Dudes! We are overhauling a 1972 Bell Travel Trailer! Follow the entire series from the beginning here!

When we bought our little vintage trailer, we were lucky enough to have not one, but two glorious faucets. The original faucet was a hand pump that had stopped working and had been connected to a small electrical pump that pumped the water from the small water tank that lives under the sink. The other faucet was connected to a copper pipe that ran to the outside water hook up. I am pretty sure that changing out the faucets was the first thing I touched on when we were talking about fixing up the Nugs.

My original thought was to just have one faucet (the sink is SO teensy) that connected to the water tank and not have one for the outside water hook up. There was just no way that I was going to put 2 faucets back in.

In the middle of the night I woke up to (what is most likely) a very obvious solution, that I just didn’t see. A faucet with 2 handles can utilize BOTH water pipes. But instead of being hot + cold, it would be outside + inside. So the hunt for a great faucet began. I had one requirement. Brass.

Have you ever shopped for a small brass faucet that isn’t hundreds and hundreds of dollars? It kind of doesn’t exist. After looking for a few days, I narrowed down my search to a bridge faucet which unfortunately increased the price. Whyyyyyyy?!!

There was no way that I was going to spend more on this faucet than I spend buying the entire trailer. That just doesn’t seem like the smartest move.

So I did what I do in every situation where I want something that just doesn’t seem to exist. I went to Home Depot.

There I found a few things,  a laundry faucet that had a brass neck, and John, the master plumber that worked there. I explained to him that I wanted to build a faucet and he was AMAZING and spent the next little bit coming up with solutions for the problem.

So here is the ingredient list.

(1) Laundry Faucet
(1) Soldering Kit
(1) Roll of Thread Seal Tape aka Teflon Tape

(2)  1/2” 90 degree elbows
(2) 1/2” stop valve
(2) Washer Caps
(2) 1/2” brass pipe hex nipple
(2) 1/2”x1-1/2” brass pipe nipple
(2) handles
(2) 1/2” T’s
Not Pictured (1) 1/2” copper male adaptor

(2) 1/2”x3” Chrome Brass Pipe Nipple **Have the employee at Home Depot thread these pieces as pictured above, that way, whatever the thickness of your countertop, you will be able to tighten the faucet down.

Assembly is really simple.

Start by replacing the handles on your Stop Valves. I used a little bit of 5 minute epoxy to make sure they stayed on really well.

Each of the nipples need to be wrapped with teflon tape before attaching them to their components.

The Hex nipple will attach to the bottom of the elbow.

Then the Stop Valve attaches to the other end of the Hex Nipple.

The brass nipple goes into the other side of the elbow.

Then the T is attached to that.

Lastly, the 3” pipe nipple that you had threaded attaches to the bottom of your Stop Valve.

Repeat for the other side.

Your copper male adaptor will attach to the top side of the T, and the brass faucet arm should fit fairly snuggly on that!

Next is soldering. Now. I know how you soldering virgins are feeling. I too was a soldering virgin. But it is not hard to do at all. And the best part is that you can start over as many times as you need to (you guys know how much I love that.)

Before you solder, start by scrubbing the inside and outsides of the pieces that you are joining together.

Brush on the flux (this is the magic ingredient that sucks the solder into the pipe)

Heat your pipe up so that it is nice and hot (all of the instructions for soldering are on the package of the kit, and I am sure there are hundreds of awesome videos that explain this much better than I do.)

Then it’s time for the actual solder. I don’t have a picture of this because molten metal, but it was really cool to see it disappear into the joint.

Obviously you will want to let it cool off before you get all manhandly.

Before you install, put the washer caps over the holes in your countertop. Because plumbing is different for every situation, take pictures of the underside of your sink, and head to your local HD. The plumbing expert will be able to help you get exactly what you need to connect your pipes.

The picture below is of what ours looks like. PVC nuts that tighten the faucet to the sink, and adaptors that screw onto the nipples and have a place to push into the new pipe. Home Depot has every kind and size of connector that you will need.

