Before & After: Long Lake mom transforms "babyish" room into "big boy" room

When baby Ben joined the Stahl family of Long Lake last year, brothers Owen and Charlie, then 4 and 2, had to double up to make room for their new sibling.

"We were getting ready, finishing off the nursery for the baby, so we moved the other two together," said mom Katie. "We tried to get them excited about it."

So she offered them a room makeover of their own, with a grown-up design befitting their status as older brothers. "We sold it to them as a 'big boy room,' " she said.

The challenge: Turn a pastel blue-and-white bedroom into an inviting shared space for two preschool brothers.

The designer: Homeowner and mom Katie Stahl. "My background is engineering, but I've always liked design," she said. (She blogs about home decor and DIY crafts at www.viewfromthefridge.com.)

The back story: A baby was on the way, which meant the Stahls' two older sons, Owen and Charlie, then ages 4 and 2, were going to have to share a bedroom. To sweeten the deal, Katie offered a room makeover, and gave both boys input into the design. "We got some interesting theme ideas — like a firehouse room or a train-station room," she recalled. In the end, they settled on a "big boy" room in the brothers' favorite colors, orange and blue.

The starting point: The Stahls live in an 1860 farmhouse, with multiple additions, in Long Lake. The original bedroom was "fine, nothing exciting," Katie recalled, with plaster walls painted "dingy-looking white," old carpet and animal-printed window treatments in pastel blue. "It was babyish. It needed something," she said.

Whitewashed floor: Under the old carpet, the Stahls found original hardwood floors. "They were in fairly good shape," Katie said, but they'd been stained dark and had several layers of paint splatters. "We couldn't get it all out with sanding," she said. So she and her husband decided to whitewash the floors, using watered-down white paint. "You need two people to do it; it moves so fast," she said.

While the boys were at their grandmother's house, the Stahls rollered the thin wash over the floor, then used rags to quickly wipe off the excess. "You start with the paint, then sand and buff," she said. "It could have gone terribly wrong, but we love it. It gives us the brightness we wanted for that room."

Bookish nook: Over Owen's bed, the Stahls installed a book rail. "All the books are on display right above the bed," Katie said. They serve a decorative purpose — "some of the book covers are super cute" — as well as an educational one. "We always read before bed, and I wanted to make them accessible, a visible part of the design," she said, to encourage the boys to read on their own.

Out of sight: Katie chose furniture with built-in storage, including a bed with drawers beneath it, to give the boys plenty of places to stash their stuff and keep their room neat. "They have places they can organize. It was fun to see what they did with that," she said.

Finishing touches: The new room includes several display shelves, and the boys were invited to choose which toys or other objects they wanted to showcase there. For artwork, Katie scouted prints on Etsy, then gave Owen half a dozen options. "He picked a print of an old Jeep with a canoe on top and a dog sticking his head out the window," she said. Orange, Owen's favorite hue, appears on accent pieces, including a lamp, picture frames and clothing hooks that mimic puppy-dog tails. Owen also picked out his own bedsheets, a navy-and-white polka-dot pattern from Ikea.

Kim Palmer • 612-673-4784

Owen Stahl in big boys' room