Hello AT,
I just bought my first home and I'm setting up one of the bedrooms as an office (I'm a freelance graphic designer). I want one whole wall to be covered in cork so I can display roughly 8 zillion concert/band posters that I've designed and collected over the years. The era of taping and stapling them to my parents' walls are over. Haha. Any suggestion on where to get the cork?
Office Max has 1x1ft squares, but I figured that there is probably a cheaper solution (also a more seamless one). I found another site (www.mantoncork.com) that sells rolls of cork, but the shipping was pretty expensive. I haven't been able to get a straight answer from Home Depot if they can get it for me or not (my local one doesn't carry it in the store). Any clues? I live in Norfolk, VA.
Thanks! Amber
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Lumber Liquidators has 12 inch square tiles on sale for under $2.00. Haven't checked them out in person, so can't say how thick they are or how they look.
Here's a link:
http://www.lumberliquidators.com/shopping/index.asp?category_id=24
I just had a flashback to the entire week I spent scraping and sanding cork tiles from a wall in my aunt's family room as a teenager. The previous owner had used a gummy tile mastic, which took hours and hours on end to remove.
Please be kind to whomever may follow you at your address and be sure to ask your home improvement center about how best to secure the cork so you don't permanently commit to making it a fixture of the home for generations to come.
We recently put in some cork flooring from amcork.com (http://amcork.com/specials.asp). They were the cheapest we found by a long way, Home Depot included.
The planks are supplied as a 1' x 3' tile with a thin layer of cork bonded to fiberboard substrate. You should be able to nail furring strips to the wall and then glue the tiles to the strips. They would be much easier to remove (and install) that way.
They also have regular 1'x1' plain cork tiles for about $2-3 a foot.
my boyfriend is a carpenter and he just goes on and on about wecork.com.
Hi Amber. We used to live in Norfolk. I never thought I would miss it so much!! :D
I think I have seen rolls of cork at Target. I would also check office depot. There's one in Virginia Beach on Laskin. (while you're over there, check out Scanworld. Its amazing!) A couple of more options would be to check Toys R Us and the TAPS store. TAPS is a store that sells teacher supplies so I would think they would be able to help you. I know there's one in Chesapeake in the parking lot with Target and there's another in Virgnia Beach off of Laskin right by Panera Bread.
I think cork tiles could look nice if you painted them and arranged them in a checkerboard pattern.
If there's anything other questions you have about the area, let me know. I lived there for 5 years and got around quite a bit so I may be able to help you out.
emyflint@gmail.com
Thanks everyone for the great tips and links and such. I will look into all of them! (And I promise to send in a picture when it's done.)
Emy, I have been meaning to check out Scanworld, but I usually am only in that part of VB on Mondays, and they are closed that day. Maybe I will make a trip down there this weekend. How are the prices?
Also, on painting... what won't flake off? Acrylic? Spraypaint?
Thanks again, everyone. :)
Since you are planning to paint over the cork anyway...why not use magnetic paint for the wall? You buy it as a primer then paint over it with your choice of colored paint. Then you can use those teeny tiny magnets to hold up the posters. Will be a lot cheaper and easier than installing a whole wall of cork.
Scanworld wasn't cheap but it seemed worth it. It seems like really nice quality modern furniture. They had the most beautiful leather couches. I'm not usually a fan of leather but it was worn looking and so comfy. Decorum is nice too (same area, Hilltop over by the Fresh Market)but more expensive. The people who work at Scanworld are nice too. They didn't look at us crazy since we're young, but were helpful.
I have no clue what paint would work. Maybe stain. They make colored stain as well. I've seen pretty colorful ones at Pottery Barn Teen. I'm not sure how the images are on there though. I like the magnet idea. If you have kids eventually, they will love it too.
I'm excited about checking out Scanworld. Yeah Decorum is nice but the employees are a little stuffy (at least at the one in Ghent).
Thanks for the tip on magnetic paint (I'd never even heard of it!) but I think for this application I really do prefer the look/feel of cork. Not totally decided on whether to paint/not to paint though.
Hey Amber! I have a cork wall. Well, it's actually those drop-ceiling tiles like I had in elementary school - white with weird little decorations. They are cheap at home depot, and they are large - 46"x24". Giving future owners and resale value No consideration whatsoever(oops!), I just nailed them to the wall. It would actually look pretty cool if I had been careful about it.
Kenneth Brown did an episode of reDesign where he ran cork flooring right up a wall.
I love bl's idea about magnetic paint.
Another consideration would be a wall of homosote. You could screw it up and tack into it easily.
about 5 years ago, i bought two big rolls, i think each was maybe 10 bucks or less. probably from home depot or similar home improvement store or an office supply store. if you put tacks in it, the tacks would still hit walls, since cork wasnt too thick. it was like roll above in photo