This is so easy it almost doesn’t even deserve a post. Almost.

Start with your not so beautiful shinny brass item. In my case it was an $8.00 thrift store lamp inspired by this.

Use Grecian Gold Rub-N-Buff. DO NOT USE Antique Gold. Its really peachy and looks completely foreign on the brass. You can get it at most craft stores like Michaels.

With an old T Shirt rub it on to your piece,  it doesn’t have to be perfect!

Ta Da! You are done!

So much better right?!

Love  Your  Guts,  Mandi

The post The Secret To Tarnish Brass In One Easy Step! appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

Love it or hate it blogging has become a business for many of us. But blogging is such new frontier that there are few set rules and even fewer guidelines on how to do it the right way. There are so many little tips and tricks and ins and outs of this crazy world that I want to share with everyone what I have learned along my journey.

You should know that I am not the expert in all of this but I have a few morsels of awesome I want to pass along.

You may or may not remember this post about Ways You Can Make Money Blogging.

I highlighted a few companies that I work with to bring in some flowski (as Court calls it).

One of which was Social Spark.

For those of you who don’t know what Social Spark is here is the readers digest version:

Social Spark is an ad network where you write sponsored blog posts about a certain company or subject.

I Love Social Spark because you set your price and then they send you offers from all different types of companies. You can either accept or decline the offer. You have no obligation to post something that isn’t in line with your content. They tell you in advance how much each campaign is worth. They range anywhere from $5.00 to hundreds. They work with a lot of large reputable brands and have AMAZING customer (blogger) service.

Because they have such a wide offering you just have to make sure that you are blogging with what you feel comfortable with. I get offers daily from Social Spark. Most have nothing to do with my blog so I don’t accept them. You can determine for yourself what is right for your blog. I just choose to keep mine on the topic of my niche.

You can see an example of a post I did that was sponsored by Social Spark and Pier 1 here.

But here is some info that I can pretty much guarantee you haven’t found even if you are apart of Social Spark.

Did you know that they give an estimate of what a sponsored post is worth based on your blog’s analytics?!

Once you sign up with Social Spark and link your analytics to their site it will give you an amount of what your posts are worth to sponsors!!

Really quick here is how you find it.

Log into your Social Spark Dashboard. Click on Your Properties.

Then click on Edit Property:

Then scroll down to #3. That will give you an estimate of what your post is worth based on your stats. You need to remember that SS works in points not $,  so count one penny for each point.

The question then becomes, will companies pay that? The suggested price for Vintage Revivals was much much higher than I thought it would be. You should know that I have not been paid the amount that my suggested price is, but knowing what it is has significantly improved my confidence when I work with brands and on other Social Spark campaigns. I am not scared to negotiate because the brands see what my suggested post price is and they know they are getting a deal!

When you work with Social Spark you have the control to blog about what YOU want, there is NO obligation to post if you don’t want to. I love that. I feel like I am in complete control. You actually have a say in your prices,  and work with really great brands. You can sign up here. Good Luck!!

Love  Your  Guts,  Mandi

In the spirit of full disclosure I will receive referral credit if you sign up with Social Spark. But truly all opinions are 10000% mine yo.

The post Insight Into How Much A Sponsored Post Is Worth appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

I have had this idea running through my head for a year and just never took the time to execute it. I love the art at Thrift Stores. Its quirky and strange and cheap and has a story to tell. Sort of like me!

Yesterday I went thrifting with one of my FAVORITE people in the world, Hailee (you might remember her from her Living Room Makeover and The Thrifting Adventures of Wanda and Sylvia)

I found a ton of great crap. Nothing huge furniture-wise just lots of small things, like those sweet books above for $1.00 each, and I am a little obsessed at how they are sun bleached ombre. I love them.

One of the things that I nabbed for $4.00 was this oil painting:

I have been looking for something that has texture in the picture and this wintery landscape was perfect, it had TONS of texture.

I gave it a few really light coats of Classic Gray. With this type of project you have to do REALLY light coats because you want to keep as much as the texture as possible, texture is your BFF right now.

After my paint dried I used just a basic white acrylic paint mixed with a glazing medium and glazed the picture.

For those that don’t know what that means, sit down my child and let me show you.

Cover the area with your glazing mixture. Make sure that you get in all the nooks and crannies and other such orifices.

With a damp cloth wipe it off in one direction.

Then with a damp cloth go back over and clean it up a little bit more, wiping in the same direction.

Let it dry and if you want it to be heavier go back over it again! (Just remember when you are doing something with such small details to be patient and just know that you might have to glaze it a few times!)

