AI, Apple Vision Pro, and the Category Redesign of Coatings

Meet Becca Berger, a Silicon Valley-based CleanTech coatings inventor, who is using AI, VR, Apple Vision Pro, and solar power to disrupt paint and wood stains!☀️ 

Most disruptors solve a problem, should we start with the problem?

Wood stain has been a professional's product for a hundred years. The DIY shelf carries the same chemistry the pros use, with the same failure modes, wipe-on, wipe-off technique, layered color tones, multi-day cure, and a smell that drives everyone out of the room.

For a DIYer attempting a high-stakes aesthetic project, that's a bad bet. One wrong move means uneven color, a ruined surface, and hours of sanding to start over. So most homeowners look at their oak end table, picture the driftwood finish they actually want, and either pay a finisher $800 or give up.

The category has optimized for professional control, not consumer confidence. There is no third option. WeatherWash exists to create one.

So what's your solution?

"I built a stain that lets a DIYer get a finish they couldn't get before," she says. "The chemistry reacts with the wood instead of sitting on top of it, so the color develops from the inside. One coat. No layering. The stain stops itself when it gets where you want it to be, that's the part nobody's done before. So the homeowner who pictured driftwood actually gets driftwood, on a Saturday, on the first try."

WeatherWash is currently on shelves at Walmart, with additional distribution through major e-commerce platforms including HomeDepot.com, Lowes.com, and Amazon. That combination gives us early in-aisle validation alongside national digital reach as we expand retail footprint.

She slides a pair of Apple Vision Pro goggles over her green eyes. "But that's just the stain. The bigger problem is that the whole category runs on petroleum. The stain in your hardware store this morning came out of a 19th-century industrial process that's responsible for fifteen billion tons of carbon a year. I want the coatings world off oil." She hands me a pair. "Here. Welcome to the future." 🦄

You're ambitious! What is your endgame vision?

"A category takeover, but the takeover happens by converting Minwax buyers, not by replacing Minwax overnight. The mechanism is the consumer wedge inside a structural softness. SHW's most recent 10-K shows the Consumer Brands Group, the segment that houses Minwax, Cabot, and the rest of the legacy wood-care portfolio, grew 1.9% in 2025, but the entire gain came from a Latin American acquisition. Strip the acquisition out and organic sales were flat-to-down. Across the company, volume is shrinking and price is doing the work.

Meanwhile, DIY participation grew to 56% of consumers in 2024, up from 50% the year before. The DIYer is showing up to the shelf more often. The legacy brands aren't capturing the growth.

That's the gap I'm walking into. My buyer is the LOHAS (Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability) DIYer who picks up a can of Minwax, smells it, reads the label, puts it back, and pulls out their phone. They're already converting away from the incumbent, Minwax just hasn't given them somewhere to go. WeatherWash is somewhere to go. One coat instead of three. No respirator. The driftwood look they love on the first try.

The takeover isn't an overnight replacement. It's a slow conversion at the shelf, one quart at a time, by being the brand the LOHAS DIYer reaches for after they put Minwax back. Every buyer I convert is a buyer Minwax doesn't get back, because once a DIYer gets the finish they wanted on a Saturday, they don't go back to wipe-on-wipe-off chemistry. The crossover isn't price-driven. It's experience-driven. We're almost at price parity, at $19.97 on the shelf, making the conversion frictionless."

How will you market those products?

"Right now the engine is Instagram. I have over 31K followers, more than Minwax. More than Varathane. More than the two industry leaders combined have been able to build with the marketing budgets of a Sherwin-Williams and an RPM behind them. That's not a vanity number. That's organic LOHAS acquisition with minimal spend, which is a capability the incumbents don't have and can't buy at any price.

The loop is straightforward. A DIYer picks up a quart, finishes a project they're proud of, posts it. Other DIYers see it, recognize the finish, and want it. They buy a quart, finish a project, post it. The flywheel runs on three things, finish quality the DIYer wants to be photographed with, a founder who replies in the comments, and a community that sees itself in the work. Every project posted is a customer acquisition cost of zero and a piece of evidence that the chemistry delivers.

The interesting question for the category isn't whether I can scale the loop. It's whether anyone can replicate it after the fact. A flywheel that runs on authenticity is hard to reverse-engineer once it's spinning."

What is the difference between clean tech coatings and regular coatings?

"Clean tech coatings are manufactured with renewable resources and energy sources. The products are designed to enhance energy efficiency, reduce maintenance needs, enable self-cleaning, offer UV protection, cut toxic chemicals, lower emissions, and environmental degradation. WeatherWash is my flagship clean-tech coating; the broader product line operates under CleanTech Coatings."

Do they perform as well as products on the shelf?

"Better, and I can prove it with documents. Every competitor on the shelf right now carries either a California Prop 65 cancer warning, a skin sensitizer classification, or VOC levels up to 50 times higher than WeatherWash. PPG independently validated our sub-13 minute dry time, Varathane's own label says one hour. BEHR's version contains a biocide that requires international export notification as a restricted substance. Minwax Charred carries a carcinogenicity warning. WeatherWash uses low-toxicity, waterborne ingredients designed for consumer-safe application and low VOC exposure.

