Make An Upcycled Wine Cork Trivet

Are you ready to start crafting again after all of the holiday chaos? Don’t worry if you’re still feeling a little worn-out because making an upcycled wine cork trivet (or three) is the perfect way to reboot. They’re quick, easy, and will help clear away the last of the holiday detritus. I’m not the only one whose house isn’t back to normal yet, right? Anyway, all you need is a flat surface, a few wine corks, and the multipurpose glue of your choice. Ready to get started?

Here’s how:

First, take your corks and lay them all out so you can see what you have:

Set aside any that stand out as being really different from the others. Next, experiment with different layouts and sizes until you find one you like. Here I tried to make a trivet with just the darker corks:

It wasn’t very big, so I tried again using the lighter corks for the vertical elements and the darker corks for the horizontal elements:

I liked this design, but it was a little small and the one sort of yellowish cork in the middle didn’t quite match. I added more corks and swapped-out the yellow one:

Perfect!

Now start gluing:

Once you have your final design, take two corks from one of the corners and glue them together:

The glue dries clear, so be generous with it. Press the corks together gently. As you can see, corks are natural and not very symmetrical. Don’t worry if they only make contact in a few places: the glue will help span the join:

Keep gluing the corks together according to your pattern:

When you have at least 12-15 in place, step back and see if your trivet looks reasonably straight. It is going to sit under a dish, not hang in a museum, so ‘reasonably straight’ will be just fine:

If you need to straighten it, or adjust any of the corks, just slide them around a little bit while the glue is still wet. Keep adding corks, following your chosen pattern, until your wine cork trivet is the size you want:

Let it dry:

Let your upcycled wine cork trivet dry for 24 hours. Once the glue is completely dry, you should be able to lift the trivet without it falling apart. If it does break at some point (this can happen if there is a lot of humidity under a hot dish or pot), simply re-glue using the same craft glue.

Try different patterns and sizes:

There’s really no ‘right’ way to arrange the corks, so just play around until you get something you like. Here are some suggestions:

Pair similar corks for a basket weave pattern:

Or make a wine cork trivet out of completely different corks:

Or try a herringbone wine cork trivet:

What you will need:

• Wine corks
• Multipurpose craft glue that dries clear
• Flat surface

Tips and tricks:

• Still have a few wine corks left? Why not use them to make an organization board that you can keep adding to all year?
  (click here for instructions)
• If you have any natural corks that can’t be upcycled into wine cork trivets, you can always recycle them at places like ReCork (click here for locations).
• When setting-up a buffet, put a few wine cork trivets together to make one continuous heat-resistant surface:

I hope you find making a wine cork trivet a nice, relaxing way to ease back into making after the holiday rush. At this point I’ve probably procrastinated for long enough and should really get back to the last of the un-decorating. Maybe just one more trivet first…

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