SO easy right? Now you are an official glazing genius!! Congrats!

Also, do you follow me on Facebook?

Cause if you don’t you are SERIOUSLY missing out on awesome stuff,  like this little happy nugget of thrift store awesomeness that I shared yesterday….

I mean, HOW could we not buy these?! Finding one was amazing but finding two?! A freakin miracle.

Love  Your  Guts,  Mandi

The post 15 Minute Art From A Thrift Store appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

Hey my friends!

Sorry I have been a little MIA this last week! We have lots going on over here and in order to not COMPLETELY lose it I had to take a break for a minute! I cant believe all of the amazing responses to getting more organized. You guys are AMAZING! And I will for sure be doing a follow up post about what I have found works for me (as soon as I have time to implement it…hahah)

BIG HUGE Thank You to everyone who voted for Vintage Revivals for the Homies, even though I didn’t win I TOTALLY felt like a winner. mwah!

I have a fun post coming up tomorrow about the thrifting treasures I have found and lost the last little while (its going to be a GOOD one!!)  I love posts like that, where everything is still in its raw thrifted form. FOREVER ago I used to do a bi-weekly linky party called “Look What I Found Friday” and while I don’t think I will bring it back, I will totally add a linky to tomorrows post if you guys want to link up your thrifty junk. Let me know!

I am in the middle of like 5 projects for Dylan’s room (cause that’s how we roll at the Gubler’s)  Here is a sneak peak at one of my faves! Can you guess what it is?

I found out last night that there are only 15 tickets left for SNAP! If you are thinking about coming I PROMISE you will LOVE IT. The things that are planned are out of this world amazing and I would love to meet you!

Ok. I think that is everything.

Oh and I have LOVED the interactive type posts that we have had lately. Do you guys like those too? Should I do them more often?

Love  Your  Guts,  Mandi

The post By Way Of Announcements and a Sneak Peek appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

I cant wait to share with you guys the next installment of Dylan’s room! Check out her new Wooden Openwork Cube Pendant Light.

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I was super inspired by this light from Restoration Hardware. And set out to totally knock it off…but it was WAY more complicated than I thought it would be. And you guys know I never give up on a project fail so after thinking about it for a few hours  I decided to do something that had the same vibe but was simple enough to actually execute.

First you want to make your cube. I used 3/4 Square Dowel from Home Depot for this fun light. I used 25 feet. Cut your dowel into 4 long pieces (mine were 15”) and short pieces (to figure out the length you need just subtract the width of 2 dowels from the end, so ours was 13.5”)

You are going to make 2 squares that look like this:

We used our nail gun and finishing nails. If you don’t have a small compressor with a nail gun I TOTALLY recommend getting one, we use ours so much!!

Nail through the ends of the long pieces into the short ones.

Doesn’t my husband have cute hands?

Then when you have made your 2 squares you are going to connect them with the 4 remaining pieces.

After you have constructed your cube you are going to put in your cross pieces. Cut the ends at 45 degree angles.

We made it so the edges were on the top and bottom of each square. Also does anyone want to explain to me why the grass on our lawn is dead but its alive and kicking in the cracks in our driveway?

Make sure that all of your pieces are going the same direction. You can tell if you did it right if you get X’s when you look at any side straight on.

For the pendant light I used one that I found at Home Depot on MASSIVE clearance. It was $10.88! Crazy!

I did this next step backwards so DO AS I SAY NOT AS I DO! To be able to suspend the cube on the pendant light we needed something to hold it in place. I had some rubber washers from a light kit that we cut in 1/2 and put it on. Do this and THEN paint. Because you can get some scratching if you do it the other way.

Then its time to install your light. There are lots of videos on youtube on exactly how to do this by licensed elecricians. It is really easy but can be a little nerve wracking if you have never done electrical work before.

Notice our cube isnt on yet.

You need to drill a hole in one corner. This was probably the hardest part of the whole shebang.

We started by drilling into the corner

We drilled the hole bigger than neseccary so that it would sit level. If you have a small hole then there isnt going to be room for error if its not perfect. And lets face it, its not going to be perfect. SO  make you hole bigger than you need. Ok?

We also ended up pulling one of the pieces of wood apart so that we could get it on the pendant. We just used a smallish screw to reattach it.

I stained the wood with Minwax Natural 209. (if you haven’t been here for long you should know that I am OBSESSED with light wood. Its my fave!)

And then you are done!

Don’t you love the impact that it has?!

