{summer of fun} Astoria

To belatedly celebrate our birthdays, Chris and I fled the city and headed to a small coastal town at the very northern tip of Oregon. It's a town that's had a significant impact on both the nation's past and MY past. The spot? Astoria, Oregon. Have you heard of it? Nationally, it's significant because it's where Lewis and Clark wintered when they were here. It's also the first settlement west of the Rocky Mountains. Personally, it's significant because it's where my parents met and where I was born! :)  My parent's moved up to the Portland area when I was really little, but my mom's entire family still lives there, so it's not like it's been 30 years since I visited (I mean 20. Er, yeah, 20 years ;). Growing up I spent quite a bit of time there, especially in the summers.  But these days I usually go for a day, and usually on National Holidays when everything is closed. Honestly, I've always taken the town for granted and never taken the time to explore.

The last couple times I've driven through town I noticed there are a lot cool hotels, restaurants and shops popping up. So Chris and I played tourists for a weekend. We spent a couple days enjoying the great restaurants, relaxing and poking around in the cute little shops. Its was lovely.

The town sits right at the mouth of where the Columbia River meets the Pacific. Historically, it's a town that grew from the fishing industry. My mom even worked in a cannery during her summers growing up. And yes, that meant I had no sympathy when it came to my summer jobs ;).

The town is charming and people are working hard to restore its historic buildings, instead of tearing them down, which I love. It makes for a town full of beautiful architecture surrounded by amazing land and water. Below are a few snapshots of our adventures I thought you'd enjoy.

We stayed in the Commodore Hotel, outside pictured above. Monday I'll share with a little more about the hotel, because it is one of the coolest hotels I've ever stayed in and the decor is AMAZING. 

And with that, I hope you have an FABULOUS weekend! We're having stay-at-home work weekend. Fingers crossed that I'll have some great *after* photos to share with you next week.

{create} fabric solutions + a fun new blog feature

Good morning friends! I have TWO awesome things to share with you today.

The first is that you'll find my post for the day up at The Borrowed Abode. Do you know Jane's blog? It is full of great decorating and organizational tips. And, do you remember when I teased you a with this picture?

Well, if you head over to Jane's blog now you'll see what on earth that actually is! :)

Second on the list of awesome today ... do you notice anything different about my blog? Here's a photo to help:

Look closer, because I now have a customized favicon!

Let's zoom in ...

Isn't it so cool? It's like the jewelry for an outfit ... a little extra bling that is just so much fun. My friend Lauren, from Myers Maison and LrnM Design designed them. And guess what? She can design them for you too! (And, she's not paying me to say this :) I just really like her AND my new favicon! :)She has a really awesome design business and part of that is designing custom favicons. And while you're over there digging around, make sure you check out her shop. I love her *this is only a test* print. So awesome.

So remember, there are two places you need to visit today. 1. The Borrowed Abode. 2. LrnM Design. Have fun, and make sure to report back on all the great things you discover.

**Let's not count how many times I've said awesome in this post. Clearly, I'm not having creative word day. Where's my thesaurus?? :)

{renovate} high gloss doors

Happy Monday, my friends! Did you all have a great weekend? We went on a completely lovely adventure ... more on that later this week. Today, I'm going to follow up my post a couple weeks ago about what color to paint our back doors (you can read the original post here).

When we last left off, I'd brought home the above paint samples to try on the two doors in our screened back porch. Even when I painted samples, though, I couldn't decide. So I opened up the vote to all you! And, you didn't disappoint. When all was said and done, the votes came down to a near tie between black and navy. I was still stuck. Black seemed just a little too harsh, but navy didn't seem quite right either.

It was with that attitude that I found myself at Ace Hardware looking at Benjamin Moore paint. While looking through the paints, I had a brilliant idea to with black, but go one shade down the color chart from the blackest-black so it didn't feel too harsh. I decided this was the perfect compromise for my indecisiveness, and chose Benjamin Moore's Black Ink. I ignored by better sense and didn't get a paint sampler, but instead ordered a quart in high gloss. The room is so rustic that I wanted the doors to really make a bold, glossy, sleek statement. 

When I started painting I discovered two things I was NOT anticipating: Black Ink reads as NAVY, and high gloss paint is REALLY hard to work with.

There's a reason people *sample* paint before committing. It saves you from discoveries such as this! But I surprised myself in that I actually kind of liked it. Chris likes it. My mom (who is awesome at this type of thing) came over and LOVES it. I sat with it for a couple days and I think it'll work well. So for now, we have navy doors! :)

But that wasn't the end of the drama. As I mentioned, high gloss is really hard to paint with. No matter how thin my coats were and how long I waited in between for them to dry, I still had runners (above, GRRRR), and the sheen was just off, see below. I couldn't get it to be a true gloss, it was dull and full of brush marks in a lot of places.

This weekend I set out to fix this problem. I've read about Floetrol, the paint additive, in a number of places and have been wanting to try it for awhile. Basically Floetrol is a paint additive that lengthens the drying time, and decreases paint strokes. You guys, this stuff is magical! First, I sanded the doors down, then I added Floetrol to my quart of black navy paint and painted two additional coats on the doors. It made such a huge difference. The doors are glossy and sleek, and a great contrast to the rustic walls of the room.

I learned a lot from this little experience, and I thought I'd pass my new-found high-gloss paint *wisdom*.

Painting with high gloss paint:

1. Make sure your surface is incredibly clean, your holes are filled and the surface is as flat as can be. Gloss paint will amplify and highlight any marks on the surface.
2. Add Floetrol to your chosen paint. Make sure you read the directions on the back to determine how much you'll need.
3. Use a really awesome brush. Actually, this is a good tip for anytime you're painting. Good brushes make all the difference. We use Purdy.
4. Paint in thin, even coats. Even if you have to paint a lot of coats. These doors took FIVE coats.
5. Lightly sand between coats. This will eliminate any remaining brush stroke lines.
6. Let each coat dry really well before painting the next coat.

These tips would really work for painting any surface, with any type of paint. But they're especially important for high gloss because of its finicky nature.

Want to see the other fun addition to the space?

On our weekend adventure we found lights! They are PERFECT for the porch, and they really make the room come together.

I am so excited for this room to be finished. We have one more major undertaking - the FLOOR! -, which we're hoping to complete this weekend (fingers crossed).

Have you guys ever tried high gloss paint? What were your results? And, more importantly, what do you think of my navy doors? :)