Taking the family restaurant from outdated and run down to hip and on trend, one project at a time!

The post Durango’s Restaurant Renovation appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

Happy Monday my loves!! Have I got a fun and suuuuper simple project for you today! As some of you know, we’re in the process of renovating and rebranding our family restaurant Durango’s Mexican Grill. Its been quite the adventure to say the least.

One of the biggest perspective adjustments that I’ve had to make is making sure that things are restaurant worthy. Its one thing to build a table for your house that you know 5 people are going to use and its going to be wiped off once or twice a day. Its another thing entirely to build something that literally hundreds of people are going to use, that’ll be wiped off every 20 minutes. And to do it on a budget no less.

When it came to tables, I wanted something super simple and modern. Not a lot of detail, but still cool. Oh and did I mention that we needed 28? Yeahhhhh. I’d seen some really cool raw edge plywood table tops at a few restaurants in Salt Lake but I kind of felt like they were a little thin. So we took the basic idea of plywood and beefed it up (on a budget!)

This is TOTALLY a project that you could do for your kitchen table, coffee table, desk, shelving, basically anywhere.

We were really driven by the budget that we had to work with so in order to keep costs as low as possible, we used 2 different types of plywood. The really nice pretty kind with a birch veneer (that runs about $50 for a 4×8 sheet) and the not so pretty kind that is rough pine (that runs about $25 for a 4×8 sheet).

Because we were making so many, we set up a work station in our garage so that we could easily mass produce and precisely duplicate the table tops. (Hi Court!)

We made 3 different sizes of table tops, but regardless of the size of your table the process is the same.

Start by cutting the desired size of your table out of both types of plywood. If its an option, you’ll want a table saw for this. You can possibly have it cut at your local hardware store, but chances are that they might not be exactly the same (just a heads up).

Once we had our table tops cut we used the remainder of the wood to cut 3” strips for the lip on the very bottom of the table (that way it looks like its 3 layers thick, but its really only 2).

Our GRR-RIPPER pushblocks were the perfect tools for this when the wood got small.

Lots and lots of strips.

To join the corners of these bottom pieces, we cut them at a 45 degree angle and fit the mitered edges together. (We also made sure to use the nice wood for these because I didn’t want someone to cross their legs and catch their clothing on the rough wood.)

The next step is to sandwich wood glue between the 2 large boards and set it with screws (make sure that they are long enough to catch the second piece of wood, but not too long that they go through the front of it!)

After you’ve done this step, you’ll add the lip piece on with glue and finishing nails (again so that the screws dont snag clothing).

Once everything was dry and we made sure that it was completely secure and then used a belt sander on the edges to make sure that everything was smooth without rounding out the corners too much (Court did that part). Meanwhile, I used a palm sander and 400 grit sandpaper to smooth the top.

Because the durability of the finish is so critical in a restaurant scenario we had a cabinet maker spray an automotive clear coat on them for maximum durability (added bonus is that that they won’t yellow). Have you ever been in a restaurant that has sticky tables, even after they’ve been wiped off? Blech. An automotive clear coat makes that a non issue.

If you’re doing this project at home, you probably don’t need something that intense. My FAVORITE clear coat is Varathane Triple Thick. It is almost magical.

When you’re applying it, pour a fair amount onto your piece and use a Purdy brush to spread it. You want it to be nice and thick. The color will look milky until it dries. Just like with any other product that you brush on you dont want to manhandle it or you’ll possibly ruin your finish. Just brush it on and walk away until its dry.

We installed our tops onto really basic matte black cafe table bases, but if you are looking for something a little bit more amazing, a conduit pipe base (like this one) would be out of this world!

We built and installed these in the restaurant in May and they are doing so well, still looking brand new!

Cant wait for you to see what else we’ve been working on!

The post DIY Stacked Plywood Tables appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

You might remember that we are currently overhauling our family restaurant Durango’s Mexican Grill. (You will most definitely remember if you are in St. George and a frequent customer because the restaurant is still open for business!)