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Its industrial-ish frame work totally shows off the pendant and Edison bulb (you can buy them at Home Depot or Lowes!)  Its modern, raw, warmish, and industrial all in one big beautiful package!

And don’t be scared to try this! Its not as scary as you would think! And the best part? I spent $45 on the whole thing.

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Voting for the Homies Best DIY Blog ends tomorrow at midnight! Right now I am in 6th place (yay!) but it is SUPER close. If you liked this project I would love a vote!

The registration is SIMPLE! Click the link, scroll to the bottom of the Nomination List and you will see a spot to register (if you don’t already have an account with Apartment Therapy) you can sign up with an email or FB. Then you will go back to the post and click the VOTE button next to Vintage Revivals. It will take you less than 2 minutes!   I pinky promise! Thanks guys!!

Love  Your  Guts,  Mandi

The post Openwork Cube Pendant Light appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

*If you are visiting Vintage Revivals for the first time today WELCOME! Right now I am in the middle of a bedroom overhaul and there is LOTS of great stuff coming up that I KNOW you wont want to miss,  so make sure you subscribe! Pick your poison to the right ——–> all are updated frequently! And I hope you will make yourself at home! We are like one big fat spray paintin’, thrift shoppin’ , color lovin’, doing things on the cheap, and feeding our kids cereal 4 nights a week, DIY family of AWESOMENESS in this corner of the net.

UPDATE:  Today’s Nate segment is LIVE! Check it out here!

Ok now on to the DIY fun. This is one of my FAVORITE projects to date. Seriously I am in LOVE.

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Thank you everyone for all of your amazing suggestions, you guys are genius’! The plan that I had for this mid century modern piece changed when I remembered this KILLER rug that I scored at Ross for $20 a few months ago (if you see something amazing BUY IT even if you don’t have anywhere for it at the moment, you never know when you will wish you had it!)  My SIL had it at her house and I totally had forgotten about it. Its like finding money in your pocket, except its one of a kind, perfect money that is super colorful and did I mention PERFECT!?! Love it when that happens!

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Because the rug is so bright and the pattern is crazy bold, a color on the dresser was just not going to happen.

Imagine my happiness when I stripped off the green paint and saw real wood underneath! I was so so excited about it.

If you are stripping stuff I totally recommend using Citristrip. It works great and doesn’t eat your flesh if you get some on it, so that’s a bonus…you know if you like your flesh.

There are a few methods to using Paint Stripper. The way that I use it, is to put a layer down and then cover it with plastic so it doesn’t dry out too fast.

After about 10 minutes I take it off and let the stripper turn from orange to white. When it is white then its ready to come off.

You can use a stripping tool or a putty knife to scrape the paint off. Once you have as much stripped as you can use a stripping pad (or old washcloth) doused in Paint Thinner to get the residue from the Citristrip and remaining spots of paint off.

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I painted the drawer fronts with Krylon White Gloss. I didn’t prime it because I wanted a really high gloss finish (If you use Kilz to prime it makes your piece have more of a satin finish FYI)

Then I put the hardware on.

A little trick when you are placing your hardware that has more than one hole is to line it up and press it firmly into the piece. It leaves a little mark so you know where to drill!

I thrifted an old dresser for $10.00 that was pretty beat up. In fact it hasn’t ever made it into the garage so its forever ruined. These knobs are the reason that I bought the ugly old thing, because they are AMAZING! (Don’t you agree?!)

And now just look how pretty it is.

Can you even believe this is the same piece?

And the best part is that this was such an easy DIY and a great way to add some modern flare to Dylan’s room. If you have an afternoon you can TOTALLY do this project!!

You can see all of the posts in this series here.

Here are the tutorials for the Faux Bois Lampshade and Faux Taxidermy Rhino.

And the last bit of business today. THANK YOU to who ever nominated me for The Homies over at Apartment Therapy! I have been nominated in the Best DIY Blog category (its new this year…I like to think that I inspired it…hahaha)    So if you feel so inclined I would love a vote! Sort of like a virtual slap on the butt for all my hard work. Thanks guys, you rock my world!

Love  Your  Guts,  Mandi

The post FREE Retro Dresser Redo & a $20 Rug appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

So we’ve all got them. Well most of us, some more than others. If you don’t have one guaranteed you have pinned a couple and just havent gotten the guts to do it.

What am I talking about? Striped Walls of course! I LOVE striped walls, they are such a great way to add interest to a room. But what happens when you don’t want stripes anymore?