The honest answer on price is yes, we're about 69 cents above Varathane per quart at retail today. That's the CleanTech premium at current volume. My goal is to eliminate that gap entirely through continuous flow manufacturing at scale, same chemistry, same zero-VOC formula, same sub-13 minute dry time, but at a cost structure that makes us the lowest price on the shelf. The incumbents spent their R&D budget making a toxic copy. We spent ours getting the chemistry right the first time."

How will you teach the masses?

"This is why I'm developing a quality of life app that uses virtual reality and AI to scan colors in the home and make matching recommendations. Think about how Tesla sold you a Cybertruck. You didn't walk into a dealership. You opened an app, picked the configuration, saw it rendered in your driveway, put down a deposit, and waited for the truck to show up. Tesla didn't make the truck simpler. It made the decision simpler, by giving the buyer everything the dealership used to provide at the moment they actually wanted it, instead of forcing them into a parking lot on a Saturday.

That's the move for coatings. The DIYer's current path is three or four decisions and at least two trips to Home Depot, and most of them don't get past step three. The category lost the sale before the can left the shelf.

Spatial computing collapses the path. The room becomes the input. A scan captures the wall color, the wood tone, the lighting. An AI layer recommends matching products and renders them in place before the DIYer commits, entertainment center in WeatherWash Driftwood, next to the wall they already have, on the floor they already have. They order from the room, in the room, on a Sunday morning, and the quart shows up same day. We're building toward that loop.

The chemistry is what makes it honest. A rendered finish only works if the actual finish matches the render, and the only way to guarantee a one-coat match is a chemistry that reacts with the wood instead of sitting on top of it. The visualization breaks the moment the customer applies the product and the result doesn't look like the preview. The platform is downstream of the can.

And the chemistry does something the app can't: it de-skills the application. A DIYer with zero experience gets the Restoration Hardware look on a Saturday. No layering. No wipe-on-wipe-off. The app tells them what to buy; the chemistry tells the wood what to do. The DIYer is in between, holding a brush, and the result still comes out right.

That's the takeover mechanism. Not a marketing campaign. Not a price war. The DIYer who finishes their first project on a Saturday and posts the result doesn't go back to wipe-on-wipe-off chemistry the next weekend, instead they tell three friends, and the friends don't go to Minwax either. The legacy brands keep their shelf space and lose the next generation of buyer at the same time. Slow at first. Then all at once.

Capture the sale at home. Make the result foolproof. Repeat. Whoever owns that loop in three years owns category definition. Apple Vision Pro is one path into spatial computing, it might be the winning platform, it might not. The thesis doesn't depend on AVP. It depends on spatial computing as a category arriving on a timeline that lets the chemistry meet it. I think it does. The chemistry is already here. We're building the rest."

Ok, I get it, that's the tech piece, so what's the problem with oil-based coatings?

"Three things, and they compound. First, oil-based stain is built for the professional applicator. The technique is wipe-on, wipe-off, layer the tones, work fast before it sets, that's a learned skill, and a DIYer who hasn't learned it gets blotch, drag marks, and uneven color. I lived through that. I tried to do my own pieces and the Minwax wouldn't give me the finish I could see in my head. I'm not a finisher. Most DIYers aren't. The shelf doesn't care.

Second, the chemistry off-gases. VOCs and petroleum-based solvents, bad for the applicator, bad for the homeowner, bad for whoever's in the next room. You don't refinish your kitchen table on a Saturday and chase your kids out of the house for the rest of the weekend. The category has been telling DIYers to do that for a hundred years.

Third, the dry times. Multi-day cure on most oil-based formulas. The DIYer who picks up the can on Saturday morning isn't done with the project until Tuesday, and that's if they got the technique right on the first coat.

So I built a stain that fixes all three at once. Tannin-reactive waterborne chemistry, controlled-stop reaction, one coat, fast cure. No professional technique required. No respirator. The Restoration Hardware look on a Saturday, at a Walmart price. That's the value. The rest is execution."

While she works, I learn that a combination of events inspired her. First was a quote from Tim Cook in the "Elysis" project press release (link.) The second was in Bill Gates book "How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.

"As a passionate artist, I knew I could help Apple's green initiative, but more importantly the applicators. I just didn't know where to start or what to build. I had a hunch that my blog would allow me to explore groups of DIYers to see if they shared my pain. So I started with a discreet survey built around my pain points and I learned that my readers were experiencing the same problems that I was. I called them and just had basic conversations about what they wanted. I thought I knew what they wanted but they asked me to focus on the benefits of water-based wood stain, because that's what they were willing to pay for. I thought a water-based wood stain made sense because very little innovation has occurred in the coatings category in the last hundred years and formulating seemed technically feasible, so I invented one."

CONTRACTOR

DIY

ARCHITECT

So the stain was your minimum viable product, did your customers want more than a wood stain?

"Yes! That's exactly what happened, my Instagram blew up with an enthusiastic group of customers demanding water-based wood stain, but leaving with so much more. I was able to extrapolate that they basically wanted me to make VOC free furniture paint (link), wall paint (link), oil-based wood stains (link), toners and topcoats (link). The survey results have helped with optimizing my strategy. My hypothesis so far, is that, their demands will shape the whole product line. With each new sku, margin costs will fall and the entire line should ease into profit-market fit," Becca explains as she uses an air compressor to mix raw ingredients in a 330-gallon tote."

