A Liverpool FC-mad dad has transformed his summer house bar floor into a mosaic of the club’s Liver bird crest with 25,000 beer bottle caps.
Steve Longley, 36, roped in his daughter, Abbie, 9, to help with the project which took 112 hours to complete and nine months just to collect all the tops needed.
The dad of one from Fareham, near Portsmouth, Hampshire, became a Liverpool FC fan at the age of 4 when he was given a hand-me-down club shirt from a family friend.
Despite being surrounded by Portsmouth fans among his friends and family, and calls from his fiancé not to do a football mural but a random design instead, Steve stayed loyal to his club and completed his work of art in March this year.
“The reaction has been amazing, I knew when it was finished that we had done a good job but everyone loves it," he said. “We came up with the idea just as the first UK lockdown was announced last March.
“There’s not been much else to do other than drink in the garden so it’s been a good little project to keep me busy after work.”
They worked out they would need roughly 25,000 beer bottle tops, so Longley put out calls to all their friends and family to help collect them. They even managed to get a hold of some in bulk from eBay.
“It got to the point where people were just bringing bags and bags round of caps,” he said.
“My fiance kept asking me just to do a beer bottle floor and not make it a football thing but I’m glad I stuck to my guns.”
The creative dad used computer software to overlay a template of circles onto an image of the Liver bird crest so he could map out the colors he would need to complete the floor mosaic.
Starting the collection in March last year, Longley set about laying the first beer tops in November and took four months to finish the project.
“I’m from Fareham but I’ve been a Liverpool fan since I was about four and I was given a hand-me-down shirt,” he said.
“Many of my friends and family are Portsmouth fans but I’ve stayed committed to the club since I got that shirt.”
