Penny Countertop Functional Art

Flat pack style counter top with furniture grade particle board with a support apron on the underside for leg support. The legs are made using plumbing pipe and toilet flange attached to the floor. Besides the paint used on the pennies I also used liver of sulfur to darken the newness of the pennies in some areas. Then finally sealed with mod podge dishwasher safe glue. Yes, one can do what ever upgrade to the finish they like. This design is for the basic knowledge of a functional art piece that can be used in the home. Functional art is not always "child safe" and is to be considered on an individual basis... I am no wizard so you will have to decide for yourself what level of art is good for your home environment.

Gluing the pennies was easy with a tiny dab of gorilla glue... to much will ooze out from under the penny and make a mess. I glued each penny into place and tried to make sure it did not raise up by checking them before they are dry and pushing back down if needed.

Next, I laid out electrical tape to get a better idea of where I wanted the paint to go and how much detail I wanted to give it. hint... once enamels are on the surface it's not likely to come off very easily if a mistake is made... and you want to try and avoid chemical strippers at this point of the project. This particular functional art will require some painting skills if you plan to use enamel paints or give this style a go if your brave enough to try something new. This project was very tempting to leave unpainted and seal it all nice and shiny... but as you can see we got what we are free sharing here on Instructable.

Once all the pennies are glued in place (some will need to be cut and sanded to avoid bending them around the sharp corner of the furniture grade particle board... if you do use new pennies to bend you will notice that they tend to crack and split because of the 2 types of metal they are made with. You can bend them if you like but old arthritic hands don't do as well with that activity.... so you choose. Once all the pennies were tight to the surface I proceeded with the painting. I used an eye dropper and cotton swabs to apply the paint on each penny. Some pennies got many coats of paint and some only got a seal coating of clear at the end when the coloring and drying was complete.
I also used the glass enamel paints in place of regular grout as well for color depth and variation in background. Once the paint is dry just seal it with the mod podge.

This may not be a beginners project but could be fun if you like to experiment.