I cant wait to report back on how it works once we get the battery hooked up, the tank filled and the whole thing going!! But until then, lets just look at how pretty it is, shall we?

And if you are wondering if this would be good in a house, I am going to give you a resounding…I don’t know yet. The stop valves (where the handles are attached) are a type of gate valve, which basically means that it is a moving gate that blocks the water (or lets it in). Its not going to be as simple as lifting a single handle, but I think it would be gorgeous AND amazing. I will keep you posted!

The post DIY Brass Bridge Faucet appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

Dudes! We are overhauling a 1972 Bell Travel Trailer! Follow the entire series from the beginning here!   Huge thanks to 3M DIY for teaming up with us on this project!

Oh cabinets. You tricky little suckers, you. The original cabinets in The Nugget were simple. Some sort of bullet proof laminated particle board (no joke, this stuff is tough!) with black hammered outside hinges and a black hammered handle.

In order to keep costs down we decided that reusing them would be the best option.

After removing them from the trailer and removing the hardware, I used 3M Patch plus primer to fill the holes. This stuff is my fave!

When it was completely dry I sanded the front and backs of the doors. When you are painting over laminate using a 150 grit sandpaper like 3M Advanced Abrasives is an absolute necessity. I needed to give the paint something to stick to.

So go with me on this, sometimes we like to overcomplicate things, right!? When I was trying to decide the best painting route I had all of these paint options and techniques and it was just turning into such a process. What it finally boiled down to was durability and the finish. Guess what? Spray paint is AWESOME for both. No paint lines, no major clean up, and when you let if cure for the proper time period it is totally durable. I used Rust-O-leum 2x in White Satin and it matched my wall paint perfectly. (When does that ever happen? It was meant to be!!)

Please note the color difference between the backs of the cabinets, and the front (the 4th one down on the left) There was some major sun fading happening.

Trimming out the doors with wood proved to be a little more complicated. Finding wood that is 1/2” thick at a low price is pretty impossible, so we bought 1×2”s and ripped them in half on the table saw.

Then we measured and mitered the corners. Just a tip, when you are measuring for a 45 degree angle remember that you are measuring for the longest edge!

We attached the wood to the cabinet fronts with a staple gun, and then patched and sanded the holes again. Instead of spray painting the entire back side,  I used a little spray paint touch up trick. Spray a good-ish amount of paint into a disposable container. Then use a synthetic brush to touch up your spots.

It was at this point that I was having stress that everything was so blah. After playing around with a few ideas we finally decided that an off set vertical piece was just the detail that the cabinets needed.

I attached these pieces with glue and used ScotchBlue Painter’s Tape to hold it on for the recommended cure time.

While they were curing I put on the freaking amazing hardware.

I am proud to be a 3M- sponsored blogger, and, as part of my responsibilities, I get the opportunity to evaluate products from 3M DIY. Opinions are my own and additional product used in the project were selected by me.

The post The Nugget: Refinishing Cabinetry appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

The kitchen overhaul has begun, and like I promised, I am keeping you guys up to speed on all of the decorating projects and budget (I am trying to work with a real person fix it up budget).

Since the day we moved in I have hated the color of our countertops. When we bought the house the cabinets were lovely reddish oak (WHY!?)  This in turn made them look really peachy. It was like a freaking peachfest-a-palooza.

When we moved in we had someone come in and restain our cabinets,  which is a whole other can of worms that I will open when we start talking about the changes that they are getting.

Restaining them took the peach down a little, but it was still not good. Oh and please remember the motto when it comes to unstaged house photos…don’t judge me. This was the only one that I could scrounge up that was at the same angle.

The plan all along has been to follow in my girl Kara’s footsteps and use Feather Finish to put a concrete overlay on the existing countertops. It is a really inexpensive way to change the entire look of your counters. You are basically putting a few thin layers of concrete over you existing counter tops.

But.

As I was doing a little more research the reoccurring theme that I found was how easily concrete countertops stain. This has more to do with the sealer than the concrete btw.

