Although we always focus on using picture frames for displaying your favorite photos, there are lots of fun things we can do with picture frames.
One of my favorite practical frame projects is making a cork trivet. If you don’t know what a trivet is, they’re used on tables to set hot dishes on. Since cork is a great insulator, it’s a perfect material for creating a trivet. To make a cork trivet, you first need a lot of corks, a square picture frame with a flat molding, super glue (or other strong adhesive), thick cardboard with 4 tiny brad nails (or a flat frame back), felt squares.
Unless you drink a lot of wine, the best way to get a lot of corks is to ask all of your family members to start saving their corks. That’s what I did and in a month or two I had enough for the trivet.
I am certainly not a cork trivet expert, but here are some basic steps to making a framed cork trivet.
1) For my cork trivet, I used a square solid wood 12×12 picture frame with a simple wood molding. For the frame I used, it had an easel back stand, so I had to remove the regular frame back and had to replace it with a thick cardboard. In order to get the cardboard to stay in the frame, you will have to use four tiny brad nails on the back sides of the frame. The small brad nails will push into the wood frame so your cardboard will be secure.
2) Once the frame back is secure, turn the frame over so the face of the frame is sitting upward. Then begin to position your corks in the frame. You can put them all in one direction or create a pattern. And make sure to have plenty of extra corks, because I found that there are many different sizes of corks, so you sometimes have to get creative for them to all properly fit together.
3) Once you have the pattern you like, begin removing a single cork at a time and apply glue to one side of the cork. Keep doing that until all your corks are glued down.
4) Let the corks sit overnight so they can properly dry. Once they’re dry, you can choose to put adhesive felt squares (or circles) on the back of the frame to prevent the back of your frame from scratching your table.
Enjoy having fun with your picture frames. And, if you have a fun frame idea be sure to let us know!