penny wall how to

Hello all, not sure if you know me very well or not, but if you know me even the slightest bit, you know that I am was working on creating a great office nook area by literally gluing thousands of pennies onto my wall. This project is better known as penny wall. In this post, I will walk you through how I really added a bit of glam to my office/desk nook. Here are a few before and after pictures. Unfortunately I started this project before I started this blog and therefore I don't have a lot of pictures to share with you.

Before, apologies for not having a better "before" picture

After

Supplies 

• plywood - enough to cover the section of the wall you want to cover/cover the wall (you want to make sure that you have a flat surface to glue the pennies to. Plus if you decide to move or that you don't the wall anymore, it is much easier to take down. Also, not 100% sure that the drywall could hold all the pennies) 
• anchors - to put plywood on the wall. Make sure to anchor it in so that the plywood doesn't shift 
• screws - to screw the plywood to the anchors and to screw the level to the wall.
• liquid nails - glue pennies to the wall. I used 4 tubes. 
• plastic level - make sure all of your pennies are level. My level didn't make it all the way across the wall, so I had to do my wall in halves. It got really annoying. If you can find a level that goes all the way across your wall, get it! 
• sandpaper block - after you unscrew your level you'll want to make sure the surface is level and to get rid of the wood splinting. I used two blocks.
• power drill - to anchor stuff in and to set the level, make sure you have a back up battery charging. It really sucks when you are on a roll then get stopped because the power drill went down and out small saw - to cut openings in the plywood for outlets 
• PENNIES - you can get these from your local (big) bank in $25 boxes. I used $138 on my wall, so believe me $25 won't cut it haha. 
• vacuum - optional, but believe me, you want this after every gluing session. Lots of saw dust and dried glue on your floor. 

The Process 

1. Measure your wall Figure out the dimensions that you want your plywood to be cut into. Due to limitations of my ex-boyfriend's car (Mazda 3 hatchback) we had to make sure that the plywood would fit into his car. We decided to do my wall in quarters. [note: he was my ex when we started and decided to help out]
2.  Obtain your supplies from your local hardware store. You can get the plywood cut for free at Home Depot - I highly advise you to do this! 
3. Go to the bank and get pennies 
4. Cut sections out of your plywood to allow for outlets
   

   

   Please excuse how awful my curtains look in this picture. 

5. Glue the top row of pennies onto your plywood - this is going to be your baseline, so make sure that it is level! Let dry overnight 
6. Anchor the plywood to your wall Start gluing pennies on the wall, you can do multiple rows at once. I started with doing 3 rows at once and ended with doing 10 rows at a time. Screw the level into the wall. This will make sure that A) Your pennies are straight B) Will make sure that the pennies don't shift down while drying. 
   
7. Repeat steps 6+7 until complete! 

Tips 

• Find a level that goes all the way across your wall - this will be a HUGE time saver. 

• Leave a *tiny* bit of room (2-3mm) between the bottom of the penny row and your level. Sometimes you aren't as accurate as you think you are and it really sucks to have to reposition that sucker time and time again.
• Mark the rows where the anchors are - differentiate where the screws are. I did alternating rows of heads and tails and then flipped the penny to the opposite side of the rest of the row where the penny was covering the screws. 
  
• If you start to glue a set of rows up, finish all the rows quickly! Do not let the glue dry without all your pennies up in the section! There is a lot of movement when the pennies are drying and if you don't do it quickly to make sure that everything stays in place, you might find yourself ripping pennies off the wall to make everything align later. 
• Instead of gluing each penny individually, draw a line of glue roughly in the middle of the penny row and then insert pennies. This will save you A LOT of time. 
• However long you think penny wall is going to take you, times that by 10, or 100 - that should be accurate. :D 
• Waiting for the glue to dry to move onto the next portion always takes the longest amount of time, the more rows you can get up at a single time, the faster it will go. I waited at least 30 minutes per section to move the level. This ensured that everything was set and that I wouldn't have to go back and rip pennies off the wall at a later date. 
• It really is a one person job - getting two people in there at once becomes crowded. In order to fend off the loneliness, I talked on the phone a lot. It is a mindless job. Seriously. Phone calls, music, audio books, etc. saved me from insanity. 
• Don't do this:

  

  I know, I know. BUT it seemed like a good idea at the time - I'm short!

Happy penny walling!
Alison