This one is long overdue. I have been wanting a penny ... something... for years. Pennies on the floor, wall, backsplash, tabletop - I don't care. I love the different shades of copper blending together. Ahhhh... lovely.
So I've never found the right place or circumstances to get this project done. I wanted to use pennies as the surround for my previous bathtub area but that would have required tearing down the existing tiles in the entire bathroom. The whole bathroom was done in pale green tiles with an avocado coloured bathroom suite. So yeah, not a project I wanted to tackle on my own and definitely wouldn't look right with a wall of pennies if I hadn't completely redecorated.
Luckily, my current bathroom has a white suite, white tiles with brown, tan and coppery coloured accent tiles. Perfect for pennies.
Now, the bathroom does need some work. The bathtub surround is just a bit of wood, painted. The finishing on the corner tiles could be better, the grouting needs a good clean and I could really use new taps. Most annoyingly, the ceiling was only finished with a cheap coat of primer, not proper bathroom paint.
After a year of long, hot showers, the paint on the slanted bit of the ceiling above the bathtub had begun to peel quite badly so it needed dealing with sooner rather than later.
Enter the large Coke bottle of pennies.
(I actually read that as Coke bottle of penises. I don't know why....)
Anyway, I had a shed load of pennies and the perfect circumstances to make a penny feature wall (ceiling).
Here's the starting point. I had to first scrape off all the loose paint.
The can recommends waiting 2 hours between coats and 4 hours before starting to decorate. While I was waiting, I laid out some of the pennies just to get a feel for how it would look.
SO PRETTY!
Now... please note.... I live in a Victorian terrace house, built around 1870-ish. According to my elderly neighbour, the bathrooms on all the houses in the neighbourhood were added much later... sometime between the turn of the century and the 1960's. It had to be closer to the 60's because my neighbour still remembers when hers was done. SO, the point is... my walls are NOT straight. At all. Add that to the fact that over 130 years, the house has settled more in some areas than others.
This means I had to make a choice on how I was going to lay out these things. Follow the wall or make a straight line and fill in the gaps along the edges as best as I could.
I recommend the straight line method. It may be obvious to most but I still had a good think on which way to go. My poor OCD was having a fit. Flush to the wall OR have a perfectly straight line potentially look crooked because the walls are wonky.... OH THE HUMANITY..... 😱
However, whilst lining up the pennies with the curvature of the wall/ceiling convergence point would make me happy on one hand... on the other hand, the crooked lines you would get in the centre of the ceiling would be so distracting, my OCD wouldn't be able to handle it. I'd spend a great deal of time in the shower, trying to straighten the lines.
First, get one of these.... if you don't have one, stop what you are doing... go to the local hardware store and buy one immediately. This is a required piece of home equipment for everyone... DIY'er or not.
Draw a straight and level line somewhere on the wall/ceiling. I chose slightly above where the wall meets the ceiling so I could fill in the window area first.
It doesn't much matter where you start.. although if you start in the middle of the wall, you will have to make sure you begin at a distance which will leave you placing pennies as close to the edge as possible, not leaving you a half a penny width of space. If you see what I mean.
Yeah. I didn't do this... as I realized, much to my horror, after laying the first line. Luckily, my walls are so wonky, it didn't matter although I might have to paint some fake partial pennies on the wall to fill in some of the gaps.
Time to glue!!
I chose to glue the pennies directly to the wall and I have a reason for this. Most DIY websites will say to fix a board to the wall, then apply the pennies to the board. Some suggest sticking pennies to tile mesh and then applying that to the wall. I would recommend these methods if you think there is any chance you will want to redecorate. Removing the pennies would be much easier and kinder for your walls.
I, however, don't normally do what everyone else does. 😈 I glued directly to the wall because I know I won't be changing anything until I get the extension done sometime in the next 2-5 years.
I used some No More Nails glue in the squirty can. Not sure this is the best choice but it works. I'm a tad concerned the grout won't get in between the pennies due to the excess glue that squished up between the pennies. Cross fingers!
After I placed the first row, I used my giant level to make adjustments to the line so I could be sure the first row was absolutely straight. After that, it's easy peasy. So easy that my daughter got involved! All kids should get involved in DIY.
So far so good. I will be laying pennies for a while, I think.