This type of scenario comes up a lot when you are DIYing. Lets say you find a great chair with ugly fabric and you want to try your hand at painting it. You have to change the fabric out anyway so if you hate it then you are no worse for the wear.

That is how I am feeling about the counters. There is NO WAY that they are staying the way that they are. The new tile is too gorgeous and it doesn’t match, the way that mom jeans on a Victoria’s Secret model don’t match.

So do I try it out, hoping that the warnings that I read online are a little dramatic and it is amazing? All the while knowing that there is a good chance that they will need to be replaced in a few years? And then I can give you guys real life updates on how well they are holding up…

Or do I save the $100 and put it towards new countertops entirely and blow all hopes of redoing the kitchen for a few grand out of the water?

Do you have concrete counters? I WANT TO HEAR ALL ABOUT THEM! And if you know what kind of sealer was used I want to know all about that too!!!

My countertops lives are in your hands. No pressure.

psst! I am still accepting submissions for the DIY Gone Wrong Series that is happening next week! Find out all about it here.

The post Making a Case for Concrete appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

You.guys. I am so sorry to leave you hanging like that yesterday. When I had the entire post written it was like a 45 minute read and I mean, I know that Vintage Revivals is totally your favorite blog, but that is just asking a little too much.

So if you need to get caught up check out Part 1.

Now, where were we? Oh yes,  gnashing of teeth.

Because I was unwilling to put in wood that didn’t match in such a large open area that was directly connected to the old wood (though I know it can be done beautifully) I was left with the option of tile.

I think that picking tile goes back to my tip on picking carpet. If you are feeling overwhelmed,  stop what you are doing and walk away from the beige. Unless of course that is what you have your heart set on, then by all means,  be my beigey guest.

I ordered 4 different samples of tile from Build Direct because I believe in second chances and we had such a great experience with our original floors. These are they:

1 // 2 // 3 // 4

I knew immediately that the lower left hand sample was the winner. It is called Silk White and can be found here. The other ones just weren’t right. The lines were too bold and the white was too white (and I just realized as I was linking to it that it is actually wall tile. So don’t order it for your floors. Okey dokey?)

So I called the customer service rep up again and placed an order for my tile. We were becoming fast friends he and I. The price per sq foot was $2.19. I ordered enough to do my kitchen, my laundry room and both bathrooms. I learned my lesson. The total cost for the tile was $814 and the shipping was $435. Ouch.

One of the downsides from ordering something like this online is the cost of the shipping. I did this because even though increased my price by over $1.00 sq/ft it was still less than buying it from a local retailer. Total price including shipping was $3.31 sq/ft.

The size I ordered were 12×24”. I love the modern vibe that it gives off.

There are a few ways that you can lay tile of that shape/size without having to make cuts.

If you are into making custom tiles, check out this tutorial from my girl Michelle on how to make chevron tiles.

One of the biggest complaints that I had with the tile we already had was that the grout was always dirty looking. Originally it was sort of a reddish brown, but no matter what I did to it,  in the high traffic areas it was always dark gray. Except that time I tried to clean it with Kaboom Toilet Cleaner and bleached it…that TOTALLY changed the color…to gag me tangerine. Lesson learned.

So I decided that if the natural color of the grout was always going to be dark then I wasn’t going to fight it. Everyone recite the Serenity Prayer with me. I knew this was a battle that I was not willing to fight. AND I love dark grout especially after using it in Alicia’s Kitchen.

The grout that I chose is Mapei Sanded Grout in Charcoal. I believe that you can buy this at Lowes, but I bought mine at Contempo Tile. It is around $15 a bag.

At this point we were down to 3 weeks before the looming deadline.

I was starting to get stressed. The hardwood still had not been picked up,  the tile was coming from Virgina and wouldn’t be here for 2 weeks. This is what I would like to call All Hell, right before it breaks loose.

After close to 2 weeks, the tile finally arrived.

It was beautiful.

It was glorious.

It was going to be laid by a professional.

*Insert record scratch.

Are you guys disappointed in me?!