Wood stain is a commodity, so the lifetime value of the customer is good, but how do you plan to cross what Geoffrey Moore calls the "Chasm," and establish the lifetime value with the majority markets?

"My strategy is to focus on making the business better and let the chemistry do the work. The chasm crosses one DIYer at a time, every project posted on Instagram is a piece of evidence the next DIYer uses to decide. Price parity with Minwax and iterative in-market testing close the gap. Customers can scan QR codes with their iPhones on the quart and watch a video that explains how to apply the product, and the instructor refers them to the next coating. From there, we split and expand SKUs. As the data continues to come in, I'll keep testing it and improving the product fit, just like my UX Software Engineer friend does at Apple, #designthinking. I've generated $1.35M in wood stain sales since 2022, and reducing clients' labor and material costs is what gets the coatings quadrant to $3M by 2028. The product economics need to stay positive. That's the discipline."

Can you tell me about the coatings market?

"The total attainable coatings market (TAM) is approximately $186B. Although wood stain caps at $7B, paint, furniture paint, and topcoats bring in as much as $179B. These U.S. markets are serviced by roughly eight-thousand Home Improvement stores and have over 294M US consumers in foot traffic per week. That's why I want retailers with the highest foot traffic. I know an early entrant isn't going to make a huge dent immediately, but that is where the action is happening, in the retail aisle. I believe the whole product offering, 'my coatings quadrant,' could realistically get the service obtainable market (SOM) to $150M within ten years. Sounds crazy that I'm only at $1.35M in sales and I'm talking about a big number like $150M, right!? Howard Stevenson's quote makes so much sense now. He said, 'entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled,' so let the good times roll!"

Do you have an economic model?

"The forward looking model with retailers is [(price) x (number of skus) x (number of stores) x (number of shelves) x (inventory turns) ^ Brand] = Revenue. These coatings work like a funnel. You do your end tables and then the kitchen table has to match. Of course, the entertainment center can't stick out, so it becomes a project as well, and then your headboard. Next, the walls need to accent the furniture. The exterior of the home will need to be refreshed and, finally, the deck has to be done. In a short amount of time, the whole process starts again because trends change. Increasing customer lifetime value would hinge on trends, product education, and seamlessly moving clients onto their next project. I have a healthy profit margin, but the key lever for growth is expanding into five hundred big box retail stores every quarter."

Who is your target customer?

"Our target DIY client is referred to as LOHAS (link). They talk to me through Instagram, which is a great place to A/B test them. IG is a high-density network where LOHAS will recommend products through word-of-mouth. LOHAS feels what I felt. Simply put, they want products that do 80% of the work for the end user, while they do 20% of the application. They want fast cure times, with one step-application, not several layers. They want clean coatings and resist using products with strong chemical odors. LOHAS wants a guide to reduce the risk of project failure. They tend to make purchasing decisions based off their values rather than price. They're educated and intelligent. They want the RH colors, but they want to save money and brag about how they did it themselves. They want a community to do projects with and share projects with, on social media.

In 2020, LOHAS represented one-third of home purchases. The majority of Home Depot ($157B) clients are DIY consumers who are fixing up homes to sell or repairing homes they've just bought. I see a lot of LOHAS crossover between the world's two largest retailers, Walmart and Home Depot. The LOHAS market is much bigger than just coatings. These are the clients responsible for Lululemon's success. The LOHAS market represents $472.5B (TAM) in revenue as of 2022."

What is your biggest hurdle?

"Distribution! For the last hundred years, my competitors have held a strangle-hold on the retail shelf. Although that is starting to change. Kelly Moore just went out of business, so there is going to be $457M worth of paint purchase orders on the market. Also, PPG is refocusing their energies on specialty lines looking to be a "bigger fish in a smaller pond." In the DIY space, Sherwin, BEHR, and Benjamin Moore are using price, operations, and ubiquitous shelf availability to hold marketshare and increase sales at approximately 2% year over year growth. Price is one of my biggest hurdles because I haven't crossed that chasm to the eight-thousand retailers that my competitors have, so I don't have that experience yet."

Becca attributes her success to lessons she learned in her MBA operations class. She has capitalized off of continuous flow manufacturing (CFM) and just-in-time delivery (JIT) processes that she learned in MBA case studies. What are some constraints that you're experiencing as you scale?

"Warehouse capacity and price parity to start. When we first launched in gallon milk jugs on my apartment deck, space was an obvious issue, and costs were high. Now that we've grown into multiple 330-gallon totes, our next increase will put us in 15,000-gallon stainless steel vats. The biggest constraint of any CleanTech product is going to be price parity.

Right now my price on the shelf is $19.97. My competitors are around $15.97 to $19.39. The end consumer is paying a CleanTech premium when they buy WeatherWash. In truth, you only have to use one of my quarts compared to the multiple quarts you have to buy to match my colors with Minwax. But, with more orders, my total manufacturing output will increase, and labor efficiencies will improve. I'll pass those decreases on to the end consumer and get my price in line with my competitors. I might even land at $14.97 on the shelf. That’s when the conversion really accelerates, because it’s no longer a premium decision, it’s just the better product."

