The last of the “best of” posts. I’d like to point out that 1) the trim is now painted grey and 2) we have a copper switchplate instead of the white. I swear, between the “Ummmm…using pennies like this is illegal!!!” comments (WRONG!) and the “Why on earth would *they* have kept that white switchplate and unfinished wood trim????” comments, the awesomeness of this project almost got lost. People are such nay-sayers sometimes! Anyway, I digress. Ladies and gentlemen, I present you with…the Penny Wall. Oh, one more thing. If you want a more complete tutorial - check out Design Sponge. OK. Ladies and gentlemen, the Penny Wall…
I honestly wasn’t sure this thing would ever get finished. Someone asked about it the other day which caused me to look back at the original post and I almost gasped when I saw it was from last May. GASPED! That’s not cool. Granted, it was a pretty big project. But it lit a fire under me which, to his chagrin, I lit under Ryan.
Here’s a before picture. Ryan put down some plywood so that we wouldn’t have to glue the pennies directly to the wall. We are renters, after all.
True to form, this is the only picture I have. Stupidly, I didn’t take any during pictures. Honestly, you guys, I SWEAR I did, but I cannot find them anywhere in my iPhoto library. Of course, I did have to wade through a LOT of Comic-Con pictures (thanks, Ryan). And, I’ll admit, probably 500 pictures of Ralph. He’s super cute. You’d totally understand if you knew him. ANYWAY, this is the only before picture I could find.
AND…after.
And here’s one of the reasons it took us so long:
They’re all heads up and faces forward! Well, as close to that as possible. Four score and seven years ago, INDEED! Plus, each one is glued separately. We started out using my trusty glue gun, but when it became Ryan’s turn (it got more difficult at the halfway point and I think he was afraid I’d somehow spaz out and fall from a step stool or something), he decided to just use Elmer’s glue. He said it worked just as well as (update: he says BETTER than) the glue gun. I could have screamed since I had a few third degree burns (okay, just some reddened skin) from putting hot glue on every single penny. My delicate hands are ruined. My dream of being a hand model is now lost forever…
All in all, it was a little over $50 in pennies. Ryan’s grandma was nice enough to supply AT LEAST $20 worth. The rest we bought. Did you know that the bank “sells” $25 BOXES of pennies? Well, they do.
Side note - how do you like all of our fancy decanters? We started collecting them before we got married. And my new Liquor poster? Cool, right? My brother (from another mother) is making an awesome frame for it. I can’t wait!!
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6 Comments
Omg, some comments can really be the worst! There’s one on my post about stenciling and staining my cabinet doors where the lady wanted to know exactly how I did it.
Ummm… Do you have eyeballs? I can only assume you do since you’ve seen the pictures. Maybe you should use those functioning eyeballs to actually *read* the post you’ve just commented on.
I wish I had the same blunt/rude/honest bone in my real body that I do in my imaginary body. Alas, I politely re-explained the process in my reply. At least I get to share my real feelings here.
Nikki Kelly @ the ambitious procrastinator
P.S. hope you had fun in Ireland (the land of my people, aka The Shire as my bf calls it)
Right?! People are just straight up dumb. And weird. And REALLY irritating.
Oh & The Shire was wonderful! It’s SO PRETTY there!
Seriously, “using pennies like that is illegal”. Someone actually wrote that? Hello?! Is throwing pennies in a fountain illegal too? That comment is illegal. Jeez. BTW, your penny wall is rad.
Someone ACTUALLY wrote that. It was the very first comment. The only consolation was the fact that the next 20 comments pretty much berated that commenter. Because they deserved it. Because they are dumb.
So the elmers glue worked just as well as the hot glue gun? I’m assuming so, but I just wanted to double check! I cant wait to do some penny decorating of my own. AND thanks for the tip about buying pennies from the bank, I had no idea!
Elmer’s really did work as well. I’m still bitter about it. LOL. But I’m glad I helped! If you ever do a penny project, please send a picture! I’d love to see it!