There were a few main goals when the reno began. Open it up, update the vibe. The first project in was the facade wall (you can read all about it here!) the next big project was to take out the overhead walkway and brick everything!

We (Court) demo’ed everything in a day and we’ve been working on getting it spruced up ever since.

The plan? White brick. I know what some of you are thinking. “Wont you have to clean it more if its white?” The answer is obviously yes, and honestly is that really a bad thing?

It is pretty fantastic when the stars align for a project. I was over at the bestie’s house talking about reno ideas and told her about the plan for brick and how I had no clue where to source it (this is when I was planning on laying it myself because I am the type of person that underestimates the scope of a project 10 out of 10 times.) Guess who’s family has a company that does exactly that? You guessed it! If you are in Southern Utah and itching for some brick/rock work you will want to call Squire at Quickstone Inc. 435-632-5272 they have been AWESOME to work with.

Working on a space that will be used by thousands of people is really different than working on a house. EVERYTHING has to be highly functional, highly durable and highly cleanable. The original plan was to have the brick mason’s make the brick white, but there were a few problems with that. The whitest that it can be made was a really light beige (see picture below). It would also need to be sealed afterwards (so that it could be wiped down) and it was more expensive because of the materials that had to be used to make it whiter.

After going over the situation, we decided that it would be better to have the masons make it as inexpensively as they could and then we would paint it after it was installed. This fixed all 3 problems. The paint was white, the brick was sealed (and if some annoying teenager decides to draw a wiener on the wall we can just touch it up) and it was less expensive.

So the brick went in! (We are in the middle of replacing the ceiling tiles and prepping them for paint so don’t mind that little situation.)

What a huge difference right?!

The brick also behind the counter and on the giant pink arch (don’t worry, we are taking out those windows and planter boxes too…someday…)

For paint I decided to use Sherwin-Williams Super Paint in High Hide White (if they don’t have that color at your local SW its just 3 oz of white pigment added to the extra white base)

We decided to paint before the grout went in because I want a little bit of color variation that I could control. Once the grout is in, the plan is to roll diluted white paint over the whole wall again to soften the grout lines and make it look nice and old. but painted. but still old. You know what I mean right?

I am beyond in love with it. Makes me want to put it in my house….

The post Durango’s Remodel: Brick Brick Brick appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

Hey guys! Man this week has flew by! We had the timing stars align for a project and have been hitting it full force (think staying up until 3 am every night). Some of you may know that Court’s family owns an awesome restaurant in St. George called Durango’s. It has become really successful over the last almost 14 years (because it is so good!!) so we thought it was about time to step the decor up to match the food.

This is what we’ve been working with. The building facades are very quintessential Durango’s, but also a little outdated and sort of impossible to replicate exactly in other restaurants for future franchising options.

So to fix all of it, we are completely updating every single nook and cranny of this place, and the first step is the facade wall.

I turned to my favorite graphic designer/assistant/dance partner Jamie to replicate the facade into simple 1 dimensional line art.

She took this:

And turned it into this:

So cool right?!

Demo took just a few hours and was relatively painless.

After the holes were patched and everything was cleaned up, it was time to prime. I had my guys at Sherwin-Williams tint the primer as dark as they could to minimize the painting as much as possible. When you paint with paint, the color dries darker than it goes on, well primer is the opposite, it dries lighter. Just a little piece of random info that no one will ever need. You’re welcome.

I sort of over compensated the size of the wall when I was buying paint. It only took 2 gallons to paint the monster (I bought 4) We used Sherwin-Williams Emerald in Iron Ore (just like here and here!) The reason that I love Emerald (and why I pay the $65 /per gallon price tag) is because it.is.the.best. The coverage is awesome (1 coat with a few touch ups on the heavily textured areas) and the durability is amazing.

Then we spent the next 3 days chalking and painting.

We wanted it to look a little sketchy and imperfect, so we exaggerated points where 2 lines met by dragging them out, or stopping it short.

I LOVE how it turned out (totally worth the 4 hours of sleep a night) and we are officially 7% done with the renovation! Hooray!!

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