Seven years ago, Jennifer Janeway built a home in Cranberry with her husband. It was supposed to be a nightmare.

Instead, it turned into a dream career. 

“Everyone warned us, ‘Oh, it’s so terrible’ and ‘There are so many decisions’ and ‘You’re not going to love it,’” Janeway recalls.

To her own surprise, Janeway became enamored with the design process entirely. 

“I would go to the selections meetings being super excited to pick out my tile, and pick out my living fixtures,” she recalls. “That’s when it started to simmer in the back of my head, maybe there’s a thing here, maybe I could do this for a living.”

Inspired by her experience, Janeway launched her own interior design firm, Jennifer Janeway Design, as a way to test the waters of a new career. After six months, Janeway had enough clientele to quit her job in IT and dedicate her full-time efforts to interior design.

Now, Janeway is gearing up for her next step — opening Jennifer Janeway Home in Sewickley. 

Equipped with a studio, kitchen and retail space, Janeway says the storefront on Division Street recognizes her personal dream of owning a boutique, while enhancing the execution of the design firm’s service-oriented philosophy. 

“When we work with clients, we are very good at talking to them [to elicit] what they like, or, at least [find] a starting point, and then offering them products that fit their aesthetic and are going to work within their home or space,” she says.

Set to open Aug. 2, the boutique will offer a variety of products that include tablecloths, napkin rings and candlesticks, as well as both custom and vintage pieces. Customers also will have the opportunity to touch, feel, explore and customize their home. 

“This is another way for [clients] to be able to experience and bring home things for their home from the eye of an interior designer,” says Janeway.

Janeway is hoping having products in the shop will be a way to help clients overcome the fear of introducing color into their homes. While the new Jennifer Janeway Home boutique will embody the design firm’s own British-inspired aesthetic — leaning into more traditional, classic shapes and finishes with floral accents — designers will be on hand to help clients curate a home entirely catered to their tastes.

“[Color] is not something to fear. We will be there to help them make selections, so that they can inject their own personality into their homes,” she says. 

The boutique’s custom pieces may also prove attractive for those searching for one-of-a-kind style. 

“With those custom furnishings, you can specify the frame or the style,” Janeway says. “Let’s just take a sofa for example, [you can] customize what you want that arm to look like, the arm style, what you want the leg style to be, all firm or soft, what you want those cushions to be and what upholstery you would like to have on your sofa.”

For more information about Jennifer Janeway Home, visit here.