Cork in the Cabinets

Well, two of them, that is. If you recall (awhile back), we had been dreaming of some sort of kitchen command center to put a bit of order to the lists, coupons, and mail that seems to be ever-accumulating into piles on our counters. The plan was to add cork to the inside of a few cabinets and a chalkboard to the inside of another. The rules were simple:

1. It would be nice to have both a chalkboard space and a bulletin board space.
2. Treatments should be on the inside of the cabinets.
3. Whatever we install has to be removeable (for resale purposes… we’re not naive enough to think that this is our forever house and tampering with already-in-great-condition cabinets is not something we want to risk).

I am happy to report that we have finished Part One of Mission: Command Center! Care to take a tour? Let’s start with where we left off… here are the two cabinets (bare) that got the royal cork treatment (#2 and #3):While we’re still working on what to do with the others (if anything), we knew we could at least finish Part 1 pretty easily. Here’s what they look like today:

As for how it all went down, allow me to show you a brief “how-to” in picture form. But first: the supply list. I found a pack of four cork tiles at Target (they may have been $5 or so?), but other than that, I just used a pair of scissors and some newspaper. The cork came with its own adhesion tape.

Step 1: Make a template. See how the inside of our cabinets is not-so-straight-across top? Well, that made for a tougher installation as opposed to if it would have been flat across. To get the shape, I taped some newspaper over the cabinet and then traced and cut a template that we could then trace onto the cork.

Step 2: Trace your template onto the cork.

Step 3: Carefully cut it out. This was tricky because cork can be pretty crumbly, so I just took my time and went slowly. This might have worked better with some sort of razor, so you could always try that route instead.

Step 4: Hang and adjust. The pack comes with adhesion pieces (that are easily removable- hooray for Rule #3!). This was definitely not a one and done process. I had to trim off some edges and make adjustments until it fit snugly. The design in our cabinets is actually inlaid about the same depth as our cork was thick, so it fit right in. In some spots, I even had to wedge a few small scraps back in to make up for places that had been shaved off too much.

They’re not 100% perfect. You can see the horizontal seam in the left cabinet door and if you look closely at that same side, you can see how I had to add a scrap of cork to the top to fill in a gap. However, we think that as soon as we start hanging things, those details will hardly be noticeable. (PS. See that calendar peeking out from behind the door? You can read its story here.)

Now we’ve just got to come up with some more things to hang! Baby steps… our kitchen will be organized someday! How about you? What are your best methods for reducing counter clutter and ensuring that everything has a place? We’d love to steal all of your ideas hear your tricks!

-Leslie