*To see the reveal post I did for this cork backsplash, make sure to stop here. It has a bunch more shots of the final product.*
Well, here it is, my decorative cork backsplash organizer tutorial. You could be just one afternoon away from having your own. It brings so much more organization to my home, which makes for one much happier mama.
When I was walking through Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago, I found these scroll cork tiles. It was the only pattern that they had (I would have loved a few more options), and within a few days I had come up with some different ideas of things I would like to do with them… which led me to the backsplash idea. *Remember to show the folks at Hobby Lobby the coupons on your phone, found on their website, to save some money at the cash register!*
When it came time to start assembling, I noticed that there is one edge of the tiles that sticks out a little too far, so I *carefully* used a cutting board, straight edge ruler with a metal edge, and a retractable razor blade to shave off the excess on all four sides. This made it so that the tiles touched in more places, making it look much better.
The tiles were also just a little shorter than I’d have liked, and this was solved by cutting some flat, regular (it’s just a darker color) cork to go across the tops.
I wanted the tiles to all be one uniform color, so it was necessary to spray paint them to get in all the nooks and cranny’s. I decided that chalk paint would be the way to go to leave it a little on the softer side still, so that it could still be easily pinned to.
I had to paint from one direction, then come back and paint from another to also cover all the nooks and cranny’s. It took about three coats, from different directions, using just shy of two cans of spray paint. I used Krylon Chalky Finish in Mink, which can also be found at Hobby Lobby for a bit cheaper.
Chalk paint always dries super fast, and I was pleased to see that that was still true with the spray version of the paint. It said right on the can you could handle it in one hour. So, while the paint was drying, my husband and I started prepping the wall. We turned off the power, took apart the outlets, and washed the wall really well so that the adhesive would bond tighter.
When it came time to start adding the tiles (which were also wiped clean on the back to ensure a tight bond, we used some advanced strength glue dots to attach them to the wall) we noticed that we would need to push the outlet wiring all the way back into the wall so that we could see where to cut the holes into the cork tiles.
Here is my husband, using an adjustable razor, to cut the holes in for the outlets. He just held the tile up there at this point and we attached it after we could see that we got the holes just right for the outlets. We made sure to use extra glue dots on the tiles around the now more fragile areas surrounding the holes.
Since the tiles added quite a bit of depth to mounting the outlets on top of the cork, we found that we needed longer screws for the outlet to fit back into the recess. This was solved by taking an outlet screw with us to Home Depot. I took a picture of the package to show you so that you would know what to buy. The white screws for the plate covers still fit just fine.
Once the plate covers were attached and we had it all up there, I saw that there were a few little spots that needed the paint touched up. This was solved by taking a paper cup outside and spraying a little paint in there and then using a little brush to touch it up. It did ruin my brush, so make sure you use one that you’re not going to be sad about throwing away…or a Q-tip would work too.
Like I mentioned in the reveal, it was a quick and pretty fun project and if I ever get sick of the color, I can just remove the outlet covers, tape off, and roll a fun color on top. I really wanted to do it in this color, but I couldn’t find it in stores and I was being too impatient to wait for it to be shipped to me.
If you’re wondering why I didn’t say anything about sticking them on, it’s because it’s so basic… once the glue dots were on the back of a tile, it was basically just a giant sticker so it went on pretty easily. We worked from one edge to the next trying to make sure we pushed them as closely together as possible.
I hope you like it! We’re loving it so far and having it in a non-food and non-cooking area of the kitchen has been a really fun way to add some pretty organization to our home!~Sarah
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