Guys. I have something really really embarrassing for show and tell today. You know those bad things in your life (and house!) that you just sort of stop seeing? They just keep getting overlooked, or they are on that list of stuff that you know you need to do but haven’t?

Yes. I have a lot of those. This one has been at the top of that list since we moved into our house almost 7 years ago!!!

Its a gutter that catches alllll the treasures. Hey! Its the super glue lid I’ve been looking for!!

Before you judge me too hard, let me explain.

Backstory: When we moved into our house it was literally by the skin of our teeth. We replaced the carpeting with wood (this wood to be exact) that had been discontinued. When we bought it they didn’t have threshold pieces available so we just didn’t get them (because we thought we’d color match the stain and add something else).  That never happened. Fast forward to a few months ago when we bought the same flooring that after 5 years wasn’t discontinued anymore. Yay!! We used it in the baby’s room and like a fool I completely overlooked ordering threshold pieces. GAH!!! But then, because we’ lived with this situation for so long and were immune to it, I quickly forgot about it. Until last week.

Court was apparently massively motivated to get the gutter of crap out of our lives and started messing around on the table saw.

He came up with a brilliant way to DIY your own threshold piece. I kissed him on the mouth I was so happy about it, because I know that so many of you are in the same situation! Pieces don’t match, they’re too expensive, they aren’t available, etc. This kills all of those problems in like 3 seconds.

We even made a little video showing you just how easy it is!

The glue that we put down to secure it is legit, seriously use gloves, don’t get it on your hands.

Hooray for not living like animals!!!

The post How to Make Your Own Threshold Piece for Wood Flooring (from Leftovers!!) appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

Dudes! We are overhauling a 1972 Bell Travel Trailer! Follow the entire series from the beginning here!  This Nugget project is sponsored by my friends at The Home Depot.

I just need to say, that this project thus far on the Nugget has been my favorite.

The original plan for the little Nugs was to lay this gorgeous hardwood down in a herringbone pattern. Unfortunately after talking to a representative at Milstead headquarters (the company that makes the flooring) about it, I came to the conclusion that it was just not going to be a great plan. Hardwood is designed for use in a climate controlled area. Extreme temperature swings might make it behave like a 3 year old…in the checkout line at Old Navy (why do they do that to us?!)  It is just not equipped to hold up under that type of stress. Spending lots of money on it just didn’t seem like a great plan.

Designing such a small space means that there can only be a few Stars. If everything tries to be center stage than the whole thing turns into a freaking circus. I really wanted the floor to be one of those star players. When I went back to Home Depot, I felt like everything else that I looked at was going to blend in too much. Granted it would be durable and very nice looking, but it wasn’t going to be something that you noticed right off the bat.

So after a heart to heart with myself about it, I decided to take it the completely opposite direction. Hand cut pine 1×4’s that cost us 2 days and $80 (for the entire floor!!). It is such a small space that doing something completely crazy like making your own floor is manageable. Is pine the most durable thing on the planet for flooring? Um, no. But I love character and with the way that we are planning on using The Nugs it is a pretty great solution. And hello, $80!!

I need to give a massive thank you to everyone on instagram that voted which pattern they loved the most. I love it when your friends confirm what your gut is already telling you.

Once I knew what pattern I wanted, it was just a matter of cutting the wood. The triangles needed to have 30 and 120 degree angles.

*One thing to note, when you are working on a miter saw, 90 degrees is 0, you subtract your angle from that. So to cut a 30 degree angle, I needed to set my saw blade at 60 degrees. Because 30 + 60 is 90. (The reason most people overlook this is because the most common angle is 45 and that is exactly 1/2 of 90, so you set your blade at 45.)

This sliding compound miter saw from Dewalt is the stuff dreams are made out of. My little rinky dink miter saw didn’t cut up to 60 degrees, so I borrowed this one from my bro in law. It is at the top of my Christmas list.

This project is EXTREMELY simple, its just really repetitive. (Sort of like the hexagon wall that I did in Dylan’s room)

We went to Home Depot and bought (10) 1×4’s for this project. Then we cut approximately 5 zillion triangles out of them. Jk. It was only 4 trillion.

To make all of the triangles the same I marked a line on the saw base.

Then after I made a cut I would rotate the board and line it up.

Using a 1×4 gave us the perfect sized triangles, I also tried it with a 1×6 and 1×3’s and it is pretty crazy to see just how different the sizing is with adding or taking out an inch or two.

Each triangle got a light sanding on the edges and knots to get rid of any splinters, and then it was time to start laying it down!

We prepped the floor by pulling out the carpet nails and scraping all of the paint and thinset off of the linoleum. Then we swept and vacuumed and swept and vacuumed until we were sure that it was nice and clean.