First off, let me explain myself. I have literally the most patient husband in all the world. He is up for anything and gives me all the creative freedom that I want. He never says no to a project. So when he told me there was no way that he was laying tile,  I had to believe him.

Plus there was the whole 1 week left before the deadline of my life scenario. Learning how to lay 12×24” tile in a herringbone pattern with 1/8″ grout lines? That was not a beast I was willing to poke. Mostly because I know it would have eaten me alive.

I had talked to a few different tile guys about doing the job, but everything kept falling through.

I needed a Hero. Ps. if this were an actual movie, this song from Bonnie Tyler would TOTALLY be playing right now.

You’re very welcome for getting that song stuck in your head for the rest of the day.

I needed someone that could come in the next 3 days, and have it done in 2. I needed someone that wasn’t going to charge me an arm and a leg (remember my realistic person budget?). And for goodness sake,  I needed someone who would let me take pictures of them.

Enter a Hero.

Meet Jamie. He was recommended by a friend and was everything. EVERYTHING. If you live in Southern Utah and want someone that has the Mandilicious Seal of Approval, you want him. He can be your hero too! If you want his phone # leave a request in the comments below and I will email it to you immediately.

It was so interesting to see how a professional did things vs how my brain would have done it. Simple things like setting a diagonal chalk line. I would have set a horizontal one and lined all the tips up. Such a smart man.

‘

Or not setting the tiles that were right in the middle of the door frame until all of the tiles in the pantry are set. The reason he did this is so that he could kneel on the tile without gushing out all of the thinset. I never would have come up with that. I would have had a tile that was 1/4” lower than all of the other ones.

And there is definately something to be said for having the right tools for the job.

One thing that I thought was really awesome were the spacers that Jamie used. I bought the little t ones from HD and he saw at that moment what a complete novice I was. These horseshoe shaped ones make things so much easier to set AND to remove. They don’t sell them at box stores, you have to get them from a tile shop.

He had the entire floor laid in 7ish hours. WHA!?! I would still be trying to work with a freaking horizontal chalk line after 7 hours. Ok lets be honest. I would have been curled up in the fetal position in my pantry underneath the paint shelf after 3.

Jaime came back the next day to grout.

Like the hero that he is Jamie finished the day before my massive deadline. My fridge was still in the freaking living room when the biggest event of my blogging career happened. “Oh hello, welcome to my house,  please sit down, and if you are thirsty you don’t even need to leave your chair. The refrigerator is fully stocked a mere 2 feet from your seat. Also, don’t mind that there are more paint rollers and brushes in there than food.” It was comical. Really.

Here are the 3 other tile samples that I ordered against the winner.

Now back to the wood. It was picked up about 3 weeks after the return had been requested, which was really frustrating, because that is a lot of money to just not have around, you know?

So the question becomes, would I buy from Build Direct again? I have to give a big fat resounding YES! They have really great prices, and the quality of products (at least the ones that I have experienced) are comparable to the much more expensive materials that you find elsewhere. Their return process was easy and they were really understand about my situation. But I will issue a word of caution. if you have to utilize their return policy,  just know that it can take  a few weeks until you have your money back in hand.

While the wood would have been fab, the tile is amazing. I love every single thing about it. I love the brightness that it brings to the space. I love that (while it may not be a new trend on the internet) it is very forward for Southern Utah. Which means in a few years when we may want to sell, it is going to be just catching on and people will be obsessed.

Now to answer the question that you have been dying to know. How does it hold up to dirt? Does it show every single thing?

I am going to say yes and no. Regular dirt and Wallie hair isn’t noticeable. Anything that has color? Yes.

But.

I would much rather have floors that show where they need to be cleaned, than to mask it so well they get filthy because I am blissfully unaware.

I have been moping them once every 10 days or so, and spot clean spills and they don’t look like you need to call Child Protective Services on me. So that is a win win.

As for the rest of the kitchen, I have lots of big plans. But that is another post for another day.

Questions? Leave them in the comments, and I will answer them there!

