How to make a beautiful floor with a few pennies sqft. If you want to try this, patience is the most important thing. First, before you grab, calculates how many coins you need for this. We’re talking about cupper pennies. The cost, including the price of the coins would be from $2.50 to $3.50 for each square foot.
Photos credit : Amanda Edwards
Great DIY idea for a kitchen backsplash .. 6000 pennies = $60
via Notcot
How do you glue it to the floor and what else is needed to put a final touch?
I would like to know what they bed them in and then then finished surface. I once made a coffee table out of old pennies and bedded them in sealing wax, was tricky but good, this however looks different and sealing wax would be too fiddly over a large floor, if you find out, I would love to know.
A friend did their kitchen with pennies back in the 70’s. He used a liquid acrylic that he poured over the pennies. It is essentially all epoxy so it is really strong and doesn’t scratch or mar. It looked great.
use 2-component resin. Make the mix quite liquit, so it fill the gaps between and make only a thin layer on the top. It keep also the pennies or bottle-caps in place… when the the stuff with what they are glued on the floor isn’t that sticky 😉
Yes. I’d like to know the process too. Looks great!
so i saved a bunch of pennies, made a template, bought some mesh backing for mosaic tiles, glue that could hold metal and started making sheets of tile.
then we just installed them directly over the existing ceramic tile in the vestibule with regular thin set.
and then grouted it with laticrete epoxy grout in chocolate truffle.
it was really very easy and i love the way it came out.. most people that first see it don’t realize that it’s pennies. i like the blend of the different shades of copper that was created from using old wheat pennies right up to bright 2010 pennies. oh and in case you want to know… it took 3,889 pennies (it’s about 3′-8″ x 5′-8″). so $38.89 for app. 24 sf of tile is not bad at all.
Where do you get the mesh backing? Would Lowes or Home Depot have it?
They stopped making copper pennies sometime in 1982. After that, they started making them out of zinc.
your name should be “kill joy”
Better act fast because it cost 5¢ to .make a penny. They will soon stop making them all together. So mom was right a penny earned is a penny saved. Start saving them!!!!
it’s a shame they say it will tell you how to do it and then they don’t..
Its quite easy you need to make sure the floor you’ll be working on is clean and level, do sections, get a floor adhesive that will adhere within 20 minutes, lay the coins as you want them. Have them in all directions its more catching to the eye as apposed to one uniformed layout.. after they have sat for 20 minutes or more then grout the pennies with a sanded grout I prefer a black.. wipe clean go to the next section. when your floor is complete lay at least 3 coats of polyurethane down, Let dry complete as to manufactures direction.
THANK YOU for posting that… i really wanted to know, it’s frustrating that they tell you they’re going to say what the process is, and then they don’t. Would you be available for advice once I actually wanted to begin the project? It will be months yet…
I just finished a floor of over 73,000 pennies . If you have any questions let me know . I will be glad to help .
What a great floor ! I wish I could do things like this.
U can sister.. God will bless u..
So…. there is hundreds of dollars on the floor..
They said it was $60 on the wall..
That’s about how much you pay for flooring or tiles anyawys…soo…
es muy facil , y piensa que de todos modos estas pisando dinero
si transformas lo que te cuesta un porcelanico para colocar en el suelo en monedas … ca si que te sale mas barato
Could you do this on counter tops as well?
YES! I did the top of my bar and it is beautiful
Dave when you mention mosaic tile mesh backing, that’s what you would use for the backsplash as well? And then grout?
Technically it is illegal to use US currency to do this floor. No matter how magnificent it is. The feds are not looking to arrest you but DIY’ers beware.
pennies are going to be faded it out of the currency system what does it matter downer debbie!!!!!!!
How is this illegal \in the us and furthermore show me where its says it is.
18 U.S.C. § 331, which states:
“Whoever fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates, impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the mints of the United States, or any foreign coins which are by law made current or are in actual use or circulation as money within the United States; or
Whoever fraudulently possesses, passes, utters, publishes, or sells, or attempts to pass, utter, publish, or sell, or brings into the United States, any such coin, knowing the same to be altered, defaced, mutilated, impaired, diminished, falsified, scaled, or lightened— Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.”
Yeah… that’s why they have all those “rolled penny” machines in amusement parks. It’s just a big entrapment scheme.
/rolls eyes
The key word in 18 U.S.C. § 331 is “fraudulently”. It is not illegal to tile a floor with pennies because there was no fraud committed.
It is illegal to deface money and then try to use it as legal tender. It is not illegal to do this. I looked it up because I make jewelry out of defaced coins.
sta je koristeno kao podloga??
This is a waste of money!
As opposed to spending that money plus probably a bit more for some tiles that don’t look as good as this?
what u gonna do save them?????? people get a life and quit sucking the FUN out of things!!!!!!!
wait til the price of copper really goes up and they let us cash in pennies..Everyone will be ripping up their floors..LOL
Don’t use your copper pennies…just the zinc ones….unless zinc becomes rare then just enjoy your very expensive flooring that went up in value…and ask more for the house if you sell!!
See a penny, pick it up
Eventually you will have enough to do a floor!!!
I wonder (purely academically.. not trying to be a spoil sport.. that floor is awesome!) if this counts as defacement of currency? I know you can’t legally melt pennies down for the copper. Its a federal crime to destroy them. Though not like the treasury department is gonna come knock down your door and confiscate your floor.
use of COINS as jewelry or floors or making buttons is not illegal. if the coins were copper they would probably be worth more for metal scrap value than their face value but they are not copper and haven’t been for a long time.
personally i think the idea is atrocious. and btw, you can buy uncut sheets of currency, frame it and hang it on your wall as art.
Pennies are NOT legal tender. That is why there are “Penny Smashing Machines” at every attraction across the United States!!
Good point!
Mandy – that’s terrible logic. so… just because everyone is doing it, it’s ok and legal?
And because I was curious and entertained by this tread, I had to research this. Biffsup is correct. Granted, it’s a law that can’t be enforced very well, but the law nevertheless.
So, Pennies are most definately legal tender = “Legal tender is a medium of payment allowed by law or recognized by a legal system to be valid for meeting a financial obligation.”
Title 31 (Money and Finance), Subtitle IV (Money), Chapter 51 (Coins and Currency), Subchapter I (Monetary System), Section 5103 (Legal Tender) of the United States Code states:
United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues. Foreign gold or silver coins are not legal tender for debts.
Read more at snopes.com/business/money/pennies.asp
AWESOME!!!! It looks amazing. Great job!
OH MY….every time I have taken my kids to an amusement park or an attraction and gave them 51 cents to mutilate a penny into a keepsake, I have been breaking the law????? Packing my suitcase now for the big house…because I am sure to be spending quite a long time there…..puleeze…get a life people
I love this as a splash back but as I live in Australia where would I be able to get 2000 pennies ?
Send me the equivalent of $60.00 US and I’ll send you 2000 pennies.
Hi Jeff, we will soon be starting a penney floor in our powder room. We see you used polyurethane and are wondering how it has held up. If it has held up well, could you tell us what brand you used our other helpful details? Your response will be appreciated. Thank you.
Pinterest has diy instructions I think.
Ok polyurethane verses grouting? Which is best?
Do you have to grout between the pennies? B4 you apply the apoxy?
I am doing a over wood coffee table with pad an shiny pennies what do I do 2 keep them on glue and what do I use on the top of them 2 make it shiny
I am interested in all the answers that have asked tech wise.