 came about, and the spread of Covid-19, changing the way we lived and the economy in ways we couldn’t have ever predicted. It was a combination of being home more and the refinancing rates that made the ultimate decision for us to start renovating our outdated kitchen.

We looked for companies that could up us within our budget and I am so happy that we found SN Designs Orlando. Working with Shannon and her team was an amazing experience, even from the very first visit, when I told her about our vision and adding an additional section of cabinets on a far wall of what could be a larger kitchen than we had. In her renderings she thought through a design I wouldn’t have ever thought of, but was exactly what I wanted.

Starting the Process

I knew once I met her she would be the one we would go with, and when we finally signed the contract, we hit the ground running, picking out everything we would need for when the reno started. We had to make sure we got everything in time for demo day! Shannon was so great and helped me make decisions throughout the entire process, even down to choosing hardware, light fixtures and the kitchen sink.

The one pretty neat thing about renovating or building a house I suppose is that you get to pick out everything, down to the color and style of a cabinet knob and color of the grout. It is pretty fun, but I was so nervous at times of making the wrong choice. Cause this will be the last renovation we are going to have on this kitchen ever, and I wanted to love every inch of it, so these were big decisions and the options are overwhelming! There are so many design styles to choose from!

Check out Day one of the Demo and stay tuned for the kitchen reveal post coming soon!

The post My Kitchen Renovation Story appeared first on Jane Erica.

During the covid lockdown, Brett and I talked to so many contractors about a Back Patio Makeover and what we could do to make it a more enjoyable living space. We talked about extending the roof, building a pergola, or even extending the pavers and getting some beautiful hardscaping. Everything was a little out of reach budget-wise for us, but we still wanted to make a nice space for us to hang out especially with the cooler weather upon us.

So we decided to start our very first Back Patio Makeover DIY project together.

A Blank Slate

Our Inspiration

After we decided that hiring a company to help us was not an option, I thought to myself that there had to be SOMETHING that we can do to spruce up our back patio on our own.

Enter Pinterest. I found this DIY post on CraftedbytheHunts.com for a beautiful privacy wall with planters and knew it would be perfect for our space.

I showed it to Brett and he agreed we could definitely take this on ourselves. And to the home improvement store we went!

Our DIY Experience

We followed the Hunt’s instructions, pretty much to the T. There were really only a few snags for us. Nothing we couldn’t handle though!

The first was that our wall was 10 feet wide, and their’s was within the standard 8ft range. So when we went to the store to pick out the wood, none of them were longer than 8ft. We could have gone to a lumber yard, but since this was our first DIY we decided to just get what we could right then instead of figuring out where to go to get custom planks. This meant that Brett had to get clever and hinge two pieces of wood together to get to 10ft. So that was interesting.

I also learned a lot about staining wood, which I had never done before. I decided to go with the same stain Zoe recommended in her blog post. It was so beautiful in their pictures and exactly what I wanted, so that made things easy. I didn’t have to by multiple stains and test them.

However, I few of my boards definitely have some imperfections—lots of drooping stain and maybe some blotchy patches. But hey, it adds character right?

I learned that you really don’t need a lot of stain to get that beautiful color—a little goes a long way. I did start putting it on with a stain brush and then wiping it down with an old t-shirt and that is when I found that the wood came out best.

We also didn’t pay enough attention to the grains in the planks that we picked out to make sure that they all went nicely together, especially since we had to piece two planks together in our wall. I still think it came out amazingly though!

And finally, the frame fell down one time when we were trying to place it and knocked a big hole in our screen. Good thing the screen was on our list to be replaced, we’ll just have to do that sooner than we expected!

DIY Painted Planters

I also painted the planters in her DIY post here in the same way as well. That was a super fun project and they came out so nicely! She made her own stencils, but I found an amazing pack of stencils on Amazon that I used for mine.

I love Zoe and Andrew’s projects and Instagram account. There is so much inspiration and I can’t wait to see their projects planned for 2021.

The wall truly makes such a difference in our space. It feels so warm and I love the pop of green from the plants.

Back Patio Makeover Finished Product

From there it was easy to make the space more upgraded and our style. I knew I wanted to keep it black and white with the warm tone of the privacy wall, I thought it would be super cozy.

I even repurposed some old chairs we kept for additional seating by replacing the cushions and adding decorative pillows to give them a refreshed look. (Note they are still a little rusted, but look 1,000 times better)

Everything we purchased for our Back Patio Makeover and pictured above is linked below. I am loving everything so far!

Black Seat Cushions | Natural/White Lumbar Outdoor Pillow (similar) | Fab Habit Miramar Rug | Black Geometric Pillow | Natural/White Woven Pillow | Mebane Iron Side Table | Kerson 4 Piece Outdoor Seating | (Additional Option: Robson 4 Piece Outdoor Seating)

The post Back Patio Makeover appeared first on Jane Erica.

But it is time to go!

Demo Day

It was Demo Day today, and it was marvelous. The team who came did such a great and professional job, and helped us catch an almost water leak, yikes!

Brett and I were working in the office while they took everything away and they got it all done in one day. We were very impressed.

It already looks so much brighter and I am seriously giddy with excitement to see it all come together!

