Would you like an unusual bath mat in natural tones, one that doesn’t get dirty and is made partly from recycled materials?
Then we may have just the thing for you! On craftynest.com we found a project for making your own mat from old wine corks!
What will you need? 175 corks (ideally all the same length and size) and a non-slip material for your creation to sit on. As for tools, you should have a cutting mat, a sharp knife, a ruler, a utility knife, scissors, glue, a glue gun and a piece of sandpaper.
Step 1: Cut each cork in half lengthwise to make 2 half-cylinders, each with one flat face and one curved face.
Step 2: Using the cutting mat, sort the cork pieces and lay them out to form the final rectangle of the mat. Use the ruler to make sure the lines are straight and the corners are 90 degrees. The mat made by the project’s creator measured 47 x 76.2 cm in the end (equivalent to 10 x 35 pieces of cork).
Step 3: Measure and cut the non-slip material to the size you want.
Step 4: Gradually transfer the corks onto the non-slip surface, starting with the outer rows and columns, and glue them down one by one. Use the glue gun to apply a layer of glue to the flat face of each cork, then press the cork onto the base.
Caution: Don’t use too much glue, especially right up to the edges of the cork, so that it doesn’t ooze out around the sides when you press it onto the base. In any case, before moving on to the next piece of cork, wipe away any excess glue before it hardens, taking care, of course, not to burn yourself.
Step 5: Once you have finished the “outline” of the mat, start transferring the remaining corks to fill in the interior. Follow the gluing process described in step 4. We suggest you first lay them out inside the frame to be sure they fit perfectly, in both size and shape, and then lift them one by one and glue them to the surface!
You’re all set!
Source and photographs: www.craftynest.com
Text editing: Natasa Lianopoulou
