the penny wall

posted by: jennifer


the penny wall is complete.

you might remember that on a weekend getaway trip last year my husband and i went to santa barbara.  while on this trip were inspired by a penny wall. or i should say a penny covered building.   it was finally time to jump into this project a couple of months ago.

it took about $250 worth of pennies, give or take a few rolls.  this amounted to much explaining down at ye old credit union.  

we decided to use all kinds of pennies.  the only ones that got put off to the side were the ones that looked like someone had taken a file to.  but oh my, the variation in pennies.
so beautiful and cool.  we put our favorite side up.  sometimes heads, sometimes tails. pennies that had been painted on, pennies that appeared to have spent time at the bottom of the sea, pennies that hailed from canada, pennies that we couldn't help but wonder how many hands, what interesting people might have handled.

and we did share all the cool pennies with each other.  my husband and i.  for the first 3/4 of the wall at least.  it did get to the point where we were done with the sharing...  our eyes were on the prize of getting the last row done.  

we used construction grade adhesive to put each penny up individually.  we then grouted, using sanded grout in charcoal gray.  i told my husband that it is a good thing that we are both messy people, because the amount of grout that rained down on the cement below would make a weaker spouse blanch.  

we added a light from barn light electric , and spray painted the vent with hammered copper spray paint.  we found pennies from each of our birth years, and inset them in the trim along the bottom. we took down the scaffolding, and now we can't stop staring.  and smiling.  we are so happy with  how it turned out.   and proud.  

  

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and cheers!