An old home on the lake had always been Anna Otto Shroyer’s dream. When she and her husband first walked through the longest standing abode on White Bear Lake, they understood it would require significant work — and felt equally certain that it deserved love. Wanting to honor the home’s legacy, they wrote a letter to the seller explaining their intentions to renovate. What followed was unexpected: a genuine friendship with the previous owner, who remains invested not only in the house’s future but in the family now entrusted with it.
Photography by Rob Grosse / Spacecrafting | Styling by JoNae Villeneuve
That sense of stewardship made Blue Pencil Collective a natural fit. The architecture and interior design studio is known for work that begins with people, not plans. “All our projects start with a story about the clients,” share cofounders and Design Principals Kasey Johnson and Regan Nix. “Ideas unfold naturally when you give someone the opportunity to tell a story versus putting them under the pressure of answering ‘What’s your style?’” says Johnson. Their first storytelling meeting with the Shroyers revealed a shared curiosity to pull away from trends and instead focus on timelessness in the reimagined 6,500-square-foot home.
What ultimately distinguishes the project is how naturally it absorbs life. With five children in the family, the home needed to be warm and durable. Spaces are meant to be lived in, furniture to be sat upon and countertops to be made messy. The house supports that ease through its architecture, layout and materiality.
Collectively, everyone on the project agreed that a Colonial Revivalist approach would offer both the structure and flexibility required for a renovation of this scale. It allowed the team to respect the home’s bones while layering in nuance: traditional forms paired with art deco notes, European references softened by warmth and ornate details grounded in livability. Although the BPC team took the home down to the studs and made way for additions, they preserved the sequence of rooms, each clearly defined yet connected by an overarching story.
That intention is most evident in the relationship between the parlor and the lake room. The parlor serves as a more formal living space — elegant, expressive and ideal for welcoming guests — while the lake room is its counterbalance. Oriented toward sweeping views of the lake, the room is deeply cozy, anchored by a restored wood-burning fireplace and a large sofa. Together, the two spaces allow hosting to unfold naturally, offering guests additional places to settle — even though in true Midwest fashion, Shroyer happily admits that the kitchen is still a natural landing pad. The BPC team transformed the kitchen with an addition that wraps light and landscape around nearly every angle. Original floors in the kitchen and dining room were preserved, grounding the renovation in material continuity and reinforcing the home’s sense of age and place.
The flow of the main level reflects how the Shroyers entertain. Guests arrive through a newly defined front entry (originally the back of the house), now marked by a scalloped archway and a generous porch that makes the approach feel ceremonial rather than anticlimactic. From there, movement through the home follows a rhythm: moments of arrival, pause and transition. Each room has its own personality, yet none feel disconnected. “The energy subtly shifts as you move throughout the house,” says Nix.
In this abode, history is treated as something to be carried forward, not curated at a distance. Furniture mixes old with new: long-owned pieces, sourced and refinished finds (personally handled by the BPC team), architectural antiques, and modern comforts quietly coexist. Custom millwork and cabinetry were drawn in detail, while all craftsmanship by Robey Construction was a testament to the time required to restore a home whose underlying conditions revealed structural surprises at every turn.
Personal history is also woven into the design in intimate ways. For instance, a stairway gallery of photographs creates a daily reminder that family is always at the forefront. The library, opened up by removing a wall, now receives more light and offers easier flow, centered around a game table that has become a favorite gathering spot. And each child’s room cleverly reflects their own budding personalities.
The previous owner saved artifacts from the house’s early years — the deed from 1889, correspondence from the original owners, 20th century photographs — and kindly shared them with the BPC team. The works were framed and shared as a gift that now hangs in the dining room, a gesture that reflects how deeply the project honored the home’s lineage.
Even the exterior carries a quiet nod to the house’s narrative. The paint color chosen for the façade — a romantic blush-beige by Benjamin Moore aptly named Love Story — lands softly, a quiet echo of the story already unfolding inside: subtle, personal and fitting for a home where history and hospitality continue to unfold. “It makes our hearts happy to know it’s the Shroyers who are living there,” shares Nix. “We’re truly honored they chose us for this project.”
Project Partners
Interior design: Blue Pencil Collective
Architecture: Blue Pencil Collective
Build: Robey Construction
