Create a Wine Cork Pinboard

Do you have a bunch of sentimental wine corks lying around and you’re not sure what to do with them? Here’s a fun DIY you can do that will both display them and use them functionally.

Read on to make your own pinboard using wine corks!

MATERIALS NEEDED:

• Wine corks

• Wood board + wood for trim (I used poplar because I had it lying around, leftover from another project)

• Wood filler

• Panel nails

• Circular saw (or table saw, if you have it)

• Measuring tape

• Super glue

• Sawtooth hangers

• Cork protective pads

• Cutting board + knife

• Push pins

Here are the first few steps. Cut your board + wood trim. I did 45° cuts on the sides, so it would fit together like a picture frame. Full disclosure - a table saw would be MUCH easier to use and way more accurate. But I didn’t have that available (damn you, non-garage living!!) so I did the best I could.

Sand down all of the wood, getting out all splinters and rough edges.

I used the Gorilla Glue to help hold the trim pieces in place before nailing. While that was drying, I began cutting the wine corks in half, staying cognizant of the pretty labels and trying to keep the pretty part facing up. Once the glue was dry, I nailed the pieces in place, using three nails per side.

Okay so the picture on the left is after wood filler and paint. I was trying to pretend that it looked fine but then after sharing the photo with my mom (she’s always honest with me!) I realized… it was not going to cut it. My use of a circular saw, and how inaccurate my angled cuts were, really hindered the look of the final product. No amount of paint was going to fix it.

So I took a slice of humble pie and tried again. I countersunk the nails, which immediately made the trim look smoother, and did another layer of wood filler. After drying time, I painted again and knew that my decision to redo was the right one.

Here’s what I learned: be accurate with your wood cuts. Be honest with yourself about how the project is turning out. Countersink the nails, always. And honestly - just buy a frame next time (ha!).

Onto the decorative part! Using your gorilla glue, dab a liberal amount on the back of each wine cork half. I alternated the pattern, but this part is up to you and the final look you prefer. Funny story: not all wine corks are created equal in size. It takes a bit of time to find similar-sized corks, hence the wine. I finished the second half the next morning, attached the sawtooth hangers on the back, and I was done!

How cute does my client Angela’s home office look?? I like that the wine corkboard is complimentary to the rest of the space, and serves both a functional and decorative purpose. The pushpins I got were rose gold & clear from Target.

This project was almost a DIY fail, but at the end of the day, it turned out great. It’s always a good learning lesson when things don’t go according to plan. It shows that even DIY experts don’t always get it right the first time. My advice: if at first you don’t succeed, try again!