As states have begun to regulate paint and stain emissions, do you see any opportunities to capture those laggard markets?

"States could accelerate the inevitable switch from oil to water through regulation. California has already started regulating the coatings industry in a way that forced many manufacturers to leave California. I think a better solution would be for lawmakers to use tax incentives and subsidies to shape consumer behavior. It would be nice if state and federal governments would give CleanTech coatings the same incentives they give solar and wind. Could you imagine the impact regulation would make if lawmakers required 25% of paint and stain to be carbon-free? The same way they require 25% of grid energy to be renewable? The reduction targets two primary points of emission. Reduced carbon from plant manufacturing and reduced carbon/VOC off-letting from product application.

How is your product innovative?

"My product is innovative because it is tannin reactive. Once the stain is applied, a natural reaction occurs inside the wood, and the wood changes color. That controlled-stop mechanism is protected as proprietary know-how, with the formulation, processing conditions, and reaction window maintained as trade secrets. Consumers can't tell the difference between real driftwood and the wood that I stain, which is great because my stain gives them an unlimited supply. Innovation is easy to spot when you're reducing labor costs and reducing material costs."

What's the difference between Sherwin William's manufacturing process and yours?

"When I built my manufacturing plant, I followed Bill Gates' advice. He said, 'we need to do three things to avoid a climate disaster. 1) We have to get to zero. 2) We need to deploy solar and wind faster and smarter. 3) We need to create and roll out breakthrough technologies that can take us the rest of the way.' My manufacturing process is innovative because I did all three of those things.

I approached manufacturing with a simple constraint: reduce energy intensity at the process level, not just at the facility level.

First, I developed a waterborne formulation designed to eliminate VOC-heavy solvents and reduce hazardous inputs.

Second, instead of relying solely on grid or panel-generated electricity, I use direct solar-thermal input to heat and process batches inside the vessel. That reduces external energy demand during production.

Third, I’ve taken that same formulation and process into retail distribution, including Walmart, proving the model can operate beyond the lab.

Historically, coatings manufacturing scaled on the back of inexpensive fossil energy. I’m building a version of that system that works with lower-energy inputs and cleaner chemistry.”

Weatherwash Plant

On scale, these 19th century industrial operations account for one-fifth of global energy use and are responsible for roughly fifteen billion tons of carbon off-letting annually. As the oil supply decreases, prices will continue to increase. Eventually, the oil demand will be higher than the oil supply. When that happens, I expect that low-carbon and carbon-free manufacturing processes, like mine, will disrupt old-school oil-based manufacturers." Becca tosses what appears to be herbs into a large plastic tote. She pinches a little of this, and a little of that, and folds raw materials into the product with a wooden oar.

Are your materials renewable?

"My formulas use renewable raw materials and low-energy processing, including solar-thermal input. I measure output as gallons produced per unit of energy consumed, and at current scale, the process materially reduces carbon and VOC emissions compared to traditional coatings.
As we scale, we plan to validate the full lifecycle impact with third-party analysis. The objective is straightforward: drive coatings toward a net-zero manufacturing model."

Circling back to the stain, your product is truly magic in a quart, but your operation is next level. You said that you use the power of the sun to make the product. Can you tell me how you do that?

"Everyone talks about using solar to power the plant. I wanted to know if I could use it to cook the batch.

Instead of relying entirely on electric or fossil-fuel heat, I use direct solar-thermal input to heat and process batches inside the vessel. The formulation and process are designed to absorb and retain heat efficiently, which reduces the need for external energy during production.

As we scale, automation and additional energy inputs, including solar-generated electricity, will support higher throughput. The goal is to build a manufacturing system that reduces reliance on fossil energy at both the process and facility level.

That’s what I see as the future of low-carbon coatings manufacturing! 🇺🇸"

How do efficiencies play a role in CleanTech?

"Efficiencies are the key to real CleanTech results! The built environment is responsible for 29% of the 52 billion tons of annual carbon emissions. I have five main efficiencies that can reduce that percentage right now: raw materials, workspace, energy, labor, and plant power. I have one goal in mind when manufacturing: my energy efficiencies must maximize outputs and minimize inputs. I would say my operation is 78% efficient right now. When we scale to our goal of eight thousand retailers, I expect my efficiencies will go down at first, but once we get past the experience curve, I think they will be closer to 92%."

If you had one wish, what would it be?

"Distribution at the speed the chemistry deserves. The product is ready. The application is foolproof. The marketing engine is running. The rate-limiting step right now is shelf, getting the can in front of the LOHAS DIYer in every market where she's already looking for it. If a wish gave me 5,000 stores tomorrow, I'd take it."

What would you give up?

"Take a look around you. Everything I have here is for sale, including things you can't see, like equity. Hang tight, it looks like my staff is overflowing a tote. I gotta go. Are we done here?"

*****

That's a wrap.

