Brightening Up the Space

Westerville home gets mid-century and contemporary style renovations

When purchasing her family’s Westerville home in 2017, Erica Pentak says she had already planned to make renovations that would better fit her family’s needs and personal style.

Craig Pentak, Erica’s husband, always dreamed of having a large chef’s kitchen where he could prepare meals for her and their three children. Erica hoped to alter the home to be a unique space that really felt like their own.

“We work hard to save up money to do something and make a house a home,” Erica says.

To make their visions a reality, the family hired Scott Florence’s Florence Construction Company and decorator Emily Rudolph Interiors.

The plan they shared with Florence and Rudolph was to renovate the staircase, kitchen, dining room and living room. In addition, they hoped to replace the flooring on the first floor entirely with hardwood.

Renovations began soon after Thanksgiving 2021. In less than six months the Pentak family had successfully renovated all four areas with a few modifications along the way.

To Erica’s delight, the renovations were done in time for the spring sunshine to flood through the windows.

“We added some larger windows so that light comes into our house. The walls, they’re white, so it just feels a lot brighter and lighter and airy,” she says.

Unfortunately, the budget did not enable the family to replace the entire first floor with hardwood as planned. Instead, they decided to update the downstairs half-bath.

Even though the renovations didn’t go exactly as planned, Erica is grateful they hit only a few speed bumps along the way.

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“You hear a lot about other people’s renovations taking so much longer than anticipated and ours actually did go pretty smoothly. So we’re really lucky,” she says.

The first plan of action was to update the stairs. The carpet was removed and replaced with hardwood and the railings were redone.

Once the stairs were finished they moved on to the kitchen. They started by completely gutting it and knocking down a wall to double the space. They outfitted their new kitchen with quality appliances, white countertops, a larger pantry and lots of cabinets and drawers for storage.

“My favorite part is the kitchen wall where the stove is on. It’s all tiled from the countertop to the ceiling. So I really liked that,” Erica says.

For the living room and dining room areas, the Pentaks repainted the fireplace, added more cabinets and installed a feature wall to accent the space. Erica says there’s now enough storage space to keep the house looking tidy.

“Everything is nicely put away and organized so those are the big things out only,” she says.

Once all the changes were finalized, Erica says they were delighted. They feel proud to call the space their home.

“It is kind of like a surreal moment where you’re like, ‘Oh, this is my house, my kitchen, my life,’” she says.

Maisie Fitzmaurice is an assistant editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at mfitzmaurice@cityscenemediagroup.com.