Here is the problem. If you do stripes perfectly you have a clean crisp paint line. A paint line that doesn’t go away…

So.

I paid the genius guys over at Sherwin-Williams a visit and asked them what I needed to do to remedy this little situation.

Get ready to sand your heart out. I found that using a sanding block and doing it by hand was best. (I tried using an electric sander and it sort of melted and ate up the paint. (Yes, even with new sandpaper)  I think it was because of the heat.

I used 150 grit paper and went to town.

Now here is where there is a fine line (pun completely intended). If your walls are SUPER textured like mine you have 2 options. You can sand until the line is 100% gone (leaving no texture) or you can leave your texture (and a little line). I went for the little line with wall texture intact. Either way they are not going to be perfect unless you retexture them. Which I was NOT going to do.

Once your walls are sanded (6 hours later) its time to paint.

This is where you are going to make up for your little bit of line that is left. If you use a lower sheen paint it diminishes the shadows. Remember my herringbone ceiling? I had a TON of comments asking if it was even textured. SOOOOOO just for a fun comparison check this out:

Same texture. The difference is that the gray ceiling is Semi Gloss and the Herringbone is Flat. Crazy right?!

So by lowering your sheen you lower the shadows, which makes it not as noticeable.

I used Sherwin-Williams Super Paint in Satin.

It’s a paint and primer in one and literally covered the stripes in 2 coats. Which is FANTASTIC considering I was painting bright white over a dark gray. This is one coat in

The last trick to hide the stripes I made up. Which means that it may seem a little strange but I thought it worked pretty great. After the first coat of paint is on and dry, load your roller and press it into the line. Not rolling, just pushing it onto it. It gives it a little more texture than you would get from rolling. Then once that is completely dry do your second coat.

This was the spot on my wall that I was most concerned with because of the window and door placement. If there was a line on it you would see.

This is what it looked like when I was all done:

Turned out pretty great huh?

So now I am left with this giant white box. Its like Design Star in my house right now! I cant wait to show you guys Dylan’s new bed, its been sitting in my garage for MONTHS.

Oh and just for fun I found this SUPER awesome tool from Sherwin-Williams where you put your room size into a calculator and it tells you how much paint you need! Check it out here (it was right on for me!)

love  your  guts,  mandi

The post Undoing A DIY: How To Repaint A Striped Wall appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

My master bedroom has been “in the works” for a while. I started stenciling it in June,  and installing board and batten in September. One mistake that I think so many people do that  make things more complicated and frustrating is that they become so SET in a color palette or design scheme that they don’t let the room design flow organically. This room makeover is the PERFECT example of that.

Are you ready for the ultimate before and after?!! Here is the Before Before…Like from the MLS listing when we bought our house…:

Sick Nasty, right?!

If you want to see more of the NASTY MLS listing that I fell in love with you can click here.

This is what it looked like after we moved in and how things are in my real life and fixed it up a little…and by fixed up I mean got rid of that diseased carpet.

Originally the room was going to be Coral and Navy and Gold. That is it. Nothing else. I was struggling a little trying find fabric that matched the Coral Mirrored Dresser (Krylon Coral Isle). I had an impossible time trying to find something that was Navy AND Coral. Like IMPOSSIBLE. There was none.

So what is a girl to do? I went to the DI (Utah’s version of the Goodwill) and looked in the women’s clothing section. Did you know that you can find some really great fabric at the Thrift Store? Most long skirts or dresses have at least a yard or 2.

When I saw this skirt I KNEW it was perfect for the space. No it was not Coral and Navy. BUT it had Coral and Navy in it as well as a ton of other true bright colors. It was exactly what I needed to bring more life to the room.

So I made it into pillows!

(All of the other fabric for the pillows is from Joann’s and the pillow forms are basically stolen they were so cheap. The white duvet and fuchsia sheet are from Target. The green throw is from Homegoods.

Using this fabric TOTALLY opened up my entire color scheme which I LOVE!! The stencil is amazing right?! You can see a full tutorial on how to stencil your walls here.  If you have a large space to fill lining large pictures up is a great way to fill the space. And the coat of arms throws it off balance a little and makes it way more interesting.

Here is the before of that wall:

Did you notice that I spray painted my bed frame brass? I used Krylon Metallic in Brass.

On the opposite wall I used the mirror that used to hang in my entryway.

You guys know that I am OBSESSED with awesome frames and buy them any time I see one. I have accumulated quite the collection so I hung the board and batten so that I could show them off. Its like a mixture of a gallery wall and specimen art of awesomeness.