I'm surprised Becca can even hear me over the air compressors, the shouting, the continuous lid hammering. She is laser-focused on the batch and somehow answers every question even though we're interrupted a dozen times by managers and employees. The operation is a real operation. That part is not a pitch deck.

Here is what I think a coatings strategist would take away from a day at WeatherWash.

The chemistry is substantiated. Tannin-reactive waterborne stain with a controlled-stop reaction is a genuine chemistry differentiator, not a marketing claim. A polymer chemist can understand the mechanism quickly. Getting it to stop consistently across different wood species, moisture levels, and real-world application variance is where most attempts break. That’s the moat.

The manufacturing is real. Solar-thermal direct-capture cooking the batch inside the tote, 78% efficiency today, 92% target at scale. The numbers will need diligence. The operation will not.

The brand franchise is structurally interesting. 31,300 Instagram followers, more than Minwax, more than Varathane, with no paid acquisition spend. That's an organic LOHAS-acquisition capability the incumbents don't have and can't buy at any price. It's the part of the asset that compounds the longest.

The platform is roadmap, not product. The room-scan visualization layer, the AI recommendation engine, the rendered-in-place finish preview, direction of travel. Becca and her team are building toward it; they're not selling it yet. The chemistry is the wedge. The platform only works because the chemistry already does.

The category is at a moment. The legacy DIY brands are flat-to-down on volume. DIY participation is up. The next-generation buyer is forming preferences online, on Instagram, on Vision Pro and whatever comes after, and the brands they pick today are the brands they'll buy from for thirty years. The question for any incumbent is whether they want to compete for that buyer or watch a one-woman operation in California acquire her without them.

The ripple thesis, in one sentence. Light bulbs, alternating current, and the automobile redrew their categories not when they were invented but when the supporting infrastructure caught up. WeatherWash is the chemistry. Spatial computing is the infrastructure catching up.

An incumbent can try to replicate the chemistry, rebuild the community, and retrain the DIY customer, or they can acquire it already working. The question isn’t whether WeatherWash fits inside a coatings portfolio. It’s whether a coatings portfolio can afford not to have it.

Want to support WeatherWash?

Go to your local Walmart store or go online to Walmart.com, HomeDepot.com, Amazon.com, Lowes.com or Becca's website, WeatherwashCoatings.com. Just search for WeatherWash and don't forget to leave a review! 😊

Peter Facinelli aka Doctor Carlisle Cullen

“Paging Doctor Cullen, you have an interview with Zack and Becca, writers for the blog From Gardners 2 Bergers. Report to Forever Twilight in Forks (FTF), Washington, STAT!” 

“I’m on it!” Peter Facinelli says, as he takes his seat under a pine gazebo at the Pacific Inn Motel, in Forks, Washington. 

Peter is here signing books and taking pictures at the Forever Twilight in Forks Festival. He's incredibly genuine. Friendly and easily approachable. To the west, the sun is setting and the colors are breath taking. To the east, the clouds have lost their place in the gray sky. They settle into the towering evergreens that crowd the rolling hills behind Peter and add an eerie effect. We are literally sitting down with a Vampire in his home town. He is wearing an Aviator Nation sweatshirt. He pulls his hoody over his head and asks, “so what do you do?” 

Zack: “My wife invented a wood stain that turns raw wood into barnwood.” I expect Peter to show zero interest. 

Peter: “Really? You take raw wood and it kind of ages it?” Peter asks with way more interest than I expected. 

Becca: “It’s an all-natural process, you just apply the stain to raw wood and you can see one hundred percent of the wood grain,” Becca says as she’s said in hundreds of interviews. 

P: “What’s the name of the company?” Peter asks. 

B: “Weatherwash.” Becca answers. 

The interview has taken an unexpected turn. Peter is interviewing us, instead of us interviewing Peter. What’s going on here? 

P: “How long does it take to get that old look?” Peter wonders. 

B: “Takes about ten minutes and it’s ready for a topcoat. Your whole project can be done in under an hour. It’s a tannin-based reactive stain, earth-friendly and VOC free!” Becca beams, super proud of her creation. 

P: “I love doing woodworking. I grew up doing carpentry with my Uncle. I did that during the summers. I could build anything out of wood. I could build this gazebo. Recently, I did a birdcage with a sliding door,” Peter leans forward. He’s holding the birdcage between his empty hands, somehow, we can all see it. As he goes on, we learn that he’s quite the woodworker and a knowledgeable finisher. “You know this is a billion-dollar idea right?” 

Bec smiles and nods, “We did just get into Walmart!” 

Z: “You know Peter, you’re an extraordinary guy who seems remarkably ordinary,” I say, as we settle into our woodworking comfort zone. 

P: “That’s great! It’s good to be ordinary.” He says as he scrolls through our portfolio, he friend-requests Rebecca. 

She accepts. They’re "fast" friends. 

 

Z: “Ok, so you’re going to be our celebrity endorser?” I ask. 

 

P: “Maybe!” Peter smiles and winks. 

 

Z: “Great! So you’re a finisher in real life, a vampire doctor, a human doctor, a special forces operator, a Sheriff in the old west, and many other things in the make-believe world of Hollywood.” 

Peter nods. 

