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Crafts
Corkboard Wall

Corkboard Wall

A version of this tutorial was previously published on Think Crafts!

After I made my Wine Cork Corkboard for my office Josh asked if I would make one for our hallway. I decided to make us a full corkboard wall instead! Since I had a larger space I was able to create a more stylized design which includes curves and spirals. This tutorial will show you how to create your own.

Craft
Misc. Crafts

Difficulty
Intermediate

Materials
Scrap wood
Saw
Drill
Sandpaper
Bread knife
Corks
Glue gun
Glue sticks
Craft glue
Marker
Thumbtacks

Tutorial

Just like the original corkboard, there is a scrap wood backing. Cut out a backing of wood to protect your wall. Since I was transforming the wall along my stairway I used several scraps of plywood to cover the space.

Sand the edges with sandpaper.

Drill holes into the plywood and screw pieces to your wall. Since this is a larger piece the wood is secured to the wall first. Then the corks are glued on.

Collect wine corks. My original corkboard has over 400 corks. My wall has hundreds. I sourced corks from a local coffee shop, the local art center and thrift stores.

Glue corks onto the wood. Since you are gluing upright, a hot glue gun works best because it dries quickly. I started gluing the corks standing straight up.

Since not all corks are shaped exactly alike, the cork lines will not be perfectly straight. Adjust corks so they start to lean in one direction.

If you have a slanted wall like me, glue corks as high as you can before you would have to cut a cork. Altered corks will be added near the end.

Leave a gap in the corks. Start gluing a new row at an angle that leans in the opposite direction.

I drew spirals onto the wood and glued corks along the lines.

If you are gluing on a curve natural gaps will appear between whole corks. Partial corks will be added near the end.

The corks aren’t too thick so the corkboard wall doesn’t take up much space in my hallway.

Glue more corks to the wood, following along the spiral shape. Altering the direction you glue corks creates additional lines and shapes on the wall.

Cut corks in half and glue to the wall so the ends are facing out. Many corks have different end designs.

After filling up the space with whole corks it is time to fill the gaps with trimmed corks.

Hold up a whole cork over the gap and mark what needs to be cut off. After awhile I was able to guess the angles so I could skip the marking step.

A bread knife cuts corks pretty smoothly. Be careful as knives are sharp! I accidentally cut my finger while working on this project.

Some gaps will require several cuts to be made to a cork.

The more curves you put into the design the more altered corks you’ll need to make.

After altering the corks, glue them into place just like the whole ones.

If you mess up you can use a smaller knife to pry up the glued on cork.

For small gaps cut the cork into half before cutting the needed angle.

As you cut corks you will develop a pile of angled leftover pieces. I found that the cut off piece often fit in another gap on the wall.

The angled corks fill up the gaps at the top of the row of corks.

They also fill in the gaps made from the spiral and curved cork designs.

Continuing cutting and gluing corks until the designated wall space is covered.

If you find broken corkscrews in a cork you can still use it. I put mine in a corner as a funny surprise for people that look up close.

Another cork had a corkscrew hook peeking out. It was easy to fit it into the space and again makes a fun surprise for people.

By collecting corks from different sources you can find unique corks. Some of the corks I found had fun quotes on them that I made sure to feature on my wall.

Use regular push pins for your corkboard wall.

Your corkboard wall is now ready to be used.

Your corkboard wall is a functional extra large bulletin board. Mine always gets compliments from house guests and I’m sure yours will too.

Craft on!

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