So I've never found the right place or circumstances to get this project done. I wanted to use pennies as the surround for my previous bathtub area but that would have required tearing down the existing tiles in the entire bathroom. The whole bathroom was done in pale green tiles with an avocado coloured bathroom suite. So yeah, not a project I wanted to tackle on my own and definitely wouldn't look right with a wall of pennies if I hadn't completely redecorated.
Luckily, my current bathroom has a white suite, white tiles with brown, tan and coppery coloured accent tiles. Perfect for pennies.
Now, the bathroom does need some work. The bathtub surround is just a bit of wood, painted. The finishing on the corner tiles could be better, the grouting needs a good clean and I could really use new taps. Most annoyingly, the ceiling was only finished with a cheap coat of primer, not proper bathroom paint.
After a year of long, hot showers, the paint on the slanted bit of the ceiling above the bathtub had begun to peel quite badly so it needed dealing with sooner rather than later.
Enter the large Coke bottle of pennies.
(I actually read that as Coke bottle of penises. I don't know why....)
Anyway, I had a shed load of pennies and the perfect circumstances to make a penny feature wall (ceiling).
Here's the starting point. I had to first scrape off all the loose paint.
The next step was to paint the ceiling with a coat of damp proof paint. I used Thompsons Stain Block Damp Seal and a small roller.
Be aware, this is an oil based primer. You cannot paint normal, water based, emulsion over top.
It says to make sure the source of the damp has been resolved or the staining will come back. I'm not entirely clear if this paint will protect the walls from damp but I decided to use it anyway. Since the damp actually comes from the shower and not through the walls, I figure with this paint, pennies, grout and sealant over top, I shouldn't have any trouble with moisture getting in behind.
SO PRETTY!
Now... please note.... I live in a Victorian terrace house, built around 1870-ish. According to my elderly neighbour, the bathrooms on all the houses in the neighbourhood were added much later... sometime between the turn of the century and the 1960's. It had to be closer to the 60's because my neighbour still remembers when hers was done. SO, the point is... my walls are NOT straight. At all. Add that to the fact that over 130 years, the house has settled more in some areas than others.
This means I had to make a choice on how I was going to lay out these things. Follow the wall or make a straight line and fill in the gaps along the edges as best as I could.
I recommend the straight line method. It may be obvious to most but I still had a good think on which way to go. My poor OCD was having a fit. Flush to the wall OR have a perfectly straight line potentially look crooked because the walls are wonky.... OH THE HUMANITY..... 😱
However, whilst lining up the pennies with the curvature of the wall/ceiling convergence point would make me happy on one hand... on the other hand, the crooked lines you would get in the centre of the ceiling would be so distracting, my OCD wouldn't be able to handle it. I'd spend a great deal of time in the shower, trying to straighten the lines.
First, get one of these.... if you don't have one, stop what you are doing... go to the local hardware store and buy one immediately. This is a required piece of home equipment for everyone... DIY'er or not.
It doesn't much matter where you start.. although if you start in the middle of the wall, you will have to make sure you begin at a distance which will leave you placing pennies as close to the edge as possible, not leaving you a half a penny width of space. If you see what I mean.
Yeah. I didn't do this... as I realized, much to my horror, after laying the first line. Luckily, my walls are so wonky, it didn't matter although I might have to paint some fake partial pennies on the wall to fill in some of the gaps.
Time to glue!!
I chose to glue the pennies directly to the wall and I have a reason for this. Most DIY websites will say to fix a board to the wall, then apply the pennies to the board. Some suggest sticking pennies to tile mesh and then applying that to the wall. I would recommend these methods if you think there is any chance you will want to redecorate. Removing the pennies would be much easier and kinder for your walls.
I, however, don't normally do what everyone else does. 😈 I glued directly to the wall because I know I won't be changing anything until I get the extension done sometime in the next 2-5 years.
I used some No More Nails glue in the squirty can. Not sure this is the best choice but it works. I'm a tad concerned the grout won't get in between the pennies due to the excess glue that squished up between the pennies. Cross fingers!
After I placed the first row, I used my giant level to make adjustments to the line so I could be sure the first row was absolutely straight. After that, it's easy peasy. So easy that my daughter got involved! All kids should get involved in DIY.
So far so good. I will be laying pennies for a while, I think.
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