 

Z: “What does nine-to-five look like for you?” 

 

P: “Constant change. Lots of preparation. Tons of research.” 

Z: “So you’re from Queens, NYC.” 

 

P: “Yes!” 

 

Z: “You have three siblings. Where do you rank?” 

 

P: “I'm last.” 

Z: “Three older sisters? That's more Barbies than G.I. Joe's. #Roughbro. Your parents are from Italy?” 

P: “Yep.” 

Z: “Your mother is from, Spormaggiore, how do you pronounce that?” 

Peter annunciates the town without missing a beat. Even though I speak Italian, I butcher it. Curse that double ‘g.’ 

Z: “Your father is from Trentino?” 

P: “Yeah.” 

Z: “It’s pretty cool that they were so close to fair Verona when they fell in love.” 

Peter nods, “I never thought about that. But yeah, both of their towns are right there in Val Di Non Valley, Northern Italy.” 

B: “We visited Verona, so we got to see what the countryside looks like.” 

P: “It’s a beautiful country.” 

 

Z: “Take us back to high school at Saint Francis Preparatory, what was your best moment in high school.

Peter shuffles. His face wrinkles as though he’s just licked a lemon, “high school wasn’t a good time for me. I was incredibly shy and I didn’t want to eat lunch with the other kids. So, I found a quite place where a woman sold pretzels and orange juice and that was my, uhm… my lunch every day for three years.” 

‘Peter shy? Are you kidding me?’ I think. 

Z: “Did you play a sport?” 

P: “Baseball.” 

Z: “That’s ironic.” I’m thinking back to the Twilight baseball game. 

P: “There was this one game, I quit the high school team because the coach was a jerk and so I played for another team. There was this one play where the bases were loaded, there was only a few minutes left on the clock in the last inning and I hit a home run. We were tied up and that home run won the game. The old coach saw the play and realized his mistake.” Peter smiles. 

B: “We saw a game with the Rangers and Red Sox just like that. It was nail-biting.” 

Z: “Who is your favorite sports team?” 

P: “Yankees.” 

Z: “Who is your favorite player?” 

P: “Babe Ruth. He would point where he was going to hit the ball and then hit it there. That was incredible.” 

Z: “So you’re in high school, headed to college at New York University. At what point did you decide to become an actor?” 

P: “For me it was much sooner. It was when I was thirteen, the topic of career came up with my family and I told my parents I wanted to be an actor. They didn’t discourage me, in fact, they encouraged me.” 

Bec and I look at each other, completely shocked. Why? When I told my Mom I wanted to be an actor she said, “go to college first and act on the side.” 

P: “I never had a back up plan because I was taught that if you have a back up plan, that becomes the plan.” 

Peter is right, Momma! I ended up using my degree and not acting >:-/ 

Z: “When Bec and I lived in Italy, all these Italian fathers had interesting sayings for their sons. One that we liked the most was, ‘better to buy a suit than a glass of water.’ Does your Dad have any cool sayings?” 

P: “No. Not really.” 

B: “Your parents must be incredibly proud of you.” 

P: “Actually, that’s the funny thing, my Dad and I are on this plane with all these actors that have lesser roles than me at the time and he’s like, ‘do you think Peter will make it?’ My parents are immigrants, so they just don’t get how far I’ve come. In fact, my Dad was like, ‘Peter, if you don’t make it in Hollywood, that’s okay. I love you and I will always have a room for you in my home.’” 

Bec and I look at each other. We’ve never met this man, but we love him! 

Z: “Well there you go Peter. You’re Dad’s Italian saying is, ‘There’s a room for you in my house, son.” 

B: “So you studied acting in college. Was there one specific method that you preferred over another?” 

 

Peter has a lot to say about this. If any of you thought acting was just memorizing lines and shooting ten second scenes, think again. There’s voice training. Stage acting. Camera acting. And the two are not the same. Peter lists a dozen books and several methods that contribute to his “craft”. Clearly his education at NYU has paid off. His performance takes audiences to a different world. A world where admittance is belief. He’s so passionate about his craft, he spends forty minutes talking about it. By the end of his answer Bec and I are blown away with how much mechanical aptitude it takes to create a convincing character. 

B: “So I recently watched ‘The Vanished,’ how did you come up with that idea?” 

P: “A couple of years ago, I got into RV-ing. I took my family across America and we stopped in all these really cool little towns. One of the towns we stopped in, this guy at the counter let me know that the prison nearby had a convict escape and a manhunt was under way. For a brief moment, I lost track of one of my kids, and found them, but I thought, ‘what if this man had found my daughter and kidnapped her? That would be terrifying.’ I didn’t get much sleep that night because of the fear I felt and I couldn’t shake the feeling so I caught it on film.” 

 Z: “You had a lot of success with that. How many people viewed it on Netflix?” 

 P: “Two hundred million.” 

 B: “TWO HUNDRED MILLION? That’s two thirds of the nation’s population. What was the budget?”

 

 P: “One and a half million.” 

 Z: “You got two hundred million people to watch a film you wrote, directed, and acted in on a one and a half million-dollar budget?” 

 P: “Yeah. Pretty cool, huh?” 