The post The Kitchen Flooring Saga Part 2 of 2 and the Reveal! appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

You know how when people get their first gray hairs they are usually named after their children? Not mine. Mine are going to be named Kitchen and Floors.

I shared a little bit of what was going on with the kitchen floors a few weeks ago in this post, but I wanted to give you guys the nitty gritty details(because those are totally my favorite kind.) and because I really do want to share the good the bad and the ugly. You might want to shield your eyes.

Ok, settle in, cause this story has it all…tears, disappointment,  a hero,  gnashing of teeth, a beautiful maiden,  and finally after a really long struggle between good and evil, a happy ending.

When we moved into our house 4 years ago the one thing that I wanted was hardwood floors. That was all. I would have been content without a refrigerator as long as I had wood floors. After doing a fair amount of research we ended up with Aspen Birch Engineered Hardwood from Build Direct.

Blast from the past I found this picture on our old family blog of the installation. Hello infant Dylan!

When we ordered our flooring it was a great price,  I want to say less than $2.25/sqft. The reason for the killer pricing is that it was being discontinued. We got the last of it and we have loved it. It is a great floor and I would not change anything about it.

Fast forward 4 years.

I have had the itch to update the kitchen. The St. George reddish beige cheap tile that is so builder basic it makes me weep openly, was just really grating on me. I could only cover it up so much. It made everything look redder…and crappier. A few of the tiles…(ok one of the tiles) was cracked and the grout always looked dirty. It was just not working.

Here is a rare picture from the early days of Vintage Revivals. Remind me one day to tell you the tale of the most embarrassing DIY I have EVER done.

My itch was scratched away when I happened to go on Build Direct and saw that our discontinued flooring was back in stock. The heavens opened, angels sang, yada yada yada.

I immediately requested a few samples from Build Direct to make sure that it was going to work out. But I really felt like this was a great option to continue the flooring all the way through the kitchen. It would flow so well with the wood from the living room.

This is the best picture I can find of where the wood ends and the tile begins.

The sample wood arrived really quickly and looked great. So I immediately ordered enough for the kitchen. The customer service rep was great and I was so excited about elevating the design and value of our house.

While we were waiting for the wood to arrive the demo on the tile began.

It was a sucky sucky job.

Made a little bit less sucky by an air chisel and this man’s muscles.

Insert fair maiden stage left with her trusty power chisel:

At this point all of the thinset was cleaned up and we pulled the wood out of the boxes.

There was a slight problem.

I mean, if its not immediately clear,  that problem was the the new didnt match. In some lighting it did, but in others it didn’t.

It didn’t have as much color variation as the old wood. If you look at the picture above you can see that in the top left of the picture there is a plank of the installed wood that is the same darkness as the new wood. But the color spectrum was not there.

I was so bummed.

Insert wailing and gnashing of teeth stage right AND stage left…and audience participation is also encouraged at this point.

I immediately jumped on the phone with Build Direct and told them what the problem was. They have a great return policy and after I sent them the above picture they agreed that the wood was not an accurate representation of the image and agreed to fully refund my order.

This is where it gets a little hairy.

I had 4 weeks to get the floor put in before a huge deadline. 1 month. Seems like a long time doesn’t it? Heh. Heh heh heh. That is my maniacal laugh.

So what is a fair young maiden to do?

Hardwood was out of the question. There was no way that I would find anything that matched, and I didn’t want to install something completely different. So that left me with 2 options. 1. Tile. or  2. Give up on life completely and live in a construction zone for all of eternity.

Tile won.

I hate to end the post here because that is SO annoying, I know. But it is getting really long and there is still so much more to share. I will be back tomorrow to finish the story (and show you the happy ending!)

The post The Kitchen Flooring Saga Part 1 of 2 appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

Holy cow, you guys. I just took a week off the blog. I dont think that has happened since…well ever. I love coming back with fresh perspective!

