Living in apartments on top of businesses in our downtown area, we had roof tops as our backyards where we'd entertain and bbq. When we purchased our first home we were ecstatic to finally have that yard we dreamed of and a patio where we could dine alfresco. We found an inexpensive glass top table, six chair and umbrella set at our local box discount store. For several years we dined, entertained and spent most of our summer evenings at our patio table. I had just had a great idea to paint a faux rug on the boring concrete slab under the table. I was a few weeks out, waiting for at least three consecutive days of nice weather with no chance of rain so the paint would cure properly. Then one Friday evening, I went to take our canines outside and I discovered the disaster pictured above. After carefully reviewing the forensic evidence (despite the lack of eye-witnesses), we came to the conclusion that our umbrella was probably left open, caught a perfect gust of wind, flew up and shattered the glass to pieces. I was devastated because we were rapidly approaching summer and I was close to my painted rug project. We had to come up with a solution quickly. The thought of purchasing another table made us cringe because the chairs were still in mint condition and the table frame was absolutely still usable. What could we do?

Because there was no way I could stomach throwing the frame away, we needed to figure out a sensible and inexpensive solution. Some thoughts were to find a place where we could get a replacement glass top or cut out a piece of ply wood and lay tiles on top. Then while brainstorming and trouble shooting I remembered seeing an article in one of my magazines using pennies as a floor covering. I called upon the trusty internet and sifted through several articles and tutorials on covering a surface using your loose change. Here are the articles I found informative: Here, Here, Here and Here.

First we measured our frame. It was important we used wood with the appropriate thickness to fit into the lip of our frame, which was was quite thin. We purchased a 1/8" sheet of hardwood plywood, cut and sanded it to fit snug and drilled a hole in the center for umbrella pole. We called upon our friends and family members to donate/trade their pennies and in exchange we'd let them sign their names or initials on a penny that will be displayed on our table (or of course reimburse them if it was a large collection).

It took me and my husband about a week to glue all the pennies in our down-time after work. It was actually a nice therapeutic process that let us spend some quiet time together. We found Loctite All Purpose GO2 Glue to work the best, it had a quick dry time but the pennies could still be pushed back into place if they shifted while gluing another row. Also we started gluing around the umbrella hole and then spread out from there having the center lined up. Then we worked down to the sides going in a straight line. Once all the pennies (about 4,200 of them) were glued we were ready for the resin pour.

We purchased a gallon (1/2 gallon resin and 1/2 gallon of harder) Envirotex Lite 2 Bottle Kit Pour On High Gloss Finish - 2 Pack from Ace Hardware. We used tin foil and masking tape to cup the edges of the table and keep the resin from overflowing. Any air bubbles that formed from the pour could be easily fixed by simply blowing on them. We let the resin sit and harden overnight. The following day we had to cut the tinfoil from the table, I used an x-acto knife and cut the pieces off little by little. After an hour or so and little sanding around the edges our cents-ible table was complete. There is probably better ways to pour the resin on a project this size, but we were certainly learning as we went along. One of the problems we ran into were small pinhole gaps where the lip did not exactly meet the edge of the plywood top. At a few of these areas the resin leaked down and left slightly uneven levels on the top. Not a big deal, but something to look out for.