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Did you know that wine corks are made sustainably from responsibly harvested bark? It’s only right that we keep that eco-friendliness going. There are all kinds of interesting ideas for repurposing wine corks instead of tossing them. Use wine corks to polish rusty knives or to safely handle hot pots and pan lids. Cut them into little circles and stick them on your cabinet doors to silence them when they shut. Turn wine corks into name-card holders for your dinner parties, or into coasters for your home bar. Or, you can go full DIY home decor, and save your corks up to create a unique statement wall.
TikTok user @regitzejaeger posted a video of the process for accomplishing this idea. You’ll need a lot of wine corks and a lot of patience, because you have to cut every cork in half lengthwise. The former is the fun part — simply save every cork from every bottle you enjoy, and over time, you’ll accumulate a good collection. For the latter, as the TikTok video shows, you can chip away while you watch TV or listen to music. In the comments, this TikToker specifies she uses miter shears to handle easily and precisely slicing the corks. Once you’ve got a ton of halved corks, you can begin gluing them onto your wall. If you want lasting results, skip the Elmer’s glue and use a construction adhesive. Create vertical lines, horizontal ones, or get even craftier.
Design ideas for DIY wine-cork walls
If you don’t want to wait potentially years to collect enough corks, you can buy a bag of 50 recycled corks for just $12 — you’re still being sustainable, and this still comes out to be a very affordable home update. If you don’t have a pair, your options include Yoofullki miter shears for about $17 and Gorilla heavy-duty construction glue for around $10. If you don’t want to use glue, you could also nail each cork into the wall. Once you have your supplies, start designing. You can cover an entire wall, or create a cascading effect, and you can work with different patterns — it’s a good idea to measure and mark your patterns in pencil before applying the corks.
If you’re a renter or just want something less temporary, you can stick corks onto wood and then use fewer nails to fix those planks to the wall like any other art. On that note, you can also cut wood into shapes and cover that in corks for a smaller but still standout effect. A circle could make a minimalist-chic impact, while a heart or star is a bit more playful. Using wine corks to trim surfaces like home bars or kitchen islands is a subtler yet still striking approach. We would also encourage you to avoid the most outdated kitchen decor trend there is and not glue the corks to a wooden sign that actually reads “WINE,” but beyond that, the possibilities are endless.