Here is a before of that wall..

I used basic white curtains from Ikea and hung them really high on the wall. This makes the windows seem much bigger. Just make sure if you do this that your curtains are long enough to touch or puddle on the floor. Personally, I love a good puddle.

I found the nightstands at Homegoods on clearance, and you can see the full tutorial on how to make the hanging pendant lights here.

And don’t you LOVE that giant horse head?! I found that at Homegoods also.

The before of this chair deserves an award. Don’t you think?

Now for some fun shots.

Pretty fab. Very colorful and COMPLETELY Mandilicious.

If you have any questions leave them in the comments,  hope you have a great weekend!

Linking to Thrifty Décor Chick

The post Master Bedroom Before and After appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

UPDATE: You can see the entire room reveal here!

I love custom lighting, don’t you? Like love love love it. When I was finishing up my Master Bedroom (that will be unveiled later this week) I needed lights for my nightstands. I knew that I wanted them to be symmetrical but the dilemma that I ran into is that I already had 2 symmetrical lamps on my dresser. It was just too matchy. Blech.

So I did what I always do. I thought about what the PERFECT light would look like if I could have exactly what I wanted. You do this don’t you? When you decorate you need to dream and feel the space. Then let your DIYing get to work.

I decided that I wanted to jump outside the lamp box after all I wanted LIGHTING, not a lamp.

I knew that if I was going to hang something in front of the window it needed to still let natural light in. So I went to my favorite store in the world Homegoods and bought 2 identical glass urns. Its sort of hard to understand how big they are. My head could easily fit inside on. And I have a big head…

If you wanted to do this with ones that didn’t match that would be totally awesome too, just make sure you have more than 2. So, it would be great above the counter in your kitchen where you have pendant lights….just saying.

I found 2 matching lights at Home Depot that were on MAD clearance (less than $10.00 each) that I used the hanging hardware from. I could have used the entire thing (Hardware, electrical etc.) but I wanted to use an Edison bulb and these lights had a FUNKY socket that only takes special bulbs with prongs…. So that was added cost and labor that most of you probably wont have to deal with.

If you need to rewire it, here is how you do it. If you don’t, hang tight through these next few steps!

You will need a hanging light kit and a socket.

I had 2” holes drilled in the bottom of the glass because I am an idiot. YOU DO NOT NEED HOLES THIS BIG!!!!!!! You only need a 1/2” hole to fit the small rod. This is how to drill through glass.

Take your socket and screw it onto the threaded rod then attach the hanging bar. (Normally this bar is used when you are attaching it to the ceiling but I needed something to keep the socket on since my hole was so dang big). BUT even if you have a small hole I would recommend doing this or something like it. The glass jars are really heavy and it helps distribute the weight a little better.

Then you are going to wire your socket. The instructions are very simple and included in the packaging. If you are concerned you can always hire an electrician. But you should be totally fine!

Once your socket is wired you have this:

With the cord coming out of the bottom, sorry I missed that in the shot!

Next you are simply going to put all of the components together. Super easy!

And make sure that it works before you hang it!

Don’t I have the best husband in the world?

I sort of wanted the vintage bulb to be the star of the show. You can buy bulbs like this at Home Depot or Lowes for around $10. Pretty pricy but SO worth it!!

And make sure to check out all of my other unique tutorials if you need more lighting ideas in the Project Graveyard!

The post How To Make A Custom Pendant Light appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

I have had a few pretty major room makeovers using Board and Batten. It is my FAVORITE way to bring white walls into a room and still give it visual interest. I wasn’t planning on doing a tutorial on this but I have had SO many emails about it I thought I would share a quick tutorial. This is the cheapest, easiest way I have found to do Board and Batten. And cheap and easy are a pretty great combo…

The pictures are going to be a collection of the last 3 Board and Batten projects that I have done, so if they don’t match that is why! This is also a great case of do as I say not as I do.

Head to your local Lowes or Home Depot. In the lumber section they have big 4×8 sheets of MDF. MDF is a really dense particle board that has a flat smooth finish. I have encountered 2 different types; one has a little bit larger pieces of wood in it (like you can actually see the particles) and the second looks really similar to cardboard. The first one is the one that I prefer. It takes a cut cleaner and doesn’t seem to soak in the paint as badly on the cut edges.

There are quite a few different thicknesses of MDF. I usually get the 1/2” but in Hailee’s Room Makeover we used 3/4” and it looked awesome. Its just going to be a personal preference yo.

