Emma Cox, 37, from Lincolnshire, revealed how she transformed her kitchen walls using nothing more than 6,500 pennies, adhesive and grout.
Hello, Friends! Today I'd like to share with you a grand, diy project recently completed in the home of Scott and Jessi Locke. It was Scott's idea to transform this simple, breakfast nook wall... photo by J. Locke into this... photo by J. Locke A fabulous wall of pennies! It all started with mdf (according to Wikipedia is denser than plywood. It is made up of separated fibres, but can be used as a building material similar in application to plywood. It is stronger and much more dense than normal particle board.) photo by J. Locke The board was painted black and the outlet space cut out. For the most part, there was no particular pattern throughout the board, but Jessi threw in a fun twist here and there by adding some coins from Canada and Burmuda. In the mix of coins, there were some wheat pennies from the 40's, 50's, and 60's and even a fake coin they received from the bank was thrown in. She also created a line of coins that represented the family's birthdays starting with Dad's and ending with last of three children. The oldest penny Jessi found was from 1916. She formed a flower shape from a series of 2010 Union Shield pennies, which I'm guessing will be a lot of fun to find! photo by J. Locke After Jessi arranged the pennies, Scott attached them to the mdf with a lot of super glue! photo by J. Locke The wall consist of 136 pennies in each row top to bottom and in all there's a total of 19,400 pennies covering the 9x8 ft. wall. photo by J. Locke After the pennies were secured, Scott applied bar top, self-leveling epoxy to give it what Jessi calls "an under water effect." Once applied, the epoxy began to bubble up so he used a blow torch to bring them to the top and rid them. After two and a half weeks, the wall was ready to be installed. It took Scott and his four helpers to lift the extremely, heavy board. Photo by J. Locke Because Scott is a contractor, he knew exactly where to screw the board on to the wall. Photo by J. Locke The molding was replaced and the Locke's masterpiece was complete! photo by J. Locke Photo by J. Locke Can you just imagine all the fun times to be had playing find that penny with family and friends? I think their hard work will pay off for many years to come! photo by J. Locke Their little girl sure is happy about the new wall! Thank you for letting me share your story, Jessi! Your family is a DIY inspiration to all! Bella Nest linked up with:
The penny floor template is your key to success when creating your penny floor or penny project. With the penny floor template you can use your floors while setting your pennies onto mosaic sheets and avoid the back-breaking work of being hunched over pushing pennies into the floor.
Have you seen the amazing DIY projects you can make with coins? Pennies, nickels and dimes are worth saving in bulk, but perhaps not for the reason you think. If you have a large collection of change and were not sure what to do with it (perhaps other than go on vacation if you have
When I bought my house there was one of those old yucky ovens from the 70's with the high top. I replaced it and now there was just wall behind my stove. So I decided to do something that I, personally, could put up myself. A penny wall! #diy #diyhomedeco
Love a copper backsplash? Read how to create your own with Forget Him Knot's penny backsplash diy for your kitchen. Our two cents!
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After gathering 13,000 pennies,Tonya Tooners created a penny floor. The DIY decor project took a few months, but the results are worth every penny.
We all have one somewhere in our home, the infamous loose change pile. Yours might be between the seat cushions, in a jar, or in a ceramic dish, tossed in a junk drawer, in a cup in the laundry room, or in a piggy bank. My six year old is always rummaging through the bottom ... Read More about 17 Penny Projects
These penny-pinching creative ideas will have you pouring out your change jars and emptying all your pockets. After all, a penny saved is a penny to CRAFT with!
I wanted to create a unique and memorable entryway, so I wrote "HEY" in penny tile. Let me show you how to recreate this look in your own home! Drifit your pen…
How To Install Penny Tile | Young House Love
Amazing contemporary residence designed by BG Architecture located in Melbourne, Australia.
Are you looking for something new in your bathroom or kitchen? Do you consider installing new flooring? If you have lots of spare pennies, then perhaps you
Beautify your wall, flooring, backsplash with the penny tile. It is a simple way to upgrade your house. We will show you the best ideas you need to consider.
