First Ever Reader DIY Challenge: Wine Corks

I’m back!  Did you miss me?  I sure did miss you guys!  I kept up with a lot of you via Instagram while I was on a European vacation (go there to see photos, more to come tomorrow), but I also really missed the daily thoughts and comments that we share here in this space.  It was that feeling of connection with you guys that made me want to do something interactive like I’ve never done before.  So today, I am hosting my first ever reader DIY challenge!

I say ‘challenge’ a little loosely.  There are no winners and losers here, this began as a quest for me to find something original and cool to do with the bazillion wine corks that I have around the house and I thought the best way to do that would be to get you all involved!  I challenged you to come up with a DIY using wine corks and share it here, today!

On my end, I made a project that used nearly all of my corks (but don’t worry, I’m sure after my newfound knowledge of French and Italian wines, there will be a lot more to come!).  A boot tray works perfectly made of cork due to how absorbent it is! The project was simple and took me about one hour from start to finish with the majority of the time spent just placing each cork exactly where I wanted it! My favorite part of the project was actually just looking through all of the corks and remembering wines that I’d loved and labels that were tied to a special occasion.  I love the ones with a print or date on the round end and tried to show it off where possible!

Keep on reading for the full tutorial and to submit YOUR project to the round up!  How exciting!

All of these wood pieces were cut for me at Lowes.  I didn’t cut one piece myself.  I always lean on those guys for projects like these because I don’t have a work bench set up permanently, so dragging out the saw for a few small cuts is kind of a drag.

Materials:

• 1/4″ piece of plywood – 12″ x 24″ (this originally came in a 24″ x 24″ square for about $4 and I had them cut it in half)
• 1″ wide piece of lattice cut into four pieces – two at 12″ long and two at 24″ long.  This was one 8′ piece that had four cuts.
• Wood Glue
• Finishing Nails
• Corks

To create your wine cork boot tray, start by SQUEEZING a bead of wood glue around the entire edge of the 12″ x 24″ piece of plywood.  Then, ALIGN the frame pieces around the glue edge.  I did this on a piece of poster board.

Wrap the edges in TAPE to hold the sides onto your tray.  Wood glue actually works in the absence of air… so areas exposed to air stay tacky while areas closed off tightly will harden in just 20-30 minutes! Next, slather wood glue onto the bottom of the tray in small sections, then FILL with vertically placed corks. Let it set for an hour, then carefully nail in a few finishing nails along the base of the tray to secure.

Didn’t it turn out pretty cool?  It isn’t meant to be a door mat, so I wouldn’t step directly on it, but it’s meant to be a tray to hold muddy or wet boots and keep them from getting the floor all gross.  I love that the water will get all soaked up by the cork!

OK!  Now it’s your turn!  I want to see what projects YOU’VE designed to share with me and with the rest of the Earnest Home readers!

If you have a blog, go ahead and link it up below!  Here are the rules:

Create a project of your own using wine corks.  If you want to create a tutorial, that’s awesome, if you just want to make something and share it, that is awesome as well! You have the power to post, edit, and delete your own project.  If you don’t have a blog, don’t miss out!  You can still share below using your Instagram or Facebook account!  You have to use a computer (not your phone) to click on the photo of your project on social so that you can get the page address (URL) and use that in the ‘link’ field!  Or just share with us on Instagram or Facebook using the hashtag #earnestchallenge2015

I’ll select a few of my faves to share next week as well!

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