Ok so now that you have your giant sheet of MDF you need it cut. Home Depot and Lowes have huge saws that will rip cut it into pretty perfect pieces. Just tell them the thickness that you want it to be. I prefer something between 3-4”. So you will end up with a bunch of pieces of MDF that are 4”x8’.

Now the order that you put everything together is what is hard sometimes. I have tried it 5 different ways and this is the way I prefer to do it.

Start by painting your wall the color you want it to be. It is MUCH easier to roll on the color without a bazillion corners. Because we were going to have someone come and spray Hailee’s we didn’t do this but you an see how we took the top wall color down far enough that we didn’t have to go back and touch it up.

When you are figuring out the measurements for your Board and Batten take the width of your wall and subtract the total width of your boards, then divide it by the # of sections that you want That will give you your spacing between boards.

For example:

Lets say our wall is 5 feet (60 inches) and you want 4 sections in your Board and Batten. You had your pieces cut to 3”wide strips and you are using 4 so that is 12” total width ,  your math would look like this: (60-12)/4. Each of the spaces between your boards is going to be 12”.

So the next step is to cut a guide piece that is 12” long. That way you can perfectly space your boards all across the wall.

Start by putting your cross board (or boards depending on the length of the wall) up first. If you are doing an entire wall floor to ceiling then place it right against the ceiling. If you are starting the B&B partway down the wall use a laser level to place your board.

Once your cross piece is up you will start putting your first board up. This would be the board right against the edge of your wall. Make sure that it is level ALL THE WAY DOWN. The easiest way to level it is to start in the middle with one nail  then go down and level and nail the bottom. Then go up to the top and do the same. Then secure it more with a few nails in between. And don’t be surprised if your walls aren’t level, just make sure your boards are. You can go back and fill the gaps with putty.

Continue this for the entire wall.

If you are doing cross boards now is when those are installed. Cut a guide piece and do it the same way you did before but this time it will measure vertically instead of horizontally. The white board in this picture is my guide.

Now I am going to tell you a little secret. Some of you might hate me for life but, you gotta do what you gotta do.

At Hailee’s house there was NO WAY the boards were going to wrap perfectly from her hallway entrance over to her kitchen entrance. I mean that is like a 1 in a million chance. So we started at the hallway entrance and went 1/2 way across the windows and stopped. Then we went to the kitchen entrance and went the opposite way and stopped 1/2 way across the windows again. The reason is because of the curtains and the couch were always going to be there (yes, even if she moves the couch you can’t tell that a board is missing)  That way it looks perfect and the wonky is hidden! (You can see where we skipped the board in the picture below)

Once all of your boards are up it is time to putty. I prefer to use drywall spackle. There is a special kind that you can get that starts pink and turns white when it dries. Fill in all of your seams and nail holes.

While that is drying its time to caulk. If you want it to look legit you wont skip this step. It makes such a big difference.

You can buy white or clear caulk, it doesn’t matter, just make sure its paintable. I like to use the smaller squeeze bottles of caulk because the caulking gun hurts my hand… Cut the tip at an angle,  there is a guide on the tip of the caulk on where to cut it. With the long tip on the top gently squeeze a line of caulk into the corner where your board meets your wall. Then with a damp rag over your fingertip wipe all the way down the caulk line. This will get off all of the excess.

This next step is extra fast if you have a palm sander. Take a piece of fine grit sandpaper to the drywall putty once it is dry to smooth it out. I also run it along the edges of all of the boards to soften them just a hair.

Take a damp washcloth or a piece of tack cloth and wipe off all of the dust. You need a clean surface to paint.

If your board and batten ends on an exposed corner and the corners of you wall are rounded you will need to fill in the huge gap. Just use the same drywall putty as before and know that it will take a while to dry. It doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth but just make sure that it doesn’t dip below where your edge is. You will lightly sand it when its dry and it will be seamless!

We also had to do that on this corner because of the curve in the wall.

Now its time to paint! I 100% recommend using a Purdy White Dove Roller. It will give you a much smoother texture than a regular roller and last for SO much longer.

You can prime the MDF if you want, but I usually don’t. I just use a paint and primer in one. You will probably have to do a couple of coats on the edges of your boards because the MDF soaks it up. Especially if you got the MDF that I hate. I use a Purdy brush for this because it holds a lot of paint and lets face it, Purdy brushes make you look like a better painter than you really are.

So which style do you like better? The full wall or the partial wall?

And you can check out the full before and afters by clicking the pictures!

If you have any questions let me know!

The post How To Install Board and Batten appeared first on Vintage Revivals.