vintage windows tribute to Coronado

i’m surprised i haven’t seen more of these on the internets. don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of old windows and vinyl lettering with cute quotes… but none that are inspired from the subway posters that pay tribute to a city or town’s points of interest.

so i’ll claim this as an original as i made the first set 3+ years ago. 🙂

these are a tribute to Coronado, CA, which is a cute all-American town in San Diego.

for those unfamiliar, Coronado is famous for North Island, which is where the US Government, under the nudging of Congressman Carl Vinson, set up the Navy’s Pacific Ocean presence. and thank goodness else WWII’s outcome may have been much different!

so i picked up these doors at my buddy’s place. he casually mentioned he was replacing all his windows and doors. so i casually appeared the next morning with my truck. funny how that works with me. surprise!

these windows were still in v good shape and were originally painted black. i was aiming for a beachy, shabby chic look. but the black starting point is perfect as it allows for the dark colors to poke through after distressing. they key to making something look really old is having a very layered look. just imagine generations of paint on a door. history!

i took various colors and viscocities (is that even a word? some very thick, some very watery) of chalk paints and just kept painting layers.

i love how chippy this one turned out! you can see some Duck Egg, Old White, Pure White, Coco.

and the nice thing about painting windows is that you don’t have to mask the glass. simply use a razor when you’re done painting to remove any paint on the glass.

i wanted to pay tribute to the very local Coronado spots. eateries, beaches, and Navy landmarks. using doityourselflettering.com, i created a variety of words in differing fonts and sizes.

the lettering arrived a few days later and were super easy to apply to the glass. i think this is still one of the coolest projects i’ve made as it’s so personal and touching as a gift.

i dedicate this post to the crew on the USS Carl Vinson which has deployed this week on one of the longest deployments our armed forces has seen. God speed to the brave men and women who train and dedicate their lives to protecting our freedom.