How many of us spend our days thinking and planning out our dream home? Saving all of our good ideas for it? Hoping that one day it will become a reality. Meanwhile reality is that we live in a place that we will be in for the next while and we look around and don’t love it, and possibly don’t even like it because of A) B) and C).

I do this, and mind you, it is my job to redecorate my house.

I get it. You don’t want to invest time and money into something because it is a starter home, not a forever home. But what is wrong with a starter home? Do you remember how excited you were to finally find it? I distinctly remember promising Court that I would keep our house clean all the time. (Something that he never fails to remind me about)

Have you noticed that you haven’t really seen my kitchen? Its because its not my favorite. How about my bathrooms? Again. Not my fave. This pic is from the MLS listing, it doesn’t look this bad anymore. But it still isn’t great.

In Southern Utah, builder basic consist of beige walls and red tile and oak. Such a happy little combination. But renovating is a little different than decorating. It can be expensive. It can take a long time. It can suck.

Its like the Serenity Prayer,  God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,  the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Sometimes we cant drop 20k into a kitchen overhaul where we move walls and get all new goods. Sometimes we cant change a thing.

But sometimes we can.

Rewind back to when we moved into our house 4 years ago. All I wanted was hardwood floors. That was it. I didn’t care if we had a fridge, a toilet, or an A/C until. I needed hardwood.

We found our floors on clearance and they had almost to the box the perfect amount for our living room/hallways/master. Also please remember that this was a full year before Vintage Revivals, before I started decorating, before I knew anything about design.

Since that order, the floor has been discontinued. Until 2 days ago. When I found it again.

I have made our kitchen as bearable as I can. But bearable is not my favorite. So I have set a really small budget for updating our kitchen. I am thinking along the lines of $2500. So there you go. Is it doable? Am I going to be eating my words?

We will see how that turns out.

So if you are in the same boat as yours truly,  enduring things because you don’t know if it will be worth it to change, I want to hear about it,  what is holding you back?

For everyone waiting on the Master Bedroom Makeover,  its coming along and I have the leather pillow tutorial coming up tomorrow!!

The post Love It For Now appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

Sometimes you find an amazing kitchen table that makes all of your hopes and dreams come true.

And sometimes you have to build one yourself.

We have been through our fair share of kitchen tables in our family. The cheap black distressed counter height table with stools that chipped when you gave it a dirty look. A gorgeous reclaimed wood table that was too long for our little space. And last but not least, a painted teal table that I was over after a few months. Its part of my DADD condition ( Decorating ADD if you are unfamiliar with the term. We jokingly refer to it at our house as Dad issues.)

Painted tables are just a little too much maintenance, and Court did not love the reclaimed wood (he felt like it was never clean) so that left me with 2 options. Metal or Glass. And since I have not yet learned the art of welding (don’t worry one day I will) glass it was.

I am super digging a warm modern industrial vibe right now and thought it would be fun to try my hand at building a pipe table. I wanted something unique but it needed to be easy for me to wrap my head around too.

First things first. Lets chat pipe. The pipe that I used is Rigid Steel Electrical Conduit. You 100% want to buy this from Lowes because they can cut it to your exact dimensions and thread it there. The rigid is important because they also sell electrical conduit that is very thin and cannot be threaded, therefore totally worthless for building anything,  especially a kitchen table. FYI you can also find Rigid Steel Plumbing Conduit at Lowes,  the only difference is that it is a bit more expensive because it is treated so that it is safe to use for drinking water. Save the $ for something important.

This is the awesome machine that cuts and treads the pipe. It uses lots of oil to help with lubrication while threading so be aware of that if you are transporting them in your car. Just ask for extra plastic bags to put on the ends to protect your carpeting.