Today we also got our fridge and microwave delivered, and all of our beautiful cabinets and a few light fixtures.

The post Kitchen Renovation – Day 1 appeared first on Jane Erica.

For us, we already had a few home improvement projects planned for 2020, which included some much needed work on the outside of our home, like a new front door, paint, new light fixtures and landscaping. (Pictures to come, we are still awaiting the landscaping to be put in!

Then we spontaneously converted our guest room into a home office so we could survive working and teaching from home. Which literally saved our lives when this all began.

And now, we have taken the leap and made the decision to completely redo our kitchen.

Our First Kitchen Renovation

When we moved in, we had the most basic of cabinets. I think they actually might have been faulty or some kind of mistake because after living with them for almost 8 years, we have realized that our kitchen is just not functional. The cabinets are the smallest possible size and they have this divider in between them making them so difficult to get things in and out.

We did give them a little aesthetic upgrade when we moved in, which made a huge difference, but we are definitely ready for a complete overhaul.

We are keeping the layout the same, but adding some additional storage to an area left of the island near our kitchen table that is going to look beautiful and add so much more storage for us which is a huge problem for us. We are so excited!

But now that we have made the decision to go all in, we have so many design decisions to make! I know that I want to brighten up our house, we have a lack of natural light, but I am so torn on style!

Farmhouse

Photo by Solitude Homes – Browse kitchen photos

Farmhouse is so in right now, and I just love Joanna Gaines’ style so much. I am just not sure if I am 100% farmhouse, or if I am on the border of this and something else. Plus, our biggest problem right now is functionality, and let’s get real, floating shelves are gorgeous, but where do I put the actual dishes we use?

French Country

Photo by Fautt Homes – Browse kitchen photos

French Country was a style that I didn’t even know existed really until I started looking more at kitchens and realized I love a lot of the design features. But again, some of it is a bit much and I’m not 100% there.

Coastal

Photo by Timber Trails Development Company – Search kitchen design ideas

I love the coastal look and feel. It’s so beautiful, with natural materials and blues and teals. I’m definitely feeling this one.

Modern

Photo by Paradigm Construction Company – Search kitchen pictures

And then there is the modern twist on all of them. How do I decide?

I’m definitely still trying to figure out what my Kitchen Style is, but I have come to the realization that I just want to love it. So whatever makes me happy every time I see it is what I will have to go with. Pinterest definitely makes it so hard to find my own style, though!

I’m wondering, is there such thing as a Modern French Coastal Farmhouse Kitchen? That may be what I am going for!

What is your Kitchen style?

Do you have a defined style or are you a mix of some of the above?

Let me know in the comments below, would love to hear your thoughts and could use the insight!

Thanks for reading!

The post Kitchen Renovation Styles appeared first on Jane Erica.

In Need of an Upgrade

That is exactly what happened when it came to a room in my house that I absolutely despised and was forced to stare at. It was the room we called “The Special Room,” which was a mix of playroom, sitting/TV room and music room.

I had been wanting to change this space for a while, but there was something about being stuck in my house that made me take action and finally give it a much needed upgrade.

My DIY Bookcase Wall and Window Seat On a Budget

I hated that my current shelves were too small to hold all the books, board games and toys, which made them stick out awkwardly. I really didn’t like that the shelves didn’t go all the way across the wall and left an annoying space on either side. It looked so unorganized and it made decorating above it nearly impossible without looking completely unbalanced.

I thought to myself, custom built-in book cases all the way to the ceiling, with crown molding and a cute little upholstered window seat would be perfect! But let’s get real, we didn’t have the budget for that.

So I took matters into my own hands. First, the old toys my kids never played with had to go (thank you Facebook Marketplace!). Then, I measured the space and ordered stackable bookcases that are meant to go together, to create my own custom bookcase wall and window seat, thanks to Walmart’s collection of Better Homes & Gardens Cube Organizers.

Results

The concept in my mind that was hidden behind all the unorganization and mess from before was still what I was going for, but I was able to give the space the much needed upgrade it deserved. And I am proud to say that I built this entire wall on my own!

My custom bookcase combination included: One 5-cube | Two 8-cube | Two 4-cube

It was so easy to assemble and only took a couple of hours to complete.

The Hyacinth baskets and white cube bins were also from Walmart.

Tip: Go with Trademark Innovations brand for Hyacinth baskets. I ordered several different ones and these were the best quality in my opinion. It is so weird cause the images online are not what you receive so it is very deceiving, but I loved the look and quality of these the best.

Can you believe all of this was done under $500? That is crazy!

I really love how much storage we have now. These baskets hold SO much stuff. The games and books fit all the way in the cubes which looks so much neater. And switching to white shelves made the space feel so much brighter and more inviting.

Still to Do

Of course, a project is never finished when you own a home, there is always something left to do. Still on the list:

• Get a cushion made for the bench
• Lamps for the shelves below the mirrors
• Fill empty photo frames with family pictures
• Fill empty spaces with more lovely brick-a-brack
• Update pillows depending on bench cushion fabric
• Get a rug to make space more inviting. I am eyeing this one, but it is not safe in my house with my elderly dog. :/

The post DIY Bookcase Wall and Window Seat On a Budget appeared first on Jane Erica.