Restoration Hardware's Wood Beam Round Dining Table & Florence Piazza

It's Saturday night and the mood is right...we went and checked out the Lenarda DaVinci museum here in Florence. Although DaVinci lived here there's only three pieces of art from him, all found in the Uffizi. The DaVinci museum is more of a hands on place to see his experiments. After that we strolled the Florence streets, juts like the locals and all the other tourists. The Italians call this a passegiare and it's typical to find street performers are almost every square. Check out this rolling, 2 man band and the dancing pinnocchio.  

Rustic Cedar Beams & Roman Baths

Had fun with my favorite guy at the Baths of Diocletian. 🛁 Romans baths consisted of 4 stages. You would start with a (slave) massage 💆, then the hottest bath (with heated floors 😱), then two more progressively cooler baths. 😓 

Stripped and Stained Piano & a Trip to La Boca Veritas, Rome

We made it to Rome and our first day we strolled around our Trastavere AirBNB. One of the closest tourist stops is calledthe Mouth of Truth (Boca della Veritàs). Originally the disc’s from the temple of Hercules, but now people travel from all over the world 🌎 to put their hand in its mouth. The story goes, if the statue does NOT bite your hand, than you are true of heart! 👄💖 Somehow, we made it!

EASY Barnwood Wall & Pompeii ART

We took around 1000 photos of Pompeii. I was shocked at the size of it, reading about the city in history books, you cannot comprehend the scale. The ruins are 80 hectares and it took us four days to explore everything. The customer services gals said most Americans get 2-3 hours there. 

Poplar Driftwood Dresser Makeover & Pompeii Architecture

We spent four wet, rainy, blustery February days days in Pompeii! It was incredible- you felt like you were simply falling back into time. I wish I could've brought you all with me. I've split up the art and architecture into 2 posts, because I don't want to overload you and it's ALL incredible! If you watch series like HBO's Rome, this will all look sooo familiar to you! 

Perfect Barnwood Mirror & Valentine's Day in Napoli

Hope you had a Happy Valentine's Day! Zack & I enjoyed a typical, late (10pm) Valentine’s Day dinner in the city of Naples. ❤️ For special occasions, Italian restaurants typically present a pre-set menu. We ordered the Terra (or Land) menu. 

Blogger's Driftwood Gray Hardwood Floors & Trulli Homes in Alberbello

Okay, I’m in love with these darling little homes and I don't care who knows it! They’re called trulli and from what we read, they’re only found in this Puglia region. We are in Alberbello, where trulli homes are abundant and date from 1400 AD. I think they’re enchanting. 

Ombre Cedar Dresser Using Stain & St Agatha's Cathedral

I cannot believe it's almost Christmas, can you? Although it's hard to be away from family, it's incredibly cool to be spending the holiday in this ancient country! Around every turn it seems you find an ancient artifact or relic. Here each city has its main church in the town center. And in the town of Catania, on the island of Sicily, there's the Cathedral of St Agatha. 

White Oak Ebonized Mantle & Agrigento, Italy

Sooo, let me know if vacation pictures are boring, because I just want to share, share, share everything we've been up to! We spent most of our first two weeks getting set up, since we're here to live not for a vacation. Buuut we did get to sight-see at the coolest spot, the Valle of the Templi,  in Agrigento IT. 

Maple Slab Table & We're in Rome!

Hey friends! Well, somehow we made it to Rome. The trip took 18 hours due to some delays along the way, but no worries- we're in one piece and look at this place! We are in Rome for only three days and then we will be moving to the southern Italy. This Air BNB has a double rooftop terrace, one on each side, both are long and this one is also wide.

DIY "Barnwood" Garage Doors

Yup! We are on our way to ITALY! Can you believe it? We plan to spend the year traveling the country bottom to top- and I hope to speak fluent Italian when it's all said and done. What an incredible experience and I hope you guys will cheer me on. We start our journey for 3 days in Rome, just to get adjusted, then we will travel via train to Catania where we'll be for a few weeks. 

Steel Gray Oak Table Makeover

Happy Halloween! Zack and I have been bouncing between San Fran and Fresno for our last month before Italy. We had Zack's first book reading for Harvest Moon and it was such a blast! Now we fly to Florida this weekend and we will be there a week before blasting off for a year in Italy Nov 8th! 

These old oak pedestal tables are a timeless shape with classic appeal. They're also often real wood and refinish beautifully. 

Driftwood Walnut Buffet Makeover

Hello friends- Fall is fast upon us and Zack and I are less than a month away from our Italy departure. It feels like time has become this vacuum towards our IT departure and I'm just trying to hold on for dear life. I thought I'd answer one of your most asked questions today. Everyone always asks what my favorite Weatherwood product is for refinished furniture, in particular. No, it's not my original formula, the Reclamation stain. It's a no-fail gray perfect for weathering any wood type. It's called Light Oaking and it's gorgeous on this gorgeous walnut piece from Cathy!

Weathered Exterior Beams

Zack and I launched another product in Forks, Wa  few weeks ago. You guys know that's one of our favorite spots in the US and we get there about yearly. This time we launched a book Zack wrote, It's called Harvest Moon. For those of you who like to keep up with us- here's the link. 

Stain Cabinetry like a Pro

We have spent most of the summer in Fresno, though that was not the original plan! It's been so sad to see the smoke filled air and know northern Cali is suffering. This project comes from Fresno - so i't's the perfect time to share it.  Now if you're like me, you would be skeptical to stain your own cabinets. But you can see my husband stained these while we were at a trade show! 

Restoration Hardware "Gray" Millwork

Maple floors and millwork are less common now, because maple doesn't take traditional wood stains very well. But they were super common back in the day. You will find maple millwork and floors, in older homes, especially in the east and mid-west. 

Fortunately, staining maple is no longer a problem if you use reactive stains. I mean, just look at this millwork! This is a great project for old and new wood. Not to mention, reactive stains are super easy to use.

Driftwood Look on Maple, Live Edge

Everyone looks that weathered wood look and live edge furniture is all the rage, why not combine the two? I've seen tons of live edge tables with a natural, oiled finish. But very few look like this! Weatherwood stains are a great choice for live edge because you can still see the wood grain, but the wood is not gray! You'll love how easy it was to do!

DIY [Faux] Barnwood Frame

This post has been sitting in draft form in my archives for 4 years, I think it's ready for its debut considering I no longer own any of the items in these photos, or even the cat in the impromptu shot far below. It seems like life changes so quickly these days and we have just announced we're going to Italy for a year! We've travelled the US for the last three years and I can't imagine slowing down. So it's full steam ahead to Europe for us. We plan to spend 12 months travel the whole of Italy. I really need your help and advice, because I am terrible at planning trips!

Farmhouse Look for Floating Shelving

Hey guys! Here's a few promised photos of our time in the Olympic Peninsula! It is a truly magical part of the country, including Forks, WA. Annnd it's where the Twilight Series "happened" if you remember those books; we walked La Push, First, Second, & Third beaches.  This week we were in Portland, WA hanging with old friends and it's been a blast! 

DIY Driftwood Gray White Oak Floor

Hey party people! Everyone on the East Coast seems to have these old oak floors in their home, which is awesome because you can hopefully give them a major makeover. I have this amazing  floor tutorial for you. It makes your floors easy enough for you to DIY them!