We started along the edge of the cabinets and dry fit the pieces.

You want to work in kind of a big section as opposed to fitting and nailing down each triangle on its own,  that way you can make sure that everything is lined up before you commit.

Once we were happy with it, we used a finishing nailer to nail it to the floor on each corner. We used 2” finishing nails and double checked that they weren’t going all the way through the underside of the trailer. The nailer that we use and love is this one from Senco, but I have heard really great things about the Ryobi Airstrike Brad Nailer, and its about 1/2 the price.

Working on the edges wasn’t as hard as you might think. We made a template of the triangle out of paper and after lining it up, folded the paper so that we could see the exact angle that needed to be cut.

Inside the closet wasn’t horrible either,  we just used the template and it worked great!

We used wood filler to fill all of the nail holes and finished it off with a few coats of satin polyacrylic.

I am completely and utterly obsessed with this floor.

It is so fun when people see it to find out what shape they see,  the star? The tumbling blocks? Or the triangles?

One of the factors when it comes to working on trailers is adding weight. The total weight added for the flooring was around 40 lbs. Each pine board weighed in around 4 lbs, and we used 10!

Maybe a new floor isn’t up your DIY alley, but um…can you image this pattern on a wall or a table top?! Dreamy.

HUGE thanks to my friends at Home Depot for teaming up with me on this project for The Nugget!!

The post The Nugget: DIY Geometric Wood Flooring for $80! 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.

If you are fairly new to Vintage Revivals you might be a little lost when it comes to this post. Here is a prologue with the Readers Digest version of what you have missed:  My Mother in Law is one of the most wonderful people in all the world. Last March I showed you the gut job that we did on her kitchen/living room. It is to date one of my favorite spaces. You can see the reveals here. Now that you are caught up, lets get on with the update!

If you have ever lived in a complete gut job renovation that lasts months you know how exhausting it is. I mean, it really really sucks.

Which is why when Alicia’s Kitchen and Living Room were done and livable it was super easy to overlook the portion that remained in reno mode.

We have talked over and over about how renovating is like giving birth. The pain, oh the pain. But then you are left with a beautiful space that is everything you’ve ever dreamed of, and you forget that you wanted to hurt someone very deeply in the process.

Now that we have found our sea legs again we are finishing the last leg of the remodel. The staircase.

DUN DUN DUUUUUUN!

The staircase that has old carpet,  an unfinished banister, and texture spray on the walls. Luckily for Alicia, the rest of the house is SO AMAZING that you really dont even notice.

The plan is to stain the wood the same color as the open shelving in the kitchen. Paint the walls and recarpet the stairs.

You may be scratching your head wondering why carpet? Especially when the trend now is wood or painted or a combo and NO carpet.

For that answer we will turn to my wonderful MIL. And I quote “Right now it’s for the grandkids, but Clare and I aren’t getting any younger. If I have to fall down the stairs, I at least want them to be padded.”

Seems reasonable.

The original plan for the carpeting (if you will please notice the square of sample on the bottom step)

was Martha Stewart Lynngate Magnetite. It has sat on that bottom step for 8 months. Gestation time is OVER. Lets do this.

This week we headed off to Home Depot to finally order it. Of course we had to check out the other options again. Because we love this kind of stuff.

There are SO many options when it comes to choosing carpeting. From the pile (the height of the carpet) to the texture, to the colors, it is very easy to get overwhelmed and just order beige.

Please reconsider.

Simple changes in the style of the carpet can make a space feel intentionally designed, instead of just builder grade.

Before you commit to a simple twist fiber, check out the patterns, they are my favorite. We loved this diamond pattern, but the gray was a little too cool.

I loved both of these colors, but the pattern wasnt prevelant enough.

You can change the entire mood of your space with a different carpet option. If you want your space to feel really urban and super cutting edge, try going with an industrial carpet. I love this gray stripe,  it totally reminds me of a funky loft.

Ok back to the story. So like I said before, we knew what we wanted. That is until we were walking to the desk and glanced through one more section of samples.

Alicia and I are telepathic design ninjas. When we saw this sample we both knew without saying a word, that it was all over for miss Martha. (Old winner on the left,  new winner Boost: Dark Shadow on the right!)

The color was better (it was a little bit warmer gray and not pulling as blue as the Martha sample.) And the texture was just better.

If you look really closely you can see that the color is called Dark Shadow,  which is CLEARLY a sign that this is the carpet for us, seeing as how it is Alicia’s favorite show of all time. I love it when fate steps in.

We then met with Katherine. She was such a gem.

Especially when Dylan was doing this:  (fair warning…taking a picture of your child mid-meltdown will only make them cry harder.)

There are a few questions that you should ALWAYS ask when you are buying carpet.

