Tool Time Tuesday...Wine Cork Backsplash

Hi...and welcome to another Tool Time Tuesday. Today's project is not only a "tool" project, but a recycling one too! I am going to use old wine corks to make a backsplash in a wine cabinet that we have. Funny thing is...we don't drink wine!! My husband and I just can't seem to acquire a taste for it. We do have lots of family functions and holidays at our house, so the wine bar is perfect for family and friends.

Here's a sneak peek at the backsplash...

Here's the "before" wine bar. It's a bottom buffet from my niece and an old hutch top my sister found at a yard sale. Black paint marries the 2 together.

The process for the making the wine cork backsplash is easy...come on in and see!

This is the lower section backsplash that I will be working on.

When I remove all the knick knacks, it's kind of boring. When I add the board with the wine corks on it, it will not only spruce it up a little, it will hide the lamp cords too!!  Bonus!! I hate cords showing. Lol

Here's the solution. A large collection of wine corks from my friend and neighbor Gina. Thanks Gina...took me a while to find a project with these, but better late than never.

I've been storing them and adding to the collection in this candle vase.

This is the board I used for this project. It is a hardboard panel. You can find it in the section in Home Depot where they sell smaller pre cut pieces of wood.

It is 2 feet by 4 feet and is only 1/8 inch thick. This pieces was only $5.86!!

I had them cut it to my exact size for the backsplash...which is the larger rectangle in the picture below.

You can get 2 free cuts at Home Depot and then very inexpensive after the first two. I have plans to make signs out of the other 2 boards, so that 3 projects for $5.86

Here's the board all set to go.

I did a few little specialized cuts for my area...you may or may not have any other cuts at all.

Up underneath my cabinet is a small hole for a cord to the light that is mounted there.

I just marked the width of the circle.

Hardboard is a particle board, so it's easy to cut.

and it's very thin too.

I said it is easy to cut...I didn't say I was good at it! Lol

I pretty much just hacked at it in the end...no one will see it

Fits like a glove.

I also trimmed away a little bit of each corner so the lamp cords have a small space to fit.

Perfect!

Now to pick a design for the corks.

Straight rows?...

or a woven pattern?

Woven pattern it is! Better get out your glue gun and lots of glue sticks! It only takes a little line of glue on each cork, but there are a lot of corks. Lol

This is going to take a while.

and a little bit more...

I do have a few tips for you too!

If your corks are tapered, don't have both wide ends together at the same side....2 red lines in the picture below.

Alternate the wide parts on opposite sides. Forms the square shape better without any gaps.

Some corks have words and lettering on them. Spread the words around. I used one cork with letters and one blank one to make the board look even throughout.

I looked for special things too. This is a letter "M", but I mounted it upside down like a "W" for my last name. Poor man's version of a monogram!

Here's a quick way to determine how many corks you'll need in your space. Complete one full row across and then one row up.

44 corks in each long row, by 9 rows high. My rows are the 2 corks together...if that makes sense.

I will need 396 corks for a board that is 40 inches x 16 inches, just to give you an idea of what you might need.

I thought I had enough corks...

but I don't.

I had a request out to family and friends to save their corks, but I found a quicker way...eBay. They should be delivered today!!

I bought 2 lots of about 250 corks for $5.00 each.

You could probably go to restaurants and bars and ask them to save them for you too.

Before I thought of eBay, I thought it would be fun to leave the "unfinished" look and glue the corks on as we went along.

By the way, that little section I finished gluing took about one hour to do...not bad. Nice cup of tea and an NCIS marathon and I should finish the rest!

Finished or not, I love the way it looks.

I'll update you when I finish gluing the rest!!

Here's another tip if you want to start saving your corks, but use them too decorate too.

I put an upside down tall wine glass inside this vase and filled around it with the corks I already had.

Then I placed a candle on top of the wine glass base.

Perfect for a table centerpiece or on your coffee table. Just throw new corks in as you go along.

The section in the bottom of the wine cabinet is another Tool Time idea I use in my sewing room.

Remember the French drain pipe idea?...click HERE for that post.

Just cut a section of french drain to fit your area and then stack them up. Perfect for wine bottles.

A 10 foot length of 4 inch wide French drain pipe is only $6.22. You can get a lot out of 10 feet.

I hope you like this wine cork backsplash.

If you don't have a use for the backsplash idea, you can still glue the corks to the board and use it as a cork "message" board over your desk.

Just an FYI...my daughter Courtney figure out that if we need 396 corks for this project, with the average cost of a bottle of wine around $12.00, this project would really cost me...$4,752!! Too funny.

UPDATE!!!!  I FINISHED THE BACKSPLASH. YOU CAN CLICK HERE TO SEE IT!

Have a great day,
~Karen~