As part of my DADD I have a mind that looks at a million components of the project all at the same time (it makes Court CRAZY.)  But before I could get all pipe happy,  I needed to find a piece of glass so I knew what my measurements for the table base needed to be. Glass table tops are FREAKING expensive FYI. I kept an eye out on Craigslist for one to pop up and at $100 it LITERALLY saved me $1,000. I know. $1,100 was the quote I received on glass. Such a better choice to go used. My glass measures 3’x5’

Now for some important bullet points:

• You guys know that I am all about girl power. In fact, most of the building projects at my house are done by me while Court is at work. But. Unless you are like a legit female bodybuilder, you will need someone strong to tighten all of the joints in this table. I tried to put this together while Court was out of town one week and it didn’t work so great.
• In my mind I thought I would have to have almost all of the pieces custom cut for my table. In reality, I only had to have the long pieces cut. All of the short pieces are precut (which is FANTASTIC for everyone involved.)
• While this may seem obvious to everyone else I just need to share. Measurements for the pipe goes from end to end including the threading. So if you are going to come up with your own measurements be aware of that fun fact. And you will also need to factor in the space for the fittings (for example a T fitting adds about 1” to your total measurement because it has to have room to accommodate the pipe that comes out of the bottom.

Now for the fun part.

To build this table you will need:

(1) Pipe Joint Compound (this lubricates the treads and makes it easier to tighten,  it is a must have.)

(4) Floor Flanges (roughly $6.00 each)

(8) 90 degree Elbows

(12) T Joints (they look like a T!)

(4)  Bushings (roughly $9.00 each)

(8) 10” Pipe

(12) 3.5” Pipe

(8) 8” Pipe

(4) 50” Pipe (these are the ones you will have to have custom cut and threaded at Lowes.)

Pipe Wrench (or 2)

Start by building your table top (aka the part that is going to hold your glass)

We found it worked really well to use a smaller piece of pipe temporarily  to tighten all of the elbows and Ts, because you can get more leverage than you can just holding onto the fitting.

This is SUPER important to note.  Every time you are completing a closed shape (like a square or rectangle) you need to have 1 of 2 things happen. To screw both ends tightly into your fittings you need to have one side reverse threaded (which I believe only exists in a real life metal working shop, they did not do it anywhere that I could find here)  OR you need to screw one end of the pipe very deeply into the joint so that it will have room to unscrew a little while screwing it into the other end,  (deep enough that it wont come all the way off of the first end.)  This is the technique that we used and it worked great (because of my husbands massive muscles and my cheering.)

The only place that you will encounter this backward twisting situation is the table top support. It will be the center bar and one of the small pieces (because technically there are 2 rectangles being created.)  . When you are doing this (especially with the middle crossbar, it helps to have your pipe screwed into one end and angle the T so that you can rotate it to be on the end of the pipe.)

The Pipe Unions on the legs have a giant nut that connects them together so you wont have this problem there.

This is a Pipe Union. They are a little bit expensive (about $9.00 each) but they add character and simplify the building process.

Here is a detailed diagram of all of the components so that you know exactly how to assemble your table.

It is very important for the stability of your table to have a cross piece at the bottom. That way if your fat cousin Kenny comes over and happens to sit on your new table it wont flatten.

To prevent the glass from sliding I used clear rubber disks on each corner elbow, and they have worked PERFECTLY.

I absolutely LOVE this table. Total cost including the glass was around $350. No too shabby if I do say so myself.

It adds just the right amount of industrial to the space.

Check out these posts for more info on the other elements in the space:

Black Wall

Purple Over dyed Rug

Mid Century Chairs

Living Room Reveal

This project was sponsored in part by Lowes, because I love them and their employees.

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We have all seen on HGTV those amazing kitchen renovations where it literally doesnt look like the same house. Then we sigh that it will probably never be a part of our reality. Well, luckily for me, I was able to see/help design a transformation of this magnitude over at my in-laws. Yesterday I showed off the living room before and after, and as astounding as that is, the kitchen is literally to die for.

This is what it looked like before. My MIL pretty much despised it from the day they moved in. It was plagued with the worst that the early 90’s had to offer. Oak Cabinetry, drop down ceiling, florescent lights, off white Formica countertops. It felt teeny and crowded and drove her crazy.

Working through the design we decided that the first things that had to go were the wall separating the kitchen and the living room, the peninsula, and that freaking drop down ceiling.