 Z: “Yeah! I’d imagine you’re a hot item in Hollywood. Directors like you are like snow leopards.” 

 P: “What do you mean?” 

Z: “Snow Leopards are rarely seen, but they exist. Well look at Spielberg for example. He almost didn’t have a career because he kept going over budget. If it wasn’t for George Lucas bringing him on for Indiana Jones, Spielberg’s career might have died early. So, a guy that can generate that kind of viewership with a small budget must be rare, but exist.” 

 P: “We’ll see. It’s all kind of fresh still,” he says relaxed and un-phased. Like I said, an extraordinary man that seems abnormally ordinary. 

 B: “Can we talk about Twilight now?” 

 P: “Of course!” 

 B: “How did you get the part?” 

 P: “That is a funny story. I auditioned and so did this other guy, Henry Cavill, and it looked like he got the part of Carlisle Cullen. As I was doing my research, I stumbled on a book titled, “History of the Vampire.” Since I didn’t get the part, I thought I could help Catherine Hardwick out and maybe network for the future. I wrote a quick note in the book and sent it to her. When the part didn’t work out with the other guy, she got my note and called me. So I got the part because I gave Catherine a $29.99 book.” 

Z: “Cool! Can you do that with my book?” 

P: “Maybe, what’s your book?” 

Z: “Harvest Moon.” I hand him a copy. 

P: “I’ll see what I can do.” 

Bec and I high-five. 

B: “How did you prepare for the role of Doctor Carlisle Cullen?” 

P: “I did a lot of research. I even kept these journals and that’s all part of the craft right? When I prepare for a role, I want to know as much about the character as I can. Learning about what doctors do wasn’t so hard, but what required a little more intense research was what a doctor might wear throughout the years. As I was doing my research, I kind of felt like Carlisle would have had an interest in scarves. I traced the fashion of scarves back to his era and incorporated those scarves into my character. I was using it as a thread through time to tie in the history of his life together through out the film.” 

B: “Can we shop Doctor Cullen Scarves?” 

P: “That’s an interesting idea, I’ll have to think about it.” 

Z: "You should post the journals online. I know a lot of fans in the Facebook groups would love that." 

P: "I'll look into that. It would be nice for them to experience Carlisle Cullen's view of 'Twilight' right?"

B: “Are you still in touch with the cast?” 

P: “Yes! Definitely! We all keep in contact with each other. Nikki and I just worked on a project together, and we all text each other often. We kind of grew up together in Hollywood, you know.” 

B: “What’s your favorite story about your son, Edward?” 

P: “When I first met Rob, he had all these hair extensions. For some reason, they wanted him to have long hair. And I noticed he was kind of pulling on them. The next day, he had pulled all of his hair extensions out and he was like, ‘I’m not doing it, okay! I’m using my natural hair.'” 

B: OMG, this reminds me of when Anna Kendrick called him "the hair," in Breaking Dawn Part 1. 

Z: “In your own words, how would you describe Twilight?” 

P: “It’s the modern Romeo and Juliet, right?” 

Z: In the back of my mind, I’m thinking, 'if only we could rewind the clock to Juliet’s house which is actually in “fair” Verona, Italy, not far from Peter's parents home towns. I’m wondering if Peter's ancestors knew he was in a modern Romeo and Juliet love story, what would they think?' By the way 'Trivial Pursuit' readers, Capulet was a real family name! (Below you can see some pictures of her balcony that we took in 2019.) 

P: (Continued) Twilight is a great love story that incorporates forbidden love between a vampire and a young girl that every girl wants to be. But the best part of this story is that it brings fans together from all across the world. They form these relationships that they otherwise wouldn’t have and it was such a great experience to be a part of it.”

B: I’m not sure if Peter has seen the map in the Fork's Visitor Center, but people from across the world have placed a pin on the map and you can see below just how many people have been affected by "Twilight". Keep in mind, they traveled from these states and countries to physically place their pin. 

Z: “If you had an unlimited budget, what movie would you make? Who would direct it? Who would star in it?” 

P: “Oh that’s easy, I’d do a gangster movie. Something like Scarface. I would star in it. I would direct it.”

 

B: “Are you excited about fashion?” 

P: “I’m not a snob or anything. I like form and function. Comfort is ideal."

Z: “Do you have a favorite artist?” 

P: Rene Magritte. 

B: “Do you have any cool Dad sayings for your kids?” 

P: “Believe in yourself and follow your dreams!” 

Z: “You’ve been to Italy and across America, do you have a favorite architect?” 

P: “I like Spanish style. I like how architecture changes across the country. Even the brick color changes. I like Modern, too. I like Frank Lloyd Wright. I really like Frank Gehry, he did the Disney Concert Hall in L.A. I love what he does.” 

Z: “Halloween is fast approaching. What scary movies are you watching and what are you dressing up as?” 

P: “I don’t watch scary movies. They give me nightmares. The costume is a hard one for me. I feel like I have ideas of what I’m going to dress up like and then Halloween comes and I never know what I’m going to wear. Can I get back to you on that one?” 

Z: “Wanna do a scary picture together?” 

P: “Sure!” 

Z: “Let's do wolf claws! Roooaaarrr!” 

