Wine Cork Hooks

If you read this blog regularly, you know that I have been working on updating the closet in the back hall to make it more of a mud room. If you don't read the blog, but want to know more about the project, check out the posts here, here, and here.

I have spent a few hours browsing for bins and hooks for storage in the cabinets. I think I have found most of what I am looking for, but until I pull the trigger and input my credit card information, I decided to try a project with wine corks.

The inspiration came from reading this post on A Beautiful Mess. It got me thinking about all the wine corks that I had hidden in drawer in the kitchen. I'm not sure why I save them, I just do. Then, my mind wandered to the browsing that I had just been doing for the closet. And then Pinterest popped into my head (because it tends to go there, always) and I remembered all of the clever things that people had done with wine corks. Why not try it myself?

I have to admit that I thought this one would fail epically. And, it was completely trial and error. But, it worked. Here is what I came up with:

You may be thinking that these look like corks, sitting on a surface, but they are not. They are hooks... in the closet. I know, crazy, right?

First I scavenged for corks and found these three. They are all rubber corks. I am not sure what would happen with real cork ones. I have a feeling they might split when you drill the hole into them, but maybe not. 

Although I was originally going to have them sticking straight out, I realized that each of them could have a completely different orientation on the wall. So, crazy me, I tried all three ways.

First I had to figure out where to put them on the wall. I had a command hook lower in the closet so my 2 1/2 year old could hang up his own jacket. I pulled off the hook (and paint and wall with it. Oops!) and used that area to hang my first hook.

I drilled the cork with a 1/4" drill bit. I wanted the hole to be big enough to get the screw in, but small enough so it wouldn't move around too much. I tried a variety of sizes and this is the one that worked the best.  I also mistakingly drilled through the entire cork, oops! If I did this again, I would have only gone halfway through. Luckily the ones that went all the way through were when I was trying out smaller drill sizes so the holes aren't as gaping as they could have been.

 

I made the holes depending on how I wanted the corks to hang on the wall.

I used drywall anchors to secure them to the wall. At first I was going to put the screw into the cork and then screw it into the wall. It didn't work. So, instead, I put the screw into the wall leaving about a quarter inch hanging out of the wall.

Then, I put the cork onto the screw,

 

and hung something on it to make sure that it was secure and wouldn't twist on the screw. 

It worked! Although if you want it to be more secure on the screw you could add a dab of glue into the hole before you put the cork on the screw.  The reason that I didn't is because I am afraid of what might happen if I ever want to take the corks off the wall. Theoretically you should be able to just unscrew the cork, but one never knows...

Here is the third one, which is actually more of my original idea:

 I kind of like them. And they were cheap free, so why not? If I get sick of them I can always take them down. And now I have hooks to hang some more of our winter gear. Good thing because it is snowing...again!

What do you think? This took all of 20 minutes. So it was quick, and easy!