Nickel Tile Floor! A DIY Bathroom Renovation

This project was completed by some regular readers from Seattle: “In March 2010, I came upon the ever-popular Penny Tile floor post on your site. At the time, we were in the process of renovating our 1950s rambler and I was unsuccessful in finding a contractor to complete a concrete overlay (thin-set concrete) design on our master bathroom floor. A standard flooring option just wasn’t what we were envisioning for this space…”

A floor tiled with pennies was perfect…well, almost. We were building a very modern home in Seattle and the overall color theme was grey and white — copper just didn’t seem to integrate well into our design scheme. But nickels did! So, 13,650 nickels later — that’s $682.50 — and 30 straight days of gluing the coins to mesh, we have a nickel-tiled master bathroom floor.

This is how we did it:

• circle template: Incompetech | Circles Graph Paper PDF Generator
• packing tape
• sharp knife
• cardboard
• fiberglass screen: traditionally used for screen doors
• Weldbond Glue: traditionally used with mosaic tiles (we got ours at Michael’s)
• Nickels! — it took us 13,650 or $682.50

1. Using packing tape, tape the circle template to a piece of cardboard to create a sturdy, temporary support for the weight of the nickels.
2. Cut 1 foot squares from the mesh — my squares were actually 12¼” x 12¼” allowing for 195 nickels per tile — and adhere the square of mesh to the template taped to the cardboard.
3. Using the Weldbond Glue, attach the individual nickels to the mesh — which is adhered to the template that is supported by the cardboard.
4. Each square accommodates 195 nickels or $9.75
5. To prepare for installation, remove the cardboard, tape, template and use a sharp knife to cut any excess mesh away from the nickels.
6. Install like tile

Apartment Therapy readers are fantastic, open-minded, extremely creative home designers. In my experiences in reading daily posts on the site, I’ve really come to realize that great design can be found anywhere and with any/all materials. We wanted to share these images as a little thank you for all of the inspiration the online community offered our family during our renovation.

Thank You!

The Chamberlains

Thanks Chamberlains!

DESIGNS WITH PENNIES ON APARTMENT THERAPY
• Penny Tile Floor at the Standard Hotel
• How To DIY a Penny Covered Kitchen Countertop
• Good Questions: Ideas for the Penny Tiled Powder Room?

Re-edited from a post originally published on 09.24.2010 – JEL