1. How quickly do you need your new carpet? Special order carpet like our take up to 2 weeks to arrive.

2. Where is the carpet going to be installed? High traffic areas need carpet that is ultra durable.

3. Do you need carpet with high stain resistance? Make sure that you know all about the stain resistance for the carpet that you like. Technology is really amazing and good stain resistant carpet has come a long way.

4. Figure out what you like and dislike about your old carpet.

We spent about 20 minutes at the pro desk getting estimates,  scheduling measurements, and placing our order.

Because our carpet is a special order we are planning to have it installed by Thanksgiving. Also can I just say that I love free installation? Alicia decided to carpet 2 of the bedrooms in the basement so we totally qualified for the 3 Rooms = Free Install promo.

The one thing that I was a little bummed about is that in order to keep the warranty that is on new carpet, you have to replace the pad. I get why (because if you have something funky in your padding it can seep up through the carpet and ruin it). The reason for the bummedness is that the padding in the basement bedrooms is in excellent condition. That left us with a choice. Saving a few bucks, or voiding the warranty, it really is a no brainer. I just wish that there was a way around that.

Not willing to void the warranty on the new carpet, this is the pad that we chose. You can buy the plushest carpet in the kingdom but without good pad,  its going to disappoint. The Scotchgard pad that we chose is 1/2” thick and has an insulating quality that helps slow energy loss. It also has a moisture barrier and is anti microbial.

We cant wait to get it put in! There is lots of work to be done before the carpet arrives, and of course you guys will have a front row seat for all of it!

But the REAL reason you should get your carpet at Home Depot isn’t because their staff is super friendly, or because they do everything they can to get your order to you ASAP or because their selection is out of this world…

…It is because they have their Christmas toys out. That my friends is the best babysitter a girl can ask for.

Ha! Dont you love the orange bucket as a stool? Ivie was over the moon to show me how fantastic Cups sounds on it. Maybe that is what I should get her for Christmas?

If you want more tips for carpet buying, Home Depot’s Carpet Buying Guide is full of useful information.

Time to spill! Do you have a favorite type of carpet? What do you think of the one that we chose?

This post is sponsored by Home Depot and their #letsdothis campaign. All project ideas, opinions, and mid-meltdown children are my own.

SaveSave

The post Reno Update: We’re Carpet Shopping Ya’ll appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

One of the conditions I had when we bought our house was that we had to replace the HORRIBLE carpet with hardwood. Because we were on a very strict budget we searched and searched before finding the right one on Build Direct. We ended up with Hand Scraped Engineered Hardwood. If you are unfamiliar with Engineered  flooring basically its a few layers of MDF with a small layer of real wood on the very top. Engineered is great because its a lot less expensive, its doesnt warp and swell the way real hardwood can (the MDF stabilizes it more) and it still looks fantastic.

Something that I think a lot of people fail to realize is that most pre-finished hardwood have a sealed top but are NOT sealed in the cracks (unless you get glue in 100% of the groove) so using things like steam mops,  can damage them. (You can tell if your floor is sealed by pouring a small amount of water on it. If it sits on the surface you are fine but if it is absorbed then your floor is unsealed.)  The other problem that I found using a steam mop is that it leaves the floor really dull and footprints are seem to be visible right away.

There are a million hardwood floor care products out there but my fave for the last 4 years has been the original Murphy Oil Soap. It just leaves the floor clean. There isnt any waxy, sticky, or slippery finish left over. And I am pretty sure my grandma uses it because the smell makes me think of here. (Insert collective awwwww here.)

To clean them I squirt Murphy Oil Soap on a 3×3 section and then use a clean dry washcloth to get off all of the footprints, dirt and ahem…frosting. You can use a mop also if you dont like going Cinderella style.

When Murphy Oil Soap contacted me about spreading the word of their new “Repin Reforest” Pinterest page, I was so excited because it is really how I take care of my floors and we are saving trees!! That my friends is what we call a win win.

Murphy Oil Soap has partnered with The Arbor Day Foundation as part of its We Save Wood campaign to generate awareness of the importance of tree conservation and education. We can all support this “Repin, Reforest” cause by visiting the “Repin Reforest”Pinterest page.

With each repin Murphy Oil Soap will donate $1.00 to The National Arbor Day Foundation! So get your pinning finger ready folks.

For more information, visit https://www.MurphyOilSoap.com/Saving-Trees.

And the fun has just begun. My friend Jen (of the Tatertots and Jello fame) and I are co-hosting a twitter party TONIGHT at 9 pm EST. We are chatting all things DIY and Decor and we would LOVE to have you join us! Oh, and we are also giving away some pretty fantastic prizes. Follow the #repinreforest hashtag and we will see you there!! xo

The post Caring For Hardwood and Saving Trees With Pinterest appeared first on Vintage Revivals.