Bathroom Remodel, Part 2 This is a continuation of Part 1 of our bathroom remodel. We are jumping right into this. The room has been cleared, all the sheetrock, mud and paint work has been finished, and the floor has been cleaned as much as possible. I have my pennies ready - 255 pennies/square foot, requested from my bank in increments of $25 dollars. Now its time to make the floor suitable for tiling. I will give you a list of tiling supplies at the end of this post. I'm not giving it now because I wouldn't do this project again the same way. Scroll to the bottom if you just want the run down. Step 1. Make the floor as level as possible. I used self leveling compound to do this.With pennies being such a small tile, it is incredibly important that the floor is very level. They will not sit flat on even a slightly bumpy floor and your floor will look silly and you will lose pennies later as they get bumped and knocked by normal foot traffic. Build guards out of cardboard or other materials to go around the toilet flange and inside the air duct (which I did NOT do, so trust me on this) to keep compound from running down into things... Also, if your walls to not meet the floor, you will need to put some kind of shim where there are large gaps (more than 1/8") to prevent the compound from running down to the next floor. We have wood slats under our sub floor, so the compound just dripped down to the basement until it hardened enough not to! I had shimmed some of the gaps, but apparently not well enough. This is looks to be my second layer of self leveling compound. When is it appropriate to do more than one layer of self leveling compound? NEVER, really. If you have to do more than one layer, than you either a) didn't use enough the first time around (that would be me), or b) should probably put in another layer of subfloor material. My bathroom is 50 sq ft. One bag of compound covers 48 sq ft. I *should* have used 2 bags the first time around, but I thought I could make it work. I was wrong. I ended up pouring three layers and realized later that I should have put down an additional 1/4 inch subfloor material (like the durarock we used in the remodel of our upstairs bathroom) to raise the floor, since my layers brought the floor up to where it should be. Tip for adjusting subfloor for finished floor height: You will want the top of toilet flange and floor to be nearly flush when you are done tiling. The thickness of the subfloor, mortar and tile should not be above the flange. Its all good, but could have been much easier had I slowed down and thought about it more. Classic me. Last layer of self leveling compound setting up. Step 2: Adding floor primer for glass mortar. This is a latex primer that will help my mortar stick to the new compound. I did 2 coats over the whole floor. Before I began, I sorted my pennies by color. One box for light, one box for dark. I laid the darker pennies mostly face down (my son insisted I check for wheat pennies and they tend to be dark) and the lighter ones mostly face up. Step 3: Draw out your design. What is missing here is a picture of the full design drawn on the floor in pencil. You can see a little of the lines around this pennied section. I guess you'll have to wait to see the finished floor at the end of this post! At first, I used a pizza box to draw out my wave design, but after standing back and looking at it, the quick movement of the design (the short waves makes your eye move quickly over the design) made me feel like it might make me dizzy if I were sick. So I got out some cardboard and made a bigger template (a circle), to make a bigger wave design. The circle over lapped the previous row half way to make the consistent wave pattern. Something to consider when doing a design or pattern: how does it make you feel, how does it make the space feel? Step 4: Gather appropriate gear to for tiling. This includes knee padding or a low seat to keep you comfortable while working. I quickly realized that I needed knee pads or a short stool to do this! It was hard on my circulation to be squishing my knees like this. Knee pads were okay, but not much better. Step 5: I started laying pennies in the back left corner of the bathroom and put down a thin layer of Glass/Metal tile mortar inside each wave I had drawn, working only in that area before the mortar could dry. I applied mortar with a trowel, removed excess and then combed it with the teeth. If you have ever made anything out of clay, this step is just like cross hatching to join two pieces of clay - like a handle to a cup. Just like painting a floor, start at the farthest point away from the door and work your way across the room to the door or you will back yourself into a corner. Before laying them, I had labeled the waves with a "D" or "L" for dark and light. You will see that I flipped the pattern halfway across the floor. I intentionally did this, to break up the movement and give the eye a break. I really like it. I alternate between being a perfectionist and trying to figure out how to use what I have and make it really great, so this project challenged me to do both of those. The pennies were never consistently light or dark but varying shades. It was clear that I would end up with a bunch of "medium" colored pennies if I filled in the first area with my best "light" or "dark" for each category. I eventually found a solution that made my happy, and used the medium shade pennies to fill in the centers of the waves, while defining my borders with the my best light and dark pennies. First row complete! Well, half row. Starting on the first full row. Step 6: Work in sections. This goes for time and for materials. Mortar is only good for couple of hours and then it hardens. If you can do your whole bathroom in one day or with one box of mortar, go for it, but otherwise, break it up into manageable pieces. I used 3 boxes of mortar over 3 different days. I wasted no mortar and was able to stop each day knowing I didn't have to throw any mortar out. Area where my tub will go completed! One day down, one box of mortar down. Second day, second box of mortar gone. I should point out that this is probably a week later. It was rare that I had back to back days to work on things. At this point,I am also feeling like I might not have enough pennies. Also at this point, a small person decides to help my\e when