So the men got to work demoing, removing cabinets, and other manly things.

And since this isnt that type of blog there wont be any tutorials on how to remove a wall. So sorry folks, but I am not an expert at that.

Then like magic we move on to this:

Oh look! A new ceiling, can lighting and floors!

And from there we go to this:

Anyone with a pinterest account knows that white cabinetry and subway tile are all the rage,  but sometimes it can just be so white. To balance the whiteness we used dark gray countertops (Concrete by Caeserstone) and dark grout in the tile.

The floating open shelving is made out of dark walnut and totally warms up the white.

Both of the vintage lights are thrift store scores (of course they are!! Would you expect anything less?)

We painted the wall at the far end of the kitchen with Sherwin Williams Iron Ore to tie it into the living room, and to tone down the white a little.

Before the reno this living room was never used (there is a TV room that is off the entry that we used WAY more) but now this gorgeous area is the center of the home.

Dont forget to check out the Living Room Reveal too! Questions? Leave them in the comments and I will be more than happy to answer them!!

The post Alicia’s Kitchen Renovation Reveal appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

I must admit, up until a year ago I was not a fan of black. I felt like it was just too harsh and preferred a dark gray over black any day. When we moved into our house we painted everything, EVERYTHING a really great greige (Hopsack by Ralph Lauren) Now, you have to remember that we did all of this before I started Vintage Revivals, before I found the world of DIY, before I had ever tried decorating. I just found this picture browsing our family blog and it made me gasp in horror. This is our house a few months after we moved in. Can you even believe that?!!

If you would have told me then what my house would look like now, I would have called you a liar and asked how the view from the telephone wire was.

But here we are today,  with an orange velvet couch,  a giant bike painting and now a black wall.

So lets discuss the black.

I have used a super dark gray before in a few rooms (the only one that has been revealed is the $150.00 makeover,  the other one is coming very soon…muah hahahaha)  The color is called Iron Ore by Sherwin Williams and it is THE BEST dark gray color I have found HANDS DOWN. It is a true gray, not too purpley, bluish, or greenish. Just a straight gray. And that is how I wanted my black to be. Pure black.

The color that I ended up with is Tricorn Black by Sherwin Williams. Its the same color of black that I used to case in my entryway and give my windows mascara (aka black trim).

This is what I started with: (also please pay no attention to the giant pixilated box…still working on the tutorial for that one before the reveal.)

This area is not huge, but just because something isn’t ideal in your mind doesn’t mean it needs to be forgotten or brushed over. You can still make it amazing.

I started painting and when I got this far I stepped back and knew that it was love.

I used a satin sheen to hide as much of the orange peel texture of our walls as possible.

Did you know the lower the sheen the more texture is hidden? Its true! Some of you may be wondering why I didn’t use flat if I wanted to hide as much of the texture as possible. For you my friends I have 2 reasons,  1. I didn’t want it to look like a chalkboard wall, cause its not, its just a black wall. And 2. The higher the sheen the better the scrubablity. This is where 95% of our eating happens and you never know when a bottle of ranch dressing is going to explode on your face and the wall behind you (true story that happened to me when I was 10). Satin is the best of both worlds.

The biggest worry that people have when doing something like this is obviously the light issue. If you are painting an area black, wont it be really dark/depressing/Satan worship-y?

I think that if you did that in a room with little to no natural light it for sure can happen. In this area of our house though it is full of natural light (there are 4 windows just in that little alcove) so to answer your burning question, yes those specific walls are darker but its almost like the walls disappear, all you notice are the windows. AND to balance out the dark all of the other walls/ceiling is pure white, so overall its actually brighter than it was when everything was Greige.

So for those of you that are thinking about this (yes, I am talking to you Facebookers) and wondering how I am feeling about it I big huge fat love it. I cant believe I was even a little bit concerned about doing it black! So thanks for pushing me off the proverbial cliff friends!

I have some big plans for that solid wall and the plan is to replace the white blinds with something else, either a roman shade or some earthy matchstick blinds. Which would you choose?

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