DIY Penny Floor by B.A.

DIY Penny Floor by BA.

The guest bathroom remodel. Aka, the penny floor. Also known as The Abe Room. Or better known as, my own personal hell. Last but not least, universally known as, the project that went on forever.

The Start, no looking back now!

Well, I wished I had taken photos of the crappy bathroom before I started the make over.  First step, pull trim out and strip the wallpaper. Second, scrape and sand popcorn ceiling. (ugh) Step three, pull out the toilet. Fourth step, apply plaster to walls.  While that’s drying I took the opportunity to paint the toilet a copper color.  Things are moving along rather well and problem free.  The plaster was dry after two days and so the painting began.  I put on about five coats of paint.  The plaster really sucked it up but I’m very happy with the outcome.  The walls have a leather look to them.

Now…. Now it’s time to tackle the penny floor.

The DIY Penny Floor; 

After much research and thought, I decided to lay the pennies right over the tops of the tile.  For one major reason, if I ever want to tear the penny floor up, all I have to do is crack the tiles and cart them off.  I really didn’t want to have worry about concrete subflooring and all that business.  So… off to Home Depot to buy some hardscape glue.

Then, I hunkered down and got ready for the long arduous task of gluing about, well I did not really count, but it seemed like a gazillion pennies.  Besides the back breaking and never ending task of gluing the pennies, my other hampering factor, I feel like an idiot , I decided to take the time to clean all the pennies.  I will save you crap loads of time and tell you, just go to the bank and buy a couple of boxes of pennies. Pull out the nice ones and return the others.  TRUST ME, that is a huge time saver.

I will also take this moment to say; I have now done extensive study on the subject and you can not clean pennies with coca cola, salsa, ketchup,toothpaste and really, the copper cleaner didn’t do such a bang up job either. So yeah… just go digging for the pretties and return the uglies. I am sooooo not going to lie, this project is not back friendly. The only incentive that pushed me on to finish, was the beautiful copper glow of the pennies bouncing off the wall. What a pleasant surprise…. and kept on, I did. Stay tuned for the rest of the story.

Pout -vs- grout!

So… The next bit of excitement cost me a ton of time.  Mostly because I got hugely depressed over what happened and could not look at it for a few weeks. While my pennies dried and set into place,  I read on several sites it was a great idea to grout… WRONG!  Knowing what I know now, I will tell you to just glue your pennies on top of a dark background.

Remember all of those pennies I washed.  Yeah… well they are really too thin to grout.  Every time I went over them with a damp sponge (too pull the grout off the top of the pennies) the grout would come up from between the pennies, due to the fact that the penny layer is so thin. SOOOOO, I had to let everything set and then i had to individually sand off and clean each freaking penny (AGAIN).

Grout on, Grout off!

I used a dremel tool first. It took off the finish of the pennies along with the grout. (I yelled) Then I tried an electric toothbrush, no go.( I cried a little bit)  Next up, sand paper but it had no real longevity.  So,  fine steel wool was the best solution. 28, mother lovin, steel pads later and I finished this chore in a mind boggling two days! Thank goodness I’m a massage therapist because I don’t think normal fingers could have done this chore, in two days anyway. Cursing those DIY videos that claimed grouting was the way to go all the time. But it is done!!!

Thoroughly sick to death of this project now but the end is near and I WILL see it through, I moved on to the next step. Done with the grouting fiasco and on to the Polyurethane.  Wow, this step was a virtual breeze!. So I got the oil based poly for floors.  Laid my first coat, sanded down, wiped up, let dry  and put down two more coats (dry time between each coat), sanded, wiped up and so on.  I probably put down 6 coats altogether and sanded between two.

I love it. Sure there is a place here or there that isn’t Martha Stewart perfect, thankfully, I’m just BA and never profess to be perfect. It’s my first penny floor, I’m not going to get all uber critical, especially with all of the learning curves thrown at me. I won’t be doing this again, but I’m happy with the outcome.  Penny floor of the bathroom remodel is DONE!

Install toilet. Boyfriend did that and I am thankful. Ok…

Next up, sink, lighting and ceiling… oh boy, Stay tuned!

Thank You!

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Thank you so much for visiting my website,

Peace, Love and Rocks,

BA.