Z: “Peter! Bec and I did wolf claws, what are you doing?” 

P: “Smoldering wolf claws.” 

B: “Do you have a favorite movie that you’ve been in?” 

P: “I have really enjoyed all the films I’ve worked in. I love them all. I can’t really pick one over the other.” 

 

Z: “What’s your favorite app?”

P: “I like Instagram. I have a love hate relationship with TikTok. It’s so entertaining, people do the stupidest things on there, I just can’t stop watching it. There are such quick little segments you could just scroll forever.”

 

Z: “What’s your favorite video game?”

P: “I don’t play video games. I grew up on Atari. But Oculus goggles in VR is pretty cool. You feel like you’re there.”

Z: “What’s your favorite tech?”

P: “Crypto.” 

Z: “What do you do for a workout?”

P: “Honestly, I do P90X. It requires very little space and they mix the work outs up so you don’t get bored. I love the Kenpo Karate. Now I work with a trainer though.”

Z: “Your arms are looking pretty big bro, got any tips on beefing up biceps?”

P: “Ha! Ha! No, I actually have to tell my trainer to tone it down. Honestly, it’s all genetics. I have 'guido' arms. I have those Italian American arms and like, I have to be careful not to work out my biceps too much because if I wear a button up shirt they puff up and fill out the shirt. It’s just genetics, I don’t have to work them out.” He shrugs nonchalantly.

B: “Who is your celeb look alike?” Now this cracks both of us up. Peter literally buries his face in his hands, and for the first time during this interview, I see the shy kid he was talking about in high school. When he looks up, he’s literally blushing and so flustered he can’t speak. 

P: “I don’t know man, I used to get Tom Cruise. Who do you think?”

Z: “Ethan Hawk.”

P: “I’ll take it.”

Z: “What do you think, Becca?”

B: “I don’t think you look like anyone. I think you have a very unique look.”

P: “I like that better!” 

With that, the interview is over. The weather has shifted and true to its reputation, Forks is the wettest place in America. The temperature drops. Cold rain dumps on us. Two hours of friendly conversation has made us all cold ones and fast friends. Bec and I jump in the car, crank the heater, and wonder how exactly three Italians ended up on the farthest western point of North America. But that’s the beauty of Twilight. 

To Peter’s point Twilight brings people together from all parts of the world and they make connections they otherwise wouldn’t have. This happens in book lines. Movie lines. FTF lines. It’s the spirit of Twilight that Peter helped build. And twelve years later the bonds are still being forged. Even with fans and actors. Thanks, Peter, for the interview and thanks to Stephenie Meyer for an awesome love story!

Ciao!! 

Zachary & Becca

Us talking with fans in line at FTF. 

RH Cerused Driftwood Gray Table

For this week's project, we're back to my roots! Which means we're creating knock off Restoration Hardware colors today! This project is easy peasy, just apply to wood and watch the magic happen! You're going to love this tutorial to easily achieve the Reclaimed Gray Oak look.

Materials

• Table
• Garbage Bag
• Citristrip
• Mineral Spirits
• Scraper
• Palm Sander, Sand Paper
• Gloves
• Rags
• Weatherwood Stain's Light Oaking
• Weatherwood Stain's White Maintenance Oil
• Weatherwood Varnish, Satin

Directions

Here's the "before" of this typical, out dated oak table. There's a million of these babies floating around from the 80's and 90's. It shouldn't be too hard to get your hands on one, and at a good price. 

If you're using a brand new, or raw wood table, please skip down to step #5. Thanks!

1.] STRIP

First you'll want to apply a thick layer of Citristrip to the table. Citristrip has a tendency to dry out before it can eat away at all the layers of stain and lacquer. So covering the wet stripper with a garbage bag helps keep the moisture in while it works.

2.] SCRAPE

When the stripper turns white, it's ready to be scraper off. Remove the bags and scrape as much of the mixture off, as you can. You'll want to try and get down ti the raw wood if you can. But being careful not to scrape or damage the wood itself. 

3.] CLEAN

You will want to wipe the table down with mineral spirits and a rag to remove any existing residue. This should remove any sticky residue from the tabletop. 

4.] SAND

Here's the labor portion. You want to use a palm sander and 80 grit sandpaper to make sure the wood is completely down to raw. You can see in this video what I mean.

5.] STAIN

Weatherwood released a new stain that can turn oak into a beautiful driftwood gray, called Light Oaking. This product can work on any wood, so it's incredibly easy to use.

6.] LIGHTEN

If you want to lighten the look, you can add a coat of White Maintenance Oil. It adds the look of patina and is just generally gorgeous. Simply brush or wipe onto wood, allow to sit 3-7 minutes. Then wipe off with a clean cloth. Or you can watch the video above. 

See how pretty and soft the white maintenance oil is? It's much more subtle than a paint product and really just makes the wood look sun-kissed.

For additional project looking to achieve the Restoration Hardware look, you can search our archives for tons of inpiration or check out this popular post below!

DIY RH Reclaimed Gray Oak Table

I've also got a paint update for you guys! We are selecting our final shades for our The Furniture Paint launch, so keep your fingers crossed for me! xoxo