Kitchen Addition: A New Cork Board Corner

Organization has been on my mind lately… somehow stacks of paperwork and magazines and yesterday’s mail are slowly starting to creep up and take over favorite spaces of mine, like the breakfast table in the kitchen. It’s high time that we add a functional and easy-to-use corner somewhere in the house that can display Liv’s adorable works of art (I’ve waited so long for those!), wedding invitations, birth announcements and important family reminders.

Inspired by our big chalkboard addition (but not wanting to cover that guy in glitter and pink construction paper), I’ve found the perfect home for such a display.

We actually previously had a white board here (that a friend of mine helped me to construct to size from molding and white board from Lowe’s – I swear I had pictures somewhere…) but we never used the white board to actually ‘write’ anything on it. I ended up just taping important announcements directly to the board, and that became really crowded really fast.

Now there are spots for Liv’s artwork (she likes to help arrange), photo cards, invites, you name it. And we can circulate items in and out to fit the seasons or what’s most important right now.

I thought the idea of a cork board would be most realistic for what we need – aka a space to pin, pin, pin – but didn’t want one giant long piece of cork along the wall (our chalkboard across the way is already massive enough). Squares made sense, but most of the cork tiles available these days online and in craft stores are too flimsy at just a 1/4″ thick.

I took a chance and ordered these guys sight unseen from Amazon:

Package of six? Perfect. 3/8″ thick? Much better than 1/4″. Self-adhesive? Bonus.

Once they arrived, applying them to the wall was as simple as unpackaging them (directions instructed to leave the cork out for 72 hours to acclimate to the air so that they can expand before adhering to wall), unpeeling the self-adhesive backing and sticking them up.

The sticky backside made these cork tiles very easy to install. Most tiles come with little adhesive squares, but the all over strong ‘sticky side’ of these made me a little more confident that they might actually stay put. One week later (we finished this project just before our Gender Reveal Party) and I’m noticing a few edges that are lifting up. Might have to readhere with something stronger in the future.

To create a grid on the wall, I used a level and chalk during installation.

And then at the suggestion of the instructions, a rolling pin with lots of pressure. Finally, time to decorate the tiles!

Liv’s Valentine’s Day tile is one of my favorites right now :):

She made us that sweet card and Kevin delivered the below beautiful red tulips!

We’ve just ordered a replacement door for the white one above, shortly all of the doors in the kitchen will be matching (yay!). Still a big improvement from this, though :):

That’s the new cork board corner above!

Our new mail/message/art station is finished and the kitchen is almost at a place where I can confidently call it finished (for a little while, at least…).

PS To start at the beginning of the remodel (or checkout projects like the tufted breakfast nook), see all kitchen posts sorted right here.