I step away to make dinner and applied her own layer of mortar to the floor! My fault for leaving my mixed mortar out, but I came back to a choppy, messy, dried layer of mortar. After freaking out, I researched ways to get the mortar off. Guess what? Vinegar will take mortar off! I applied a little bit of apple cider vinegar to the extra mortar and was able to chip it off easily with a putty knife. It also taught me that I should NOT being mopping my tiled floors with any kind of vinegar (which I did with both bathrooms when they were vinyl), since vinegar DOES break down the mortar and probably the grout. Now, you see in the bottom left corner the furniture looking thing? That is a little round ottoman. I found sitting low was easier on my body than kneeling. I recommend you find an equally comfy stool to sit on to do your tiling. Floor tiled! Looks like a mosaic, right? Very Byzantinian. LOVE it. Now comes my stress about grouting. I am not sure my pennies will stay down when I drag grout over them! I am also not sure they are thick enough to allow an adequate layer of grout to cover my mortar! With much trepidation, I begin... (Scroll down to a couple pictures to see my suggestion for future penny laying) Step 7: Apply grout So far, so good. No pennies coming up, but I remember that I was still applying the mortar rather thickly at the beginning. I applied my grout with a grout float, my grout is a shade lighter than my pennies (the color is either Sandstone or Summer Wheat) wiping it off the excess with a wet rag, then finishing the clean up with a large sponge. I grouted the whole bathroom in one day, using 25# of grout. This was manageable and I only mixed up one bag. I did have a small amount left at the end of the day, but not much and it was hard to work because it had been a couple of hours from start to finish, so I scraped it into the trash and washed up my tools. I changed out my rinse bucket between every row. The less dry grout residue that you have to wash off before sealing, the better. With pennies, grout will stick in the design (Lincoln Memorial), so you have to be thorough but careful not to remove ALL your grout. It is a very thin layer between the pennies because it is a thin tiling material, so the wet grout can be easily removed if you are not careful. Now this is where things got... sticky. Pennies started coming up when I got to the last area. This was a part of my floor that would not even out when I poured the leveling compound. It is the reason I poured 3 layers, because it is the last area to get compound and never quite enough! Incidentally, it is also the thickest part of the floor and *slightly* higher than the rest. To compensate, I laid my mortar a bit thinner here. The problem with that is that when I grouted, I had pennies coming up!! This is where I realized that THIS is why I saw people in other online penny tutorials gluing their pennies down, one at a time! Because glass and metal mortar may not be enough to hold these little copper tiles! I'm not disappointed with my floor, but I do have some areas that there are no pennies, just grout! If I did this again, I would glue the pennies down. I would pour MORE compound to start with, maybe raise my starting subfloor level with durarock like we did in the upstairs bathroom, and glue these suckers down. If you are already sorting the pennies and laying them one at a time (and checking for wheat pennies at the same time), then why not glue the pennies down?! Step 8: Let the grouted floor cure for 24 hours. Wash it one more time with your big yellow sponge to get the grout dust off. Step 9: Seal the grout. I used a spray on grout sealer, but you could use a mop on one. Be sure to get a sealant that is for metal tiles. Apply the sealant, wipe off the excess. This should be done just like laying the tiles or grouting, in manageable areas. You will need to wipe the sealant off by hand with terry towels or similar. Sealant usually requires 2 or 3 coats to make the grout waterproof. Excess sealant on your penny tiles will make them slick, so please wipe them well! If, like me, you will be adding paneling and base trim around your new penny floor, be sure to apply the sealant BEFORE you put up the paneling or trim. Sealant that gets on paneling or trim will prevent your paint and any caulking from adhering. Summary of steps: Step 1. Repair and prep subfloor for tiling. This includes pouring self leveling compound if the floor is not level. Durarock can be used over your subfloor to raise the level of the floor and provide an adequate surface for compound and tiles to be applied to. Step 2: Prime dried self leveling compound with a tile primer. Step 3: Draw out your design. Separate your pennies by shade if necessary. Step 4: Gather your supplies - Glue (or mortar, drill and mixing attachement, bucket, 3 in one trowel and float, vinegar for mistakes), pennies, and a comfy low seat. Don't forget to ventilate the area if using glue! Step 5: Plan to start at the furthest point from the door and work your way back out of the room Step 6: Work in sections. One box of mortar is about 2 hours of tiling and then it is too dried out to continue. Break the work up into manageable amounts of time so you don't waste materials. Step 7: After you have finished tiling, apply grout. Choose a color one shade darker or lighter, NOT the same color. This will make your penny design "pop". Grouting a smaller room can usually be done in under 2 hours. Apply grout evenly, remove excess, wipe with sponge carefully. Step 8: After the grout has dried, wash the floor one more time with the sponge. Step 9: Seal the grout 2 or 3 times, until water beads on the grout and it does not change color. COMMON SENSE WARNING: PLEASE VENTILATE YOUR WORK AREA WHEN USING CHEMICALS!! Grout sealant, glues or adhesives, primer, paint, etc. Part 3 of Our Bathroom Remodel coming soon...
The ultimate guide to installing a DIY penny floor, including the time-saving penny floor template and tons of completed penny project inspiration.
Have you seen the amazing DIY projects you can make with coins? Pennies, nickels and dimes are worth saving in bulk, but perhaps not for the reason you think. If you have a large collection of change and were not sure what to do with it (perhaps other than go on vacation if you have